Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Mirage signals plans to close big cat, dolphin habitats

Entertainment

Siegfried & Roy’s Secret Garden and Dolphin Habitat will “eventually, permanently” close, according to communications sent to employees of the Mirage on Tuesday.

It appears that Siegfried & Roy’s Secret Garden and Dolphin Habitat will soon be no more.

A memo sent to employees of the Mirage on Tuesday, outlines a plan to “wind down and, eventually, permanently close” the dolphin and big cat habitat attraction.

The memo was signed by Franz Kallao, interim president of the Mirage, and Joe Lupo, a Hard Rock International executive, and the future president of the property.

Last year, Hard Rock entered into a deal to buy the Mirage from MGM Resorts International for nearly $1.1 billion.

Hard Rock has indicated that it plans to build a new guitar-shaped resort hotel town on the 80-acre Mirage property.

Hard Rock International, which is owned by the Seminole Tribe of Florida, could close on the deal before the end of the year.

The closing of the garden and habitat, according to the letter, will include “the entire facility — both the big cats and the dolphins.”

For over 30 years, the garden and habitat had been enjoyed by millions of locals and Las Vegas visitors, who were able to see bottlenose dolphins, white tigers, white lions, and leopards up close.

Visitors would spend as much as $450 for a brief in-water interaction with the dolphins.

According to the letter, officials at Hard Rock and MGM are “committed to finding new homes” for the animals at the garden and habitat.

Those new homes, according to the memo, will meet “high standards of care and give each animal an opportunity to thrive,” though specifics of those plans were not revealed.

It’s expected, however, that the animals will be relocated “prior to the commencement of construction of the Guitar Hotel and other planned transformational redevelopments of the Mirage,” the memo said.

In September, the dolphin habitat was closed following the third dolphin death at the facility in about a five-month span.

Shortly before the closing in late September, an 11-year-old dolphin named K2 was pronounced dead following treatment for a respiratory illness.

Maverick, a 19-year-old dolphin, died from a lung infection on Sept. 1, and another Mirage dolphin, Bella, died this year from a gastrointestinal illness.

Bottlenose dolphins under human care can typically live to be close to 30 years old, according to the Alliance of Marine Mammal Parks and Aquariums.

Initial plans were for the habitat to reopen in October, though it has remained closed.

According to the memo sent to employees, it has not been “determined when the facility will reopen or in what capacity.”

The executives said they plan to let Mirage employees know once they have more information to share.

The Mirage, developed by former casino mogul Steve Wynn, opened in late 1989. It was acquired by MGM in 2000.

Along with its volcano attraction along the Strip, the Mirage was long known as the resort where entertainers Siegfried and Roy — Siegfried Fischbacher and Roy Horn — performed with their big cats.

For years, Siegfried and Roy were synonymous with Las Vegas entertainment for their shows that combined smoke machines with white tigers, lasers, elephants, snakes, illusions and elaborate costumes.

The showmen stopped performing in October 2003, after Horn was attacked on stage by a 400-pound white tiger.

Horn, who sustained significant injuries from that attack, died in 2020. Fischbacher died the following year.