A record number of visitors at the Magnetic Hill Zoo.
Selina Cowman is their new Director, who joined the team in August.
She has over a decade of experience leading public spaces and animal-focused programs. Being a director of a zoo is news for her, “That is a new chapter for me, but I come with strong environmental management and leadership education, capital planning and community partnerships. I have been in municipal government for the last 16 years.”
She was born in Saint John, New Brunswick, but left in junior high, and has lived in Alberta and Vancouver. She has continued to look for an opportunity in New Brunswick to be closer to her family. So when this opportunity came up this past spring, she was very excited.
“I’ve inherited a really great team and I think they’re all excited to take us to the next level, so working with this group has been my favourite part so far, ” Cowman told our newsroom.
She says they plan to continue working on habitat upgrades and improved accessibility at the zoo. She’d also like to come up with more ways to connect visitors with the animals.
Cowman replaces Jill Marvin, who left after almost seven years. Before that, Bruce Dougan was the Director for more than 30 years.
Cowman’s first big event in her role as Director was Boo at the Zoo, held in October.
“We surpassed our goals by over 10 per cent. Even just as a whole, we’ve been breaking records. In 2024, we had over 205,000 people attend the zoo year-round. We’re on pace to surpass that again this year, and our next event coming up is Wild Lights, which starts at the end of November,” Cowman stated.
She couldn’t reveal too many details about what’s to come for Wild Lights this year, but did say that they may have an exciting partnership lined up this year.
