Exotic-animal breeder planning $500M safari park on San Antonio's South Side

PossumRoach

PossumRoach

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5+ year member
This is not an April fools joke

Exotic-animal breeder planning $500M San Antonio safari park

Brian Gilroy, the owner of WildLife Partners, is planning to open a 1000 acre safari park. Animals he seeks include primates, sichuan takin (good luck with having that done sooner pal), and duikers. His company WildLife Partners supplies animals to ranches and keeps and breeds rarities as well including black wildebeest and Turkmenian Kulan. According to the article, Gilroy apparently was also used to serve on the San Antonio Zoo’s board of directors. He does not plan on competing with the SA zoo.

Here are some quotes and snippets from the article that I find interesting (along with my comments):

'“The world is crying for a new zoo,” Gilroy said. “People want to see zoos in a different way, and they want to see wide-open spaces, less walls, less fences.'(sounds like someone hasn't heard of the Wilds or Apenheul)

'“No one is stepping up in revolutionizing the zoo industry,” he added. “I intend to be the person to do it.”' (easier said than done if you anyone asks me)

'Gilroy envisions a tram, part air-conditioned and part open-air, moving park visitors along a 6-mile route to view a collection of wild animals.'

'“I’m not a fan of having big cats. It’s just not my thing,” he said, before reconsidering. “But big cats sell tickets.”'

So what do you guys think of this future safari park? Yay or nay?

P.S. there was some stuff about taxes that I did not understand.
 
I would LOVE for him to open a (well done) place!

Some of the species he has:
Antelopes & similar: Addra Gazelle, Bontebok, Grant’s Gazelle, Impala, Nile Lechwe, Red Lechwe, Sable, Thomson’s Gazelle
Bovinae: African Buffalo, Greater Kudu, Nilgai, Nyala
Caprids: Alpine Ibex, Nubian Ibex, Himalayan Tahr, Markhor, Bighorn Sheep, Urial Sheep
Deer: Axis, Eld’s, Fallow, Hog, Javan Rusa, Pere David’s, Sambar, Sika
Oryx: Addax, Arabian Oryx, Gemsbok
Other ungulates: Asiatic Wild Ass, Black Wildebeest, Blue Wildebeest, Giraffe, RRH, Warthog
 
This sounds like a mess. He does not seem to be living in reality on permitting, financing, or really anything. Just sounds like a man winging it all. Like the comment about financing where he simply quips we’ll go to Wall Street :rolleyes:

Also you don’t need nearly 500 bucks to open the facility he is laying out. Probably could do it for 10-20 if u get some land just outside the San Antonio metro area.

The tax thing I believe is a program for underserved areas where tax revenue from allowed development (basically gentrifying projects) is redirected to investment in that very neighborhood or area. Although I am not sure a Safari park would be the best use of that money.

Also I have some moral qualms about letting a man who sells animals to hunters for canned hunts as a job, run a zoo. But that’s just me. It’ll probably make the process a lot harder with his very involvement and perceived conflict of interest.
 
Safari Parks are pretty commonly found in Texas. There are over a dozen in the triangle between Houston, San Antonio, and Dallas.
If he wants to get in the game, I'd want to know what he's doing that the others like Fossil Rim (AZA accredited), Natural Bridge Wildlife ranch, etc. etc. are not doing already.

And I agree with nczoofan; many of the other parks do open up their ranches for hunting, and I'm not keen on someone who's part of that world opening another park.
 
It'll be interesting to see what becomes of this plan. I'm not familiar with his company and dont have any strong feelings one way or the other, but I do think there is a need for some more zoos focusing on rare ungulates, which it sounds like this one will. Hopefully he cooperates with AZA ungulate programs and helps add additional spaces for struggling species.
 
PossumRoach said:
'“I’m not a fan of having big cats. It’s just not my thing,” he said, before reconsidering. “But big cats sell tickets.”'
Click to expand...
I can’t access the article so is there any sort of context before or after this because this mean one of two things
  1. He knows exactly what he is doing. He wants to stick to conservation and not include typical animals that attract customers. He personally doesn’t like big cats, but he knows that they bring in crowds so he might need them to keep his zoo afloat.
  2. Or he only cares about selling tickets and getting money. He is not the long awaited rare species Messiah. He is just some guy who likes making money off of animals.
 
The article linked at the top cannot be accessed unless you buy a subscription. Here is a free article I found, though it is short and lacking on details. San Antonio’s Southside may be getting its own exotic animal safari park | The Daily (sacurrent.com) I will quote the last paragraph, as it makes me dubious about the success of the project.

“I am not an operator — I’m a dreamer,” he told the Express-News. “So I’m really good at putting these things together and getting other people to go execute. I am not qualified to operate a safari park of that magnitude. My only option is to hire the people to bring them in to do it.”
source: Nina Rangel, San Antonio Current, April 2, 2021
 
Arizona Docent said:
The article linked at the top cannot be accessed unless you buy a subscription. Here is a free article I found, though it is short and lacking on details. San Antonio’s Southside may be getting its own exotic animal safari park | The Daily (sacurrent.com) I will quote the last paragraph, as it makes me dubious about the success of the project.

“I am not an operator — I’m a dreamer,” he told the Express-News. “So I’m really good at putting these things together and getting other people to go execute. I am not qualified to operate a safari park of that magnitude. My only option is to hire the people to bring them in to do it.”
source: Nina Rangel, San Antonio Current, April 2, 2021
Click to expand...
This quote combined with the cat quote proves this will be quite an interesting ride. It's not gonna go very far but it will be interesting.
 
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