To make way for a new cougar exhibit, the Birmingham Zoo plans to dig up and move about a dozen graves of people buried at the old cemetery on its grounds.

Zoo officials have applied for a permit from the Alabama Historical Commission and presented a plan to relocate graves on the property while also being respectful of those who are buried there, said Chris Pfefferkorn, president and CEO of the Birmingham Zoo.

“We want to treat these people with the respect and dignity that they deserve, and we wanted to know what that process is,” Pfefferkorn told AL.com.

Long before the Birmingham Zoo and the nearby Birmingham Botanical Gardens existed, the property was known as the Red Mountain Cemetery and Southside Cemetery, an indigent burial ground for more than 4,700 people. Many of the people, among the city’s poorest early residents, were buried in unmarked graves between 1888 and about 1905.

About 12 to 15 graves are believed to rest within the footprint of the zoo’s newest planned exhibit.

If the zoo moves forward with plans in the proposal, an archeologist from the University of Alabama will excavate the site and collect any remains and items interred there.

The new zoo exhibit, called Cougar Crossing, will be 15,000 to 20,000 square feet. The big cat habitat will be located in the Alabama Wilds area of the park. The exhibit will include Bob, the zoo’s current bobcat, in addition to a new cougar. Cougar Crossing will feature a public viewing area along with two outdoor habitats.

Officials hope to open the exhibit next summer. But before any work can begin, the zoo must first address the century-old graves at the site.

About half a million people visit the zoo each year, most of them likely unaware of the history of the land and what is buried just feet below them.

“We would rebury them as close as we can to where we found them,” Pfefferkorn said. “We would reinter them with a ceremony and then a marker to make sure that people know that these folks are resting here in that space.”

While the Alabama Historical Commission often works with cemetery owners, developers, and government agencies to make plans to protect and preserve cemeteries, the agency has not received a relocation permit application in the past five years before the zoo’s request.

“Landowners must first go through the legal abandonment process, which requires local government approvals and a two-month public notice period. When that is complete, they may apply for a relocation permit,” explained Kathryn Shoupe, Alabama Historical Commission’s public relations manager. “All relocation applications submitted to AHC are reviewed by multiple staff members. A reinterment plan must be provided, which specifies the location and manner of reburial to include all funerary objects.”

The process must follow the procedure set out in Alabama law, which requires that reinterment is within a legally designated cemetery and that, “…the remains of each person so reinterred shall be placed in a separate and suitable receptacle and decently and respectfully interred.”

The cemetery was abandoned when a graveyard for the indigent opened in Ketona in 1909. Most of the cemetery land on the zoo property is unmarked except for a small, fenced area that remains undisturbed.

“With the majority of this, nobody knows who is where. But we still want to treat the people with the respect they deserve in this process,” Pfefferkorn said.

The zoo also intends to add a marker to identify the cemetery in addition to graphics and interpretive information about the history of the area.

Pfefferkorn noted the variety of the people interred in the site, each with their own life experiences going back to Birmingham’s earliest days.

“These people had stories, so we want to tell some of that story,” he said.