Thanks in no small part to some very large elephants, the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo closed out 2011 with some very big attendance numbers. By welcoming 1.32 million guests during the year, the zoo earned the title of "#1 year-round attraction in Northeast Ohio."

This translates into a 16 percent increase over 2010 -- and given the amount of rain that fell, those are truly impressive figures.

That puts the zoo's string of 1 million-plus annual visitors at 19 years.

Clearly, the recent addition of the $25 million African Elephant Crossing had a lot to do with those attendance figures, says Steve Taylor, the zoo's director.

"The connection that Clevelanders have to our elephants and our zoo cannot be overstated," he notes.

Also welcomed in 2011 were four new grizzly cubs.

The zoo's best annual attendance figure was set in 1993, when 1.4 million people visited to check out the new Rainforest.

Read the rest of the good news here.