Idea concept zoo in Austin, TX

Evirapo

Evirapo

Well-Known Member
Due to Austin having no big zoos like San Antonio and Fort Worth, it became my challenge to come up with speculative ideas about what the zoo should look like in the city for the first time.







Indonesia - A place filled with beautiful, unique, and many things from the country to raise control and awareness. The theme of the area will be a reference to famous buildings from the country


  • Orangutans, I'm really in favor of their redness fur and many ways
  • Malayan Tapir, This animal loves swimming, and many people would love to see it around with many ground animals
  • Tiger, the largest cat known to people
  • Dholes, a well-known canid is one of few US to house this animal, and people would be amazed by the look of these different from another canid


Sulawesi (Mini area)

- The Sulawesi palm civet is possibly a very unknown critically endangered species, They are unheard of people, and that's why they should raise awareness for it



- Sulawesi bear cuscus, A large possum found in Asia only. Many have heard of Australian and American marsupials, but less Asia. There's only one case in Memphis Zoo, but what about more than one?



- Sulawesi crested macaque, a critically endangered monkey native to the island that would be playful and active to see



  • North Sulawesi babirusa, This hog is known for its unique four tusks and is found in Southeast Asia only


  • Lots of birds from Sulawesi including hornbills!


WONDER OF MADAGASCAR - Many unique animals are native to the island, like Malagasy carnivora and lemurs, many will be in the zoo. The theme of this area will be all baobab, forest, and nature from the island


  • Coquerel's sifaka, This animal is known for being so different due to their unqiue movement and appear from true lemurs
  • Crowned sifaka, Different species of sifaka, which is nice to heard about
  • Ring-tailed lemurs, The only lemur species with ringed tail
  • Ruffed lemurs
  • Any lemurs
  • Many birds from Madagascar


Malagasy house (Mini area)

  • Ring-tailed vontsira, This redness mammal is very unqiue and one of the few in the US
  • Fanaloka, This endangered fox-like animal is a member of Eupleridae (Fossa & vontsiras family)
  • Malagasy giant rats, A well unqiue rodent found in madagascar only
  • Falanouc (Might be impossible), A malagasy mammal that feed on ants and is weirdly part of the family
  • Fossa, Cat-like mammal native to Madagascar
  • Goodman's Mouse lemur, Smallest lemur of the family
  • Aye-Aye lemur, Last member of its family and very known for their appear and long fingers
  • Fat-tailed Dwarf Lemur, This animal hasn't been in other zoo in the US
Malagasy reptiles (Mini area)
  • Malagasy nile crocodiles, Different subspecies from mainland nile crocodile
  • Cameleons
  • Geckos
  • Any reptiles
 
Personally, I think rather than trying to make a big zoo Austin would do well to emulate something like is seen at Happy Hollow in San Jose CA. Something of a combo zoo and children's amusements. The animals outlined above are broadly fine, but leans a bit too much towards animals from Madagascar IMO.
 
SwampDonkey said:
Personally, I think rather than trying to make a big zoo Austin would do well to emulate something like is seen at Happy Hollow in San Jose CA. Something of a combo zoo and children's amusements. The animals outlined above are broadly fine, but leans a bit too much towards animals from Madagascar IMO.
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Most of the animals in this list based on captive population in the US or Europe, so It wouldn't be a struggle to have these until you talk about not having room enough for all of these, right?
 
Well, "room" is relative to the space acquired, so I wouldn't factor that too much into a fantasy zoo in Austin given the suburbs and exurbs have a lot of space still.
 
1. This belongs in the speculative zoo sub-forum, not the North America one.

2. Frankly, most of the species you've mentioned would be next-to-impossible, or at least extremely difficult and unrealistic, for a North American zoo to acquire. There's nothing wrong with having a few rare species, especially if you justify their inclusion with how they could be acquired and/or why you want to prioritize them from a conservation, education, or research perspective, however having a large number of super rare species isn't realistic for any zoo, unless you have the kind of budget that Dallas World Aquarium does. The following species in particular stand out to me as particularly difficult: Dhole, Sulawesi palm civet, Sulawesi bear cuscus, Sulawesi crested macaque (unfortunately :( ), crowned sifaka, fanalouc, and Goodman's mouse lemur.
 
Neil chace said:
1. This belongs in the speculative zoo sub-forum, not the North America one.

2. Frankly, most of the species you've mentioned would be next-to-impossible, or at least extremely difficult and unrealistic, for a North American zoo to acquire. There's nothing wrong with having a few rare species, especially if you justify their inclusion with how they could be acquired and/or why you want to prioritize them from a conservation, education, or research perspective, however having a large number of super rare species isn't realistic for any zoo, unless you have the kind of budget that Dallas World Aquarium does. The following species in particular stand out to me as particularly difficult: Dhole, Sulawesi palm civet, Sulawesi bear cuscus, Sulawesi crested macaque (unfortunately :( ), crowned sifaka, fabulous, and Goodman's mouse lemur.
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I personally wouldn't say all of these are impossible because zoos have these except for Sulawesi palm civet and falanouc which you have to capture in order for a breeding program
 
Evirapo said:
I personally wouldn't say all of these are impossible because zoos have these except for Sulawesi palm civet and falanouc which you have to capture in order for a breeding program
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I didn't say they were impossible, I said they were next-to-impossible or extremely difficult. Importing anything takes a lot of money and resources, and frankly I'm not sure why it'd be advisable for a new zoo to put a lot of money into importing rare species when there are plenty of other species, equally or better display animals, found in US zoos already and in need of more holders.
 
