building » Wellington Zoo

building
23-03-2005

One of the ideas of Wellington Zoo is to make the new animal hospital as an exhibit in itself , and site it somewhere in the middle of the zoo instead of in a corner out of bounds to the public .
As much as I think it would be good to have more behind the scenes tours for those of us in the public that has a keen interest in zoos -- Sim , Nigel , Jay and Patrick for starters -- I wonder about the logic of such an idea of using up space in the middle of the zoo for putting the zoo hospital ( and on display ! ) I am trying to think of another possibility , which I might actually submit to the Wellington zoo .....

If you can visualise the steeper parts of Taronga Park ..... If there was a multi storey building built into part of a hillside , where the ground floor was at "street level ", and level 3 or 4 was level to the zoo grounds at that particular point ...... There could be 2 or 3 dockways at various levels ....
Within the building could be the zoo hospital , food preparation and storage facilities , staff breakout quarters / lunchroom , administration staff offices , staff IT and meeting rooms , zoo research library ....etc all in the same "enclosure "

They could also put bars around the outer walls , and have a sign warning people not to feed the natives ... ( as a laugh ) This would save having numerous support buildings scattered all over the place . Any room adjacent to it could be used as a zoo school/education centre ....

Any comments about this would be most welcome

zoo hospitals, something different..
23-03-2005

zoos victoria's masterplan for it's three institutions features some similar concepts. healesville sanctuary treats hundreds apon hundrens of sick native animals every year. the major redevelopment planned for that zoo will be similar, a veternary hospital where you will actually be able to view the vets performing, amaong other things, surgury on kangaroos and the like. i imagine the new "australian wildlife hospital" will be a major hit and i think its a great idea. however, its only really possible because the zoo already has an established hospital that cares for not just the zoos animals, but as i mentioned, it also treats hundreds of injured birds, mammals and reptiles that are brought in by the public. therfore, i think you'd be guarenteed to see them doing something interesting whenever you visit. now i don't know how many injured native birds are treated at wellington zoo anually, but i wonder if enough zoo animals get sick each day to warrent a permanent pucblic acessable hospital exhibit?

though not quite the same, melbourne zoo also has a planned water treatment centre exhibit, aimed at teaching people the importanace of conserving water. many of the aquatic animal exhibits have already had grey water infustructure installed for when the plant comes online. the zoo has proposed constructing a wetlands, outside the zoo grounds, in royal park. grey water will be pumped out to there and biologically clean water brought back in when the zoo needs to refill the elephant or hippo pools. the zoo plans on stocking the wetlands with native plants, birds, frogs and fish and being responsible for its on-going maintanance.

- another exhibit that, like the hospital, does not focus' on animals in their habitats. sounds like a good idea.

23-03-2005

Plus anything that makes getting up those hills any easier would really help (elevator or escalator would be good)

I'd like to see some further development of Wellington Zoo - I really liked what I saw there.

New facilities at Wellington
24-03-2005

yes , I know what you mean , Sim . I have only been to one zoo that was steeper . Which is , of course , San Diego . They have about 3 or 4 Canyons in their huge complex . But where as San Diego has gondola , 2 or 3 travellators , and double decker buses in their zoo , Wellington zoo has to try to survive on the smell of an oily rag .
Unfortunately there are no current plans for any cliffhanger devices , and the zoo currently doesnt have enough visitors to warrant even a shuttle van . If you return to the zoo , remember to bring crampons and a good deal of rope ...... and make sure that the baboons dont steal any of your gear !