I wonder, in hindsight, if it might've been a better idea for Auckland Zoo to build a tropical dome based around South American rather than Southeast Asian fauna. This isn't intended as a knock on their current tropical dome - I haven't had the chance to visit it yet myself, but I've only heard good things about it. However, the rest of their Southeast Asian precinct holds up quite well on its own, so maybe it would've been a good idea to build the dome for South America instead to flesh out that precinct. Plus, since Jaguars can't be imported into Australasia and other species of South American megafauna like tapir would be quite difficult to obtain, perhaps it would've been a better idea to have a South American precinct focused on smaller tropical animals like reptiles, fish and inverts. Since it couldn't compete with the Asian and African precincts on megafauna, why not try something else entirely?
Looking over what South American species would be available for a tropical dome, I think you could do something quite similar to the exisiting dome: aquaria full of Amazonian fish species and a crocodilian (perhaps indoor facilities for the alligators), and if you wanted to go beyond that you could house the tarantulas in their own terraria, perhaps alongside couple of reptiles like Green Iguana or Plumed Basilisk, and have various kinds of South American butterflies fluttering through the air - the latter would be a good substitute for the birds that sadly can't be imported. A number of South American mammals would make for good occupants too - agoutis, tamarins, marmosets, squirrel monkeys or any combination thereof are already in the country, and Auckland Zoo applied for White-Faced Saki to be added to the Live Import list a few years ago. I imagine the dome would have to be partitioned into a couple of different sections to safely accomodate all these species without conflict, perhaps ending up as more of a tropical hall, but the end result could be spectacular! A slice of the Amazon in the middle of New Zealand.
Of course, there would be difficulties with a South American dome too. No South American turtle species can be imported into NZ at the present time, and while a couple of tortoise species from the region are on the Live Import list - red-footed and yellow-footed tortoises would be particularly good additions - they have no valid IHS, and Auckland Zoo's had a great deal of trouble getting an IHS for Southeast Asian testudines, likely due to fears of feral populations being established in Auckland waterways. I don't live in Auckland, but I understand the council up there has been having trouble with red-eared sliders. Ironically, sliders or a couple of other North American turtle species could be used as substitutes. The resulting dome would technically be neotropical rather than strictly South American, but Auckland Zoo might not mind that, as they already have alligators in that precinct.
Additionally, Butterfly Creek might resent Auckland Zoo having butterflies on display, so it might be wiser for Auckland to restrict themselves to fish and crocodilians like in their current tropical dome.
Some of the more exotic South American fish species would be great additions, but the only such animals held in the country recently were piranha, and there don't seem to be any left. They don't have any valid IHS, and as we've recently discussed on this board they may well have been soft-banned from the country.
Ultimately all this is just fantasy - I highly doubt any zoo would go to the trouble of building two tropical domes even if they could afford it. I'm just wondering if this might have been a better policy decision ten years ago. Ah well, too late now.
