THE CROWD:

More than $1 million has been raised and donated to the Santa Ana Zoo over the past 15 years, as local citizens have gathered to celebrate “Zoofari” every August.

Sponsored by Friends of Santa Ana Zoo (FOSAZ), this hard-working group of dedicated animal lovers has supported the zoo for nearly 30 years.

Zoofari is a major annual fundraiser that brought in an estimated $70,000 net this year from some 325 guests, who donned animal-print dresses and tuxedo jackets with cargo shorts and hiking boots.

This year’s extravaganza was labeled as “Carrousel Animalia,” co-chaired by Ed Arnold and Sandy Segerstrom Daniels. The fun-filled evening included Cirque du Soleil-style entertainers known as the Fleur-de-Lis Improvisational Troupe.

Cruzan Rum drinks were poured generously as guests previewed silent and live auction items. Parties by Panache handled the dinner duties while music filtered through the zoo, furnished by the band SoundBytes.

For most in attendance, the best part of the evening was the private and exclusive tour of the zoo, getting up close and personal with the furry creatures that make the Santa Ana Zoo their home.

An old-fashioned train meanders through the park, passing by a plethora of marsupials, monkeys, reptiles, wild and exotic birds and a llama named Louis. The event this year was created to showcase the zoo’s new carousel of endangered animals.

The handsome carousel features bearcats and Bengal tigers and every imaginable exotic animal in danger of leaving the planet for good. Talented O.C. jazz pianist Ron Kobayashi provided the background music for the carousel lovers sampling zoo-inspired Carrousel Coladas and enjoying hors d’oeuvres before dinner.

For those daring adventurers in the crowd, tattoo artists were swamped, as fashionable women allowed a little body painting above the décolletage of their cocktail dresses and gentlemen rolled up their tuxedo sleeves or provided a bare ankle to be emblazoned with a roaring tiger or a hissing python, adding to their masculine makeup.

The 2008 Zoofari special recognition award went to passionate zoo lovers Howard and Karin Hall. Also honored were Ron and Joyce Glazier, who took home another special recognition award for their longtime devotion to the zoo.

During dinner, O.C. auction king Chuck Dreyer helped to bring in the big bucks. Auction items included naming rights for the new carousel, a wildlife adventure trip to Costa Rica, a tour of the fabled Maasai Mara and more.

Major underwriters of the evening included John and Sandy Segerstrom Daniels of Newport Coast, Tom and Debbie Newmeyer of Newport Beach, Stuart Anderson and Anne Rubio, Del and Carole Stagg, Peggy Baldwin-Butler, Karen Baldwin and Wanda Baldwin, David Dostal and Barbara Riley, and the Peter and Mary Muth Foundation.

Also supporting Zoofari were Janet Ford, Barry and Cathi Hofstetter, Michael Darany and the Hexberg Family Foundation. The zoo was crawling with local dignitaries and officials, including Santa Ana Mayor Pro Tem Claudia Alvarez.

The most glamorous woman in the crowd was none other than actress Tippi Hedren, a well-known animal rights activist and Zoofari supporter who has attended the event for many years.

Spotted in the wild crowd were the voluptuous Penny Fox, Cathy and Curtis Farrell, Newport’s pretty Pam Selber, Bill and Donel Wiles, Rosanne and Richard Bye, Larry and Lila Burnette, Louise Woolsey, Chris and Kathleen Edman, and Gari and Milli Andreini.

THE CROWD runs Thursdays and Saturdays.