New Events and Animals Ready To Go At Hemker Park & Zoo For 2025

FREEPORT (WJON News) -- The wild animals will come out to play for the year this week in Freeport. Hemker Park and Zoo will open for the season on Thursday. Back for 2025 are popular events like the 8th Annual Brew at the Zoo in June, the Summer Party in July, and Boo at the Zoo every Saturday in October.

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Owner Jackie Poepping says the zoo is always changing, and they have some fun new things for this year:

"One of the things that will be fully open on May 1st will be our new interactive farm yard, which it will be fun because, we've got the pygmy goats that get to walk over a bridge and get to go underneath them and we've got a pully system where you're able to feed them up on the bridge and it's a little more interactive and fun for kids and adults alike."

Owner Joan Hemker says they have some other new animal exhibits as well:

"One of the new areas that we will be opening up is our new Capybara habitat, exhibit, and we are working with them right now, where you'll be able to do, if people want, they can do an encounter with them."

Hemker says they will have a new cat exhibit with Amur leopards and tigers coming later in the year.

She says they have a full line-up of fun planned for the entire year, with events like Zootober, which will bring some German flair to the zoo in September. The zoo is open seven days a week from 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. from May 1st through October 31st.

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