Your correct! I meant Dubuque. Between Waterloo, Iowa City, and Dubuque. However, that location seems like more of stretch to me, personally.
Cities in need of zoos
- Thread starter elefante
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Your correct! I meant Dubuque. Between Waterloo, Iowa City, and Dubuque. However, that location seems like more of stretch to me, personally.
Dubuque's another that doesn't have a zoo, its just that it already has the National Mississippi Museum and Aquarium, and I'm unsure how a zoo would affect the attendance of that quite unknown place. Dubuque is also incredibly steep and hilly, so a zoo might have to be built out of town a bit
NMRMAA is very nice and serves the roll of Dubuque's zoo very well.
I could see a zoo in the Cedar Rapids area. I wasn't thinking how many people do live in that general area. And I suppose a zoo doesn't depend on tourism seeing as how lots of nice zoos are not in tourist destinations.
Sorry to bump this thread, but earlier in this thread I heard people discuss the idea of Corpus Christi, Nueces County, Texas having a zoo. Despite having a large aquarium already, that being the Texas State Aquarium, I think a zoo would be good to have there as well. The closest major AZA zoos to Corpus Christi are each a 2 hour drive, westward to San Antonio and southwards to Brownsville, so I feel like having a zoo will create another nice experience and would fill a niche that an aquarium can't quite fill.
I did think about that idea in further detail, specifically regarding possible locations. The ones I found and thought so of were;
Oso Beach Municipal Golf Course located at
5601 S Alameda St, Corpus Christi, TX 78412
And
Lozano Golf Center located at
4401 Old Brownsville Rd, Corpus Christi, TX 78405
The latter when looked at from an aerial view funny enough is the exact same shape as Gladys Porter Zoo, but much bigger being around 200 and some odd acres. Golf overall is waning in popularity, so I do see an opportunity...
Look those locations up on Google maps.
I will also say, Corpus Christi, Nueces County, Texas did have a zoo in the past which you can read more about here;
Corpus Christi's zoo in Ben Garza park
As you will read in the article, some of the taxa they kept included Lions, Collared peccaries, American alligators, Bobcats, Mountain lions, Rhesus macaques, Vervet monkeys and Jaguars etc. The photos of the old zoo are from the archives managed by the Corpus Christi Museum of Science & History where I have been once by myself and once with @TheMightyOrca
I did think about that idea in further detail, specifically regarding possible locations. The ones I found and thought so of were;
Oso Beach Municipal Golf Course located at
5601 S Alameda St, Corpus Christi, TX 78412
And
Lozano Golf Center located at
4401 Old Brownsville Rd, Corpus Christi, TX 78405
The latter when looked at from an aerial view funny enough is the exact same shape as Gladys Porter Zoo, but much bigger being around 200 and some odd acres. Golf overall is waning in popularity, so I do see an opportunity...
Look those locations up on Google maps.
I will also say, Corpus Christi, Nueces County, Texas did have a zoo in the past which you can read more about here;
Corpus Christi's zoo in Ben Garza park
As you will read in the article, some of the taxa they kept included Lions, Collared peccaries, American alligators, Bobcats, Mountain lions, Rhesus macaques, Vervet monkeys and Jaguars etc. The photos of the old zoo are from the archives managed by the Corpus Christi Museum of Science & History where I have been once by myself and once with @TheMightyOrca
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Is it? (This is an honest question; I really don't know). Do you have stats that prove this, or is it just a hunch?
Having a population of 133,562, they are certainly large enough to have a zoo. Linn County where Cedar Rapids is located has a population of 230,299 people. Again, certainly large enough to support a zoo.
Another region in Iowa that might be able to support a zoo is Iowa City. Iowa City is home to the Iowa Museum of Natural History located on the campus of the University of Iowa, so I think an AZA accredited zoo might make another nice addition. Though the population of Iowa City is only 75,130 people, the Iowa City Metropolitan Statistical Area has a population of 171,491 and is concentrated within Johnson County, Iowa.
I do and I'll get them to you as soon as I can find the links.
Here it is; https:golfoperatormagazine.
com/decline-of-golf/2017
The reasons listed in this article were as follows;
"1.) Oversupply of courses
2 .) Number of courses built never intended
to be viable businesses, but rather marketing ‘perks’ for sale of homes and other purposes
3.) Aging population of golfers, 4.) Fewer popular golfing icons,
5.) Increase of other recreational choices
6.) Lack of strategic course
use (time and fees),
7.) Declining memberships,
8.) Increased competition
from private clubs
9.) Dependence on management companies and
increasing fees,
10.) No budget for or inclination to market or update facilities to appeal to modern generations.”
And here is another relevant article; Why I’m cheering golf’s steep decline
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Not from this area, but been there a few times to umpire. My thought has always been that they should put a zoo somewhere towards the northside of Cedar Rapids because that will put it within an hour or so for both people from Iowa City and Waterloo. For one, this would allow the area to support one larger zoo instead of 2 or 3 smaller ones. Something similar to the airports in the region. The passenger airport in the region is located in Cedar Rapids because it puts it in close enough range to both Iowa City and Waterloo. The airport is also called "Eastern Iowa Airport" likely to market it to the entire region instead of just one of the cities. The large baseball tournaments I've umpired in the area normally have had sites in all 3 cities, which I think shows how close they all really are.
