Birmingham Zoo, Inc. (BZI). The new organization established a transitional funding package with contributions from four government entities to support BZI during its first five years of operation. 21st century BZI undertook an intense 18-month effort to address the most pressing and immediate problems so that the zoo could become accredited by the AZA once again, ranking the zoo in the top 10% of animal holding facilities in the nation. The zoo also received 501 (c)(3) status from the IRS, and the first major capital campaign was launched in January 2001. William R. Foster, DVM, joined the zoo as Chief Executive Officer in January 2004. Foster, a veterinarian and leading zoo management authority on the national scene, is the past president of the American Zoo and Aquarium Association and was president and executive director of the Louisville Zoo. Chris Pfefferkorn, with over 25 years of Zoological experience, took over as President & CEO on July 1, 2018. Since privatization, the Birmingham Zoo has hosted traveling exhibits of bats, koalas, and black-footed penguins, added a permanent Komodo dragon exhibit and interactive lorikeet aviary, and regained AZA accreditation. The zoo completed the Junior League of Birmingham – Hugh Kaul Children's Zoo, a $15 million anchor exhibit dedicated to children and devoted to urban, rural, and wild animals and environs of Alabama in April 2005, its 50th anniversary of operation. In 2004, the zoo's older western lowland gorilla, Babec, became the first gorilla to be implanted with a pacemaker due to advanced heart disease. It draws more than 450,000 visitors annually and, in 2005, was named Alabama's top tourist destination by the state's Bureau of Tourism and Travel. In 2006, the Birmingham Zoo drew more than 470,000 visitors, making it second on the list of top tourist attractions in Alabama. In 2011, the zoo opened its new Trails of Africa exhibit with the goal of housing an all-male herd of African elephants and becoming a national leader in the care and breeding of elephants. It included Bulwagi of Disney's Animal Kingdom, Callee of the Pittsburgh Zoo, and Ajani of the Indianapolis Zoo. A fourth bull elephant named Tamani arrived from Tampa's Lowry Park Zoo in April 2012 to complete the herd. The Kiwanis Giraffe Encounter was opened to the public at that same time. Four months later, the two male African lions, Baron and Vulcan were sent to the Montgomery Zoo for a