KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — More people visited the Kansas City Zoo this year than ever before in its 107-year history.

The zoo topped 1 million visitors Nov. 25 when a family from Waterloo, Iowa, went through the gates. The family received some gifts and a personal encounter with the zoo’s penguins.

The Kansas City Star reports zoo attendance began rising after director Randy Wishtoff arrived from the Omaha, Nebraska, zoo in 2003. And in 2004, voters approved a $30 million bond package that gave the zoo a reliable funding stream, which allowed several new exhibits, including polar bears, penguins and a new orangutan habitat.

The zoo had more than 911,000 visitors last year.

The zoo is lowering its attendance projection for 2017 to 943,500, primarily because no major new attractions are planned.