Their guests - more than 280,000 a year - will be able to visit them by padding from one animal habitat to another down a 900-foot-long boardwalk, rather than trudging along a limestone trail.

Park Manager Tom Linley said construction of the park's Wildlife Walk Phase II project should start early next year.

He hopes construction will be completed by next summer.

Highlights of the improvement project include a new reptile encounter building more than two times as large as the previous building, expanded bobcat and cougar habitats, a new wildlife encounters pavilion and two bridges. Many of the buildings that will be replaced were constructed in the 1970s.

Architects from Hernando architect David P. King's office has created plans for the new boardwalk and buildings.

Linley said plans are nearly complete.

The northern bridge over the duck pond will connect the Phase I elevated boardwalk with the new section. Estimated cost of both bridges is $50,000, but Linley hopes volunteer workers will help bring the cost down.

The estimated cost of the total project is about $300,000.

The Friends of the Homosassa Springs Wildlife Park raised about $180,000. A 60/40 state matching grant through state's Partnerships in Parks program will kick in the remaining $120,000.

Fund-raising for the cougar exhibits and other improvements started in 1998, soon after Phase I was completed.

Linley said he hopes to keep construction costs down by using volunteers and temporary workers to build the boardwalk. Volunteers are currently working on completing the interior of the reptile house. When completed, the building will house young alligators and crocodiles, turtles, native fish and a variety of snakes.

Though the new habitats will be larger than the old ones, Art Yerian, the park's wildlife supervisor, said he doesn't plan to significantly increase the number of animals it houses, but replacements may be brought in to replace aging animals.

However, the new cougar habitat will hold up to four animals, and Yerian made it clear that he would be happy to acquire a true Florida panther if one needed a home.

Linley is currently working toward obtaining state funding for an $800,000 manatee isolation pool, which would allow park staff to treat sick sea cows and control water temperature and salinity.

Work will begin on Phase III of the park's improvement project after the current project is completed and the Friends group raises money for the matching grant.