Neil chace said:
I didn't say they were impossible, I said they were next-to-impossible or extremely difficult. Importing anything takes a lot of money and resources, and frankly I'm not sure why it'd be advisable for a new zoo to put a lot of money into importing rare species when there are plenty of other species, equally or better display animals, found in US zoos already and in need of more holders.
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Oh, you seem right about importing rare species. I am sure my Sulawesi area idea seem not too much and kind of bad unlike my Madagascar area idea, right?
 
Evirapo said:
Oh, you seem right about importing rare species. I am sure my Sulawesi area idea seem not too much and kind of bad unlike my Madagascar area idea, right?
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Not to mention that over 6 zoos in NA also hold Sulawesi crested macaque
 
tigris115 said:
I'd say first, find a chunk of land that could host the zoo.

Then, see what size it is and base the animals around that
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Sadly, Austin is very known for being a small city. I cross my fingers as they finally find a large empty chunk to set anytime, hopefully
 
Evirapo said:
Sadly, Austin is very known for being a small city. I cross my fingers as they finally find a large empty chunk to set anytime, hopefully
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Look around Google Earth. Get the pro version on your desktop. Then highlight an area to see what kinda size the land is
 
Evirapo said:
I personally wouldn't say all of these are impossible because zoos have these except for Sulawesi palm civet and falanouc which you have to capture in order for a breeding program
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Yes zoos HAVE the species. That is not the issue. Sulawesi Bear Cuscus, for example, is housed solely at Memphis Zoo. A single individual, so there’s no breeding opportunity meaning getting one is next to impossible (I tried to use it in my spec zoo, to the same general response). Meanwhile, crowned sifaka is, afaik, not found anywhere in North America, according to the North American primates thread.

Just some insights from a ZooChatter who was equally eager to design a spec zoo but didn’t stick to the more realistic options :)
 
Van Beal said:
Yes zoos HAVE the species. That is not the issue. Sulawesi Bear Cuscus, for example, is housed solely at Memphis Zoo. A single individual, so there’s no breeding opportunity meaning getting one is next to impossible (I tried to use it in my spec zoo, to the same general response). Meanwhile, crowned sifaka is, afaik, not found anywhere in North America, according to the North American primates thread.

Just some insights from a ZooChatter who was equally eager to design a spec zoo but didn’t stick to the more realistic options :)
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That is why the zoo will have a breeding program for these
 
Van Beal said:
Yes zoos HAVE the species. That is not the issue. Sulawesi Bear Cuscus, for example, is housed solely at Memphis Zoo. A single individual, so there’s no breeding opportunity meaning getting one is next to impossible (I tried to use it in my spec zoo, to the same general response). Meanwhile, crowned sifaka is, afaik, not found anywhere in North America, according to the North American primates thread.

Just some insights from a ZooChatter who was equally eager to design a spec zoo but didn’t stick to the more realistic options :)
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Also, I don't understand why NA zoos get rare captive animals only not breed these, so they have long-time single individuals, and yet it annoys me every time I think about it
 
Evirapo said:
That is why the zoo will have a breeding program for these
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I do not find this exactly justifies the simple truth that these species are incredibly difficult to acquire.
Also, just another factoid, crowned sifakas, like diademed sifaka, are not housed in the AZA because of some kind of agreement with the EAZA (AZA houses Coquerel's, EAZA houses crowned and diademed, someone may correct me if this info is wrong).
I am, again, just relaying the information I received when I tried to justify my inclusion of the Sulawesi Bear Cuscus in my initial spec zoo design.
 
Evirapo said:
That is why the zoo will have a breeding program for these
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Van Beal said:
I do not find this exactly justifies the simple truth that these species are incredibly difficult to acquire.
Also, just another factoid, crowned sifakas, like diademed sifaka, are not housed in the AZA because of some kind of agreement with the EAZA (AZA houses Coquerel's, EAZA houses crowned and diademed, someone may correct me if this info is wrong).
I am, again, just relaying the information I received when I tried to justify my inclusion of the Sulawesi Bear Cuscus in my initial spec zoo design.
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And while there's nothing wrong with having some rare species proposed in a speculative zoo, and there's even nothing wrong with choosing a species no one else in the country has, it simply takes a lot more justification to explain why you are housing this particular species than it would a common species. Just saying "we'll have a breeding group" isn't really justifying having a certain species.

For example, if I was doing a speculative zoo in the United States and I wanted to exhibit Geoffroy's marmoset, that wouldn't take much of a justification. Geoffroy's marmosets are an SSP species that a number of zoos keep and breed, and would be relatively simple to acquire that particular species. However, if instead of wanting to exhibit Geoffroy's marmosets, I proposed silvery marmosets, that is a species not kept in any US zoos at the moment so would take a lot more justification and an explanation as to how and why I am proposing that species. For example, I could explain that it is a species with a large EAZA population so it'd be possible to import captive-bred individuals from Europe, and to justify it by saying no species in the genus Mico can be found in US zoos, meaning there isn't another species in US zoos to fill the same educational messaging and explain why this species is absolutely necessary for the theming of a particular area I am planning.

I'm working on a speculative zoo project right now (not sure if I'll post it yet or not), and there is a very small number of species I am proposing that either aren't kept in US zoos (such as the silvery marmoset) or are kept in very small numbers, but each of the species has an explanation as to how I foresee acquiring this species and why, from a conservation or education perspective, I think this species would be essential.
 
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