Kansas City, Mo. ? The Kansas City Zoo plans to acquire as many as 300 new animals and enhance some exhibits.

The plan, presented Thursday to the Friends of the Zoo board of directors, is designed to answer complaints from many visitors that it is often difficult to see the zoo’s animals.

The new additions, which would include giraffes, gazelles and cheetahs, would bring the zoo’s collection to more than 1,000 animals from about 275 species. That would occur even after about 100 other animals are moved out.

“This institution has a lot of space,” said Steve Wylie, director of education and animals at the zoo. “It certainly has space sitting void.”

Most of the new animals could be on display this year, depending on money, how easily the animals can be procured and the length of quarantine they will require.

Animals on the zoo’s list include mating pairs of wallaby and tree kangaroo, four additional orangutans, three more chimpanzees, a new colony of five meerkats, two replacement sea lions, nine more flamingos and a pair of African wild dogs.

The plan includes increasing the number of hoof stock in the 17-acre African plains exhibit from 22 to 54 animals. That includes six new Soemmering’s gazelle and six elands. The number of scimitar-horned oryx, a type of antelope, would double from nine to 18 and the number of Masai giraffe also would double, from four to eight.

Plans also call for greatly increasing the number and variety of birds at the waterway exhibit. More than 60 ducks and geese of various species are to be added.

The cost for all the new animals is not known, but Wylie said it could be less than $100,000. Fifty of the planned new animals, for example, are fish, and waterfowl is relatively cheap.

Exotic animals such as orangutans and giraffes are not purchased but exchanged among institutions and are subject to availability. Acquiring them may involve some zoo politics, said Wylie, who added: “This is not a wish list. This is real.”