Vandals mangled a sign last week at the Honolulu Zoo’s chimpanzee exhibit.

City spokesman Andrew Pereira said zoo staff noticed the damage Tuesday during business hours. Parts of a picture on the sign had been torn, and small portions of the sign had been removed, Pereira said.

“It could have been a person handling the sign that caused the damage; we just don’t know. The damage was not substantial enough to report to (the Honolulu Police Department),” Pereira said.

While the damage appears to be minor, it’s just one more thing that the zoo will have to address as it prepares to reapply for its Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA) accreditation in 2019. The zoo lost the accreditation in March 2016 when AZA inspectors said zoo safety was compromised because of inadequate staffing and expressed concern over inconsistent leadership and inadequate resources, including funding.

Many big and small problems remain. The hippo viewing area has been closed since 2014 when the city ordered the contractor to stop work following the unexpected death of one of the two endangered hippos. The sun bear exhibit also is closed for renovations, and the nene geese have been temporarily relocated to another part of the zoo while their exhibit is being improved.

Cathy Goeggel, president of Animal Rights Hawaii, said she also hopes that the city will address zoo security.

“Why would an individual or individuals have access to that exhibit without any oversight?” Goeggel said. “If someone had broken into the exhibit itself and allowed the chimps to escape, that could have been a very serious problem. They are extremely strong.”

Goeggel said the city should consider adding closed-circuit TV cameras to beef up zoo security. The city said the zoo doesn’t use security cameras, but it does have two security guards and zookeepers patrolling the grounds.

Tracy Kubota, deputy director of the city Department of Enterprise Services, said the chimp exhibit is still open, and the zoo has ordered new signage, which should go up in the next few weeks. Pereira said there is no damage estimate since the new signage is being produced in-house.

Kubota said the zoo is making headway on other repairs and improvements.

“We addressed several rust and deferred maintenance projects in various exhibits throughout the zoo, opened the Ectotherm Complex and opened the Japanese giant salamanders on exhibit,” Kubota said.

Part of the reptile and amphibian complex, which shut down in 2014 for improvements, has reopened. Renovations are progressing for the tiger area, and planning and design of a new bird and a new spider monkey habitat are underway, she said. Upgrades are being made to the water system, elephant hydraulics, the Preis Building roof, various barn roofs, rust and fencing projects, and resurfacing of exhibit floors and walkways, Kubota said.

The zoo’s breeding and conservation efforts resulted in a third sloth birth, seven African wild dog pups and the propagation of Kamehameha butterflies with support from the state Department of Land and Natural Resources, she said.

The zoo got a dedicated funding source in November 2016 when taxpayers approved a charter amendment dedicating 0.5 percent of real property taxes to the zoo, which is expected to generate $6.3 million to $7 million per year.

Linda Santos, who started at the zoo as a trainee in the bird department in 1986, was named zoo director last year.