Brookfield Zoo’s $40 million gift will help zoo build ‘brighter future for wildlife and humanity,’ officials say

The Brookfield Zoo’s troop of critically endangered western lowland gorillas now live inside Tropic World, a 40-year-old primate building with rainmaking machines, concrete floors and slabs of artificial rock. (Sun-Times file)

Brookfield Zoo announced Tuesday it has received a $40 million donation — the largest single private gift in the organization’s history.

The anonymous donation will support the ongoing construction of Tropical Forests, an indoor and outdoor complex for Brookfield’s great apes, as well as a series of new animal habitats that will be revealed in a master plan slated for release in early 2024, zoo leaders said.