What 10 things do you wish board members of the major Australasian Zoos know?

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kiwimuzz

Well-Known Member
There have been multiple threads go slightly off topic with many of us Australasian posters lamenting the direction and collection demise of the major zoos in the region.
As many of these zoos are run by board members, What ten things (or less) would you like your average board member of the major zoos to know?
I am currently mulling over my list and will post my thoughts in a couple of days.
 
kiwimuzz said:
There have been multiple threads go slightly off topic with many of us Australasian posters lamenting the direction and collection demise of the major zoos in the region.
As many of these zoos are run by board members, What ten things (or less) would you like your average board member of the major zoos to know?
I am currently mulling over my list and will post my thoughts in a couple of days.
Click to expand...

Great idea for a thread!

Sorry, I thought of 11. You’re lucky it’s nearly midnight here in New Zealand, or I’d probably think up another 10.

Items are in no particular order and are my opinion only (just putting that out there before anyone has a cry about Number 2 - obviously some people like them or they wouldn’t exist).

1. Nobody is impressed by phase outs. Everyone has noticed the decrease in species and feels nostalgic for the zoo of yesteryear. Think nobody has noticed Melbourne’s loss of Temminck’s golden cat, Leopard cat and Ocelot? Perhaps your right. But when you phased out the Jaguar and Mandrill; and Taronga Zoo got shot of their Snow leopards, **** got real.

2. Scrap the plans to build a hotel in your zoo. Did you know we can book in at somewhere half decent down the road for a fraction of the price? That’s money saved we can put towards doing an animal encounter.

3. Imports are essential. I’m not just talking about new species (that’s great too), but top ups of species that are heading for a genetic bottleneck. Let’s start with giraffe.

4. Don’t hybridise if you don’t have to. Darling Downs Zoo took the initiative to revitalise what was once a thriving Grant’s zebra breeding programme in the region. Stop breeding generic zebras and jump on the band wagon. Same with tigers, Dreamworld.

5. Communicate openly. Not all zoo news is glowing and positive. We get that. Tigers eat their cubs, otters die before the age of 10, elephants won’t breed for love nor money. Don’t avoid discussing such topics (especially face to face).

6. Respond to email queries about animals held at your zoo past and present. The birthdate of a Jaguar born in the 70’s is not classified information you may only share with accredited zoological facilities. Same goes for the cause of death of that lion that mysteriously disappeared from your social media posts around a year ago.

7. Lower your cafe prices. I’m surprised anyone eats there.

8. Can the click bait. Don’t put up a sign saying “Exhibit Closed: Something Exciting is Coming Soon” unless it’s something exciting. An example of something exciting is a Snow leopard or an expensive new antelope; an example of something that’s not exciting is a farmyard animal.

9. Keep the zoo a zoo. If I want to take my kids to see farm animals, I’ll go to a farm. The most domesticated animal I’ll tolerate seeing is a Llama (and don’t you dare sub in an Alpaca). Also, no animatronic dinosaurs. EVER.

10. Give your animals appropriate names. Names of appliances e.g. Xbox; fruits e.g. Mango; people e.g. Malcolm; or miscellaneous e.g. Tallbert suck.

11. Keep exhibits geographically accurate. Take the Blackbuck out of the African Savannah.
 
I am going to have to agree with what @Zoofan15 has mentioned.

First major zoos need to be taken back to being run by zoo professionals instead of business managers where most of the focus is on making a profit.Yes zoos need money but not when it at the expense of affecting how a zoo should be run when they are handling highly endangered species often in conjunction with international breeding programs.
Taronga has had some excellent directors over the years but now the main focus appears to be how to make more money, Zoos need animal savvy people first with a lot of other skills added on to that, other managers can be added on under the directorship for other tasks.

We have seen as mentioned by @Zoofan15 many phase outs of species that should never have been phased out the list goes on and on. This fad on down sizing collections and phasing out some endangered species only to be taken up by small private regional zoos should be embarrassing for any major zoo, major state zoos are fed millions in tax payer money while the small regional zoos have to make ends meet by people coming though the gate.
I also agree with zoofans point about our big zoos hybridizing some species, with the Zebra being a good case in point, there was no real need to do this, new bloodlines could have been imported and was not, it was a case of just making do with what was on hand, the cost to a major collection would be peanuts compared to the money spent in other areas, but zoos are about animals right?. When two small family owned regional zoos can import ten Grants Zebras from the USA at their own coast why then is this not possible for major zoos to do the same if not even better?. Now off spring from these imports are now making there way around to other zoo collections in the country as they should.

