Hello, and welcome to my first speculative zoo project. The Las Vegas Zoo, possibly located near Henderson, mainly focuses on wildlife found in deserts, arid regions, and xeric regions. This zoo also reflects Las Vegas as “the City that Never Sleeps” as it’s a 24-hour zoo (with 2 short hours of transition/cleaning/etc. between the night and day hours). I tried to make the Las Vegas Zoo as realistic as possible, taking in mind the water crisis, pricing, the climate, etc.. Please feel free to comment on any feedback, suggested changes, implausible things, etc. Let’s get started.
The sectors in this zoo include; Africa Zone, American Zone, Aquatic Building, Asian Zone, Australia Zone, and the Las Vegas Zone
When you walk past the main entrance, security checkpoints, ticket booths, and gift shops. There is a three-way fork in the road. If you go down the left path, you will walk through the American Zone. If you go down the middle path, you will walk through the Las Vegas Zone. If you go down the right path, you will walk through the Africa Zone. All of these paths lead to each other several times. Which one should I explain first?
I forgot to mention that there is an enclosure in the centre of the large pathway before the three-way fork. It’s netted over, 3 m long, 1.8 m wide, and 2.4 m tall. The enclosure houses a breeding pair of free-flight
1.1 African Grey Parrot (Psittacus erithacus). This enclosure is sponsored by Planet Hollywood, and is open for a majority of the year unless there is extreme temperatures. During nighttime, a cloth/tarp covers it up. African Grey Parrots have frequently appeared in movies, and are known to repeat phrases/words frequently heard.
Side Note: All animals are viewable at night unless said otherwise.
Now, let me explain the Las Vegas Zone. You first walk down the middle path in the three-way fork. The first exhibit you go through is Caesar’s Menagerie, sponsored by Caesar’s Palace.
There is an outdoor aviary walkthrough on the left of the path that you can go through first and leads back to this path. In case of the avian flu, the fencing and netting is viewable enough to look at the birds. This aviary is 9 m long, 5.25 m wide, and 4 m tall. The inhabitants are
1.4 Indian Peafowl (Pavo cristatus) and
2.3 Indian Rose-Ringed Parakeet (Psittacula krameri manillensis). The aviary is closed at night time. These birds are some of the birds that the Romans imported from India. The next enclosure as you walk down the winding path (similar to Stone Zoos’ Treasures of Sierra Madre) is 6000 sq. m large with 1.8 m high fencing and 0.5 m deep barriers. This enclosure houses
0.4 Central European Boar (Sus scrofa scrofa). Wild boars were common in Rome, and venationes (animal hunts/fights in the Colosseum). As you continue walking down the path, on your left is a building facing the path. You can’t go in the building which is used as an indoor animal holding centre for the Las Vegas Zone but there is an enclosure viewable from the outside via clear heavily-reinforced barriers. This enclosure is 812.5 sq. m large, and is 3.3 m tall. The enclosure is home to
1.0 Pygmy Hippopotamus (Choeropsis liberiensis) which serve as a less expensive proxy for Hippopotamus which were part of Julius Caesar’s menagerie, and occasional venationes. The final enclosure in Caesar’s Menagerie is a little more down the path on the right. It’s netted, 7.5 m long, 3.75 m wide, 3.75 m tall, and is not viewable during nighttime. This enclosure has
0.1 European Golden Eagle (Aquila chrysaetos chrysaetos) which were revered in Ancient Rome, and were of their main symbols.
Now, as you walk down the pathway, it doubles in width. To the left of you, there is an expansive aviary. To the right of you, there are two buildings, and several outdoor enclosures.
The aviary on your left is 15 m long, 9 m wide, 5.25 m tall, and is netted which allows all of the birds to not be pinioned. The inhabitants of this enclosure are a siege
of 2.3 Black-Crowned Night Heron (Nycticorax nycticorax nycticorax), a flamboyance of
10.10 Greater Flamingo (Phoenicopterus roseus), and a skewer
of 2.4 Little Egret (Egretta gularis gularis). This aviary is sponsored by The Flamingo.
On the right side of the pathway, the first building is called The City of Lights and is sponsored by Paris. There are multiple aquariums in the building housing bioluminescent animals. Several of these aquariums are home to
Dinoflagellates (Dinoflagellata). Another enclosure is a 45-gallon Kreisel tank housing a smack of
0.0.8 Crystal Jelly (Aequorea victoria). There is also another Kreisel tank, this time, 125 gallons which is home to a smack of
0.0.20 Moon Jelly (Aurelia aurita). The final enclosure is a 87.5 gallon tank with
0.0.10 Splitfin Flashlight Fish (Anomalops katoptron).
I will continue with the final exhibit of the Las Vegas Zone, Las Vegas Citylife, tomorrow.
What do you think so far? Feedback is appreciated.