If they each had their own zoo, I would bet it would end up similar to the situation in central Illinois where Peoria, Bloomington, Springfield, and Decatur, which are all within 90 minutes of each other, all have their own small zoo that only take about an hour to tour. Not necessarily bad, but I wonder if they would have been better off teaming up and putting a zoo somewhere in the middle around Lincoln, which is 45 min or less from the center of all 4 of those cities.
EDIT: Realized I pretty much said this exact same thing in this thread a few years ago after I posted. Whoops.
In Illinois, It would Champaign could use a zoo. It has the population to support one (87,000 city proper, 231,000 metro) and smaller similar cities in Illinois like Decatur and Bloomington have their own.
Rockford could also use one, (147,000 city proper, 344,000 metro), although it is somewhat serviced by the summerfield zoo.
Rockford could also use one, (147,000 city proper, 344,000 metro), although it is somewhat serviced by the summerfield zoo.
I like that idea, the Cape Cod Peninsula aka Barnstable County has a population of 228,996 and is considered a metropolitan statistical area in this country. I can see them supporting an AZA accredited zoo.
Other cities in Massachusetts that I feel could use major AZA accredited zoos are as follows;
Worcester having a population of 206,518
Springfield having a population of 153,606
Despite them being very close to Boston, Cambridge having a population of 118,927, Cambridge has Harvard University and hosts the New England Patriots NFL team, so why not a zoo?
Despite being in the same county as Cambridge, possibly even Lowell could work too. Their population is 110,997
And
Pittsfield having a population of 129,026 at the metropolitan statistical area level, though Pittsfield itself is only about 42,142.
In the bordering state of Connecticut, they have a zoo in Bridgeport, the Beardsley Zoo but I think Hartford and New Haven could and should each have an AZA accredited zoo. New Haven is home to Yale University which has a nice natural history museum on campus, why not a zoo? The population of Hartford is 121,054 at the city level and 894,014 at the metropolitan statistical area level. The population of New Haven is 130,250 at the city level and 862,477 at the metropolitan statistical area level. Another possibility could be Norwich, though their population at the city level is only 38,768, but is 265,206 at the Metropolitan Statistical Area level. Another possibility could be Torrington, though their population at the city level is only 34,044, their population at the Metropolitan Statistical Area level is 189,927.
Besides Corpus Christi, Nueces County, Texas other some cities in that state that I feel could use major AZA accredited zoos include the following;
McAllen - Population of 143,268 at the city level and a population of 774,769 at the metropolitan statistical area level, despite Hidalgo County bordering Cameron County where the Gladys Porter Zoo is located in Brownsville, I believe McAllen could support a zoo of their own.
Killeen - Population of 151,666 at the city level and a population of around 310,235 at the metropolitan statistical area level.
Beaumont - Population of 116,825 at the city level and a population of around 404,872 at the metropolitan statistical area level. Beaumont actually used to have a zoo well into the 1960s, but they shipped their collection to the San Antonio Zoo after their closure. You can read more about it here; Log into Facebook | Facebook their collection included animals like Hippopotamus, Bears, Mountain lions, Ocelots, Pelicans etc. I would like to see another zoo built in Beaumont.
I'll list out more later as I have somewhere I have to be right now.
The New England Patriots are in Foxboro, not Cambridge. I could see a zoo in Foxboro working, but it would be rather close to the Capron Park Zoo (approx. 30 minutes)
For your other suggestions:
Worcester- I could see a Worcester Zoo working.
Springfield- there is a zoo in Springfield (Zoo in Forest Park).
Cambridge/Lowell- could theoretically work, but would have competition with Zoo NewEngland.
Pittsfield- this is extremely far from where I live so know very little about this part of the state. No comment.
It seems like there are lots of areas in Texas that could support a zoo with the warm year round climate in most of the state. They could support a lot of warm weather species.
I think we may see a couple new ones built in the coming years, with Texas's rapid population growth. If that means good, AZA zoos, though, I'm not sure.
Ok, my bad on not remembering the location of the New England Patriots.
I did look into the Forest Park Zoo in Springfield and not to sound arrogant or judgemental, but I was thinking they could and should have a facility with exhibits, a collection, and layout that is actually worthy of AZA accreditation and is scientific, scholarly, and conservation orientated. I did look into their history and apparently they used to keep taxa such as Polar bears, Asian elephants, and Common chimpanzees etc.
Apperently one of their Polar bears is on display at the Springfield Science Museum. File:Snowball, polar bear from the Forest Park Zoo - Springfield Science Museum - Springfield, MA - DSC03320.JPG - Wikimedia Commons
I've never been to Forest Park, but I think the real solution to Springfield would be improving the zoo they already have, instead of creating a new one. I think @ThylacineAlive may have been to the Zoo in Forest Park, he might be able to give more details about the zoo. I have no clue what quality it is.