It's been a long, hard climb back to popularity for the San Francisco Zoo following a string of bad publicity.
After surviving the onslaught of national media and lawsuits involving a tiger attack that left one teenager dead and another two severely injured on Christmas day in 2006, the zoo has been doing what it can to clear its name.
Now the San Francisco animal sanctuary tells the San Francisco Examiner that it is starting to see a climb in attendance since its turnstiles slowed down in 2007.
After three years of consistent visitor decline, the zoo says it is ahead of pace for the first two months of the new year.
The zoo attracted 46,237 visitors in February despite only expecting 39,000. January beat expectations by more than 10,000 people as well.
The climb comes ahead of the traditional summer rush when the zoo does its best business.
