new arzapa zoo

new arzapa zoo
16-09-2007

the leopard seal thread got me thinking about everything non-leopard seal, and so i decided to create a new post...
here in the australasian region, as zoo pro pointed out, the region lacks a 'back-up' plan of small to medium sized zoos which, if they existed, might effectively help boost holding capacity and therefore contribute to sustainable PMP on a regional basis....
so, modelled on a mogo'esque style small zoo, which animals would our expert forum contribuor like to see in such a small zoo???
for starters, lions, giraffes, white rhino and zebra are definitely out. species listed as viable arent neccesarily to be ditched, but we need to include species which need a higher degree of regional cooperation to persist, or for species for which succesful breeding programs are critical, like red pandas or sumatran tigers.
go crazy boys and girls, i want a collection plan and nominated holding capacity and even estimated costs by monday morning.
cheers..zoo director glyn
ps i want fishing cats

16-09-2007

In a small or smallish zoo (ie here in Brisbane at either Roma St Gardens or Mt Cootha gardens) you could have quite a large range of smallish animals and still be very thorough .
So in my ideal situation there would be
A sumatran tiger to represent the big cats. It would be a male not required for breeding purposes, or an old animals. There would be plenty of signage saying that Roma St Gardens Zoo does not breed tigers but was holding this surplus animal so as to free up room in a bigger zoo for breeding purposes. If it was an old animal you could that they are proving a home for an animal thaty might otherwise have to be euthanased.
Ther would have to be primates and this collection would include a pair of Silvery Gibbons, tamarins and marmosets of every kind in Australia. Mogo zoo has an excellent facility holding these small monkeys and I would estimate that at least two pairs of each.
Then there would be
red pandas, meerkats and a pair of servals.
An Asian area would comprise , a bachelor group of asian otters, a new colony of tree shrews, biturongs a pair of fishing cats. These dexhibits would be designed to make it look as if the animals were all in together, perhaps the otters and shrews could be. There would also be a godd representation of birds, java sparrows, stilts, peasants, parrots etc.
Notice that i haven't mentioed any native fauna. Brisbane is well supplied with native sanctuaries so I haven't included them. This is an exotic species zoo. Right now I'm off to see what other small animals there are hel;d in Australian zoos.

16-09-2007

i reckon primate wise...
silvery gibon, wc gibbon, all tamarns and marmosets and lemurs
carnivores...
sumatran tigers, snow leopard, red panda, fishing cat, sun bear, dhole, maned wolf, possibly cheetah, binturong
and if i had plenty of money a small black rhino facility too
if modelled on a basicish zoo design, not full immersion u probbly could get away with building such a zoo fairly cheaply and at the same time help the regions zoos to more effectively fulfil conservation outcomes by saving money on costly imports, holding places etc

25-09-2007

What Australia needs more than another public display of animals is an off-exhibit breeding centre, the sort of place the americans call a "survival center".

Most of the financial outlay in setting up a new zoo is spent on the public, not the animals (cafeterias, gift shops, toilet blocks, decent paths, pretty landscaping etc.)
If the general public weren't admitted you would only need about a third of the staff,too.

It would need to be financed by the big state zoos, operated on strict ARAZPA guidelines and reasonably centrally located.

Enclosures would need to be set up for breeding rather than display.(We all know that there is often a conflict between breeding and display.) It could house numbers of carnivores, primates etc. in enclosures which are more modest than those seen in public zoos. For example, Taronga has 2 enclosures for fishing cats at present. Other Australian zoos also have them. An off-exhibit breeding centre could have another 6 or 8
fishing cat enclosures, and therefore make a real contribution to maintaining the species properly.

Not much fun for zoo nuts like you and me, I hear you say.
Maybe there could be a public membership for a reasonable annual fee, with an open day for members every few months, people who wouldn't expect koalas or lions or seal shows.

26-09-2007

I'm glad you added this last paragraph. The idea is excellent but I would want to visit (and wouldn't need all the public features)

26-09-2007

If a property such as this were to be built in NSW all of the public facilites are necessary for any paying member of the public to get in. That is by law. There re more guidelines for the public then animals in the General Standards for the exhibition of Animals in NSW. However like Ara said you might be able to get away with it if it is more of a membership thing. There would probably be strict guidelines including the tours having to be guided and a limit to the number of people allowed in but it could work. funding would be the main issue. Private enterprise would not be able to be involved as it would not be financially viable. although considerably cheaper to construct and run, depending on animals, you'd be looking at atleast 1,000,000 bucks a year to run. (Mareeba was being run at about $1,200,000 a year sa a fully operational zoo) But if money wasn't a serious issue then this would be a great idea, located somewhere between all the zoos, maybe another property near dubbo.

26-09-2007

A large number of herbivores could be run much cheaper than carnivores. A place with good sized heards of grazing animals would be a much better setup than these zoos with many species in small enclosures.

I still have not got to the zoo at Darlington point.

27-09-2007

Yes, but we don't need more places for herbivores.
In fact, a lot of posts on this forum suggest that in the not too distant future our open-range zoos will not have sufficient animals to occupy their paddocks.

We ARE short of sufficient places for primates and carnivores. If the intention is to have, say, 20 asiatic golden cats in Australasia, then that means 20 enclosures (IF they are going to be kept correctly; that is, singly. They are solitary animals in the wild and should not be in pairs or groups in zoos.) The same applies to all cats except lions.