Another point I would like to mention was the building of the brand new elephant exhibits both in Sydney and Melbourne at great expense for the elephants from Thailand, These two projects cost many millions of dollars and one did not need to be a professor to see this was never going to work out in the long term in a city zoo. Now we can see this is true with both zoos are moving/or have moved their elephants out to their open range zoos where they should have been put in the first place. So with that money spent at the two city zoos whats going to become of these exhibits?, are they going to stay as they are for another species? or knocked down or will more money be spent on other different exhibit/s built in there place? and to add Werribee still has to build its new elephant complex yet at even more cost which could have been built before their animals even arrived in the country!

Just a last point, In my view Zoos South Australia are now showing the way at Monatro zoo this project is what our major zoos should be doing
I take my hat off to these guys for having the foresight to do what they are doing thinking ahead and NOT cutting corners!. Also we can see the rise of the smaller regional zoo with a focus on what zoos should be doing and doing a good job of it!
 
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Apologies for starting this thread yesterday and not contributing to it. After some thought here is my list of ten.

1) What is the primary reason people visit the Zoo? It is to see Animals . You are not running a Hotel, food Court, Concert Venue, Retail mall, events space, Carbon Zero monitoring zone, as a primary business. The Zoo – its animal collection and staff, need to be front and center in your decision making.

2) Market Segments. We get it that your number one market segment is parents with young children. They are not your only market segment. Focusing only on one market segment risks turning away others. Developing a life long love and appreciation of the natural world should be one of your objectives. This means not alienating teenagers and young adults by dumbing down signage and having garish cartoon characters on many of your exhibits. (Here’s looking at you Wellington Zoo). You need to do more to make childless couples, retirees and single people feel welcome.

3) Make some long term commitment to the animals in your collection. It will help re-establish your reputation with other regional zoo associations and may assist in getting new imports. Don’t phase out anything before you have its replacements and they are breeding successfully. (I’m still waiting for the Bongo’s to replace the much missed phased out Sitatunga)

4) How genetically healthy are the animals in your collection? You are promoting yourselves as “for the Wild” and “fighting extinction”. The current extinction crisis before us isn’t going to be over in 40 days and 40 nights. We are in it for the long haul. All animals in your collection must be genetically healthy and candidates for eventual possible re-introduction into the wild. (Sadly your current giraffes / zebras / hippos / chimpanzees are either inbred or a hybrid mix of subspecies and never suitable for release.)

5) Import New Stock. In order to maintain genetically healthy collections new animals need to be imported into Australia and New Zealand. We understand it is a complex business with various legislative hurdles to be overcome. You have the money and the political connections “Make it Happen” before there are no Bongo / Pigmy Hippo / Malaysian Tapir / Philippine Crocodile / Sun Bear left in the region. When you make it to importing new animals do not only import 1 or 2. Import 10 or 20 and then do it again.

6) Are you a good employer? Do you pay all your staff a living wage? How is staff morale? What percentage of your workforce is Permanent / Casual / volunteer? What is the

7) Enough of the Theming. You are not Disneyland. No one looks at your fake temples / Asian Stores / African huts. A dead Land-Rover doesn’t mean I’m in the Serengeti. If you have too much money to spend on redevelopment build an aviary. If you have too much space to fill build an aviary, as they are great multi-functional spaces that can be used for small primates, small mammals, large reptiles, as well as birds.

8) Publish an annual census. We have a fairly good idea of what is in your collection, and you already complete a census for legislative requirements. Publish it in your annual report. (It may reduce the number of email inquiries you get.)

9) Make a big thing of the small things. There is never going to be an international day of the small mouse like creature. Promote ALL your creatures on social media. Educate us, enthral us, inspire us to love the natural world in its entirety. Promoting only Koalas and big cats gets repetitive and leads to mammal centric basis.

10) Make your marketing teams do some work. Once upon a time Meerkats, Ring tailed Lemurs and Oriental small clawed otters were unknown in Zoos. Pick something in your collection and make it into the next “Meerkat-must-see”.
 
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