How to start your own zoo?

nanoboy

nanoboy

Well-Known Member
Hi guys,

Like so many of us here (I assume), I dream of winning the lottery or becoming a dot com billionaire, and using the money to open a wildlife park.

But how exactly does one start their own zoo from scratch?

In Victoria (or Australia) what sort of permits would I need? Do I need prior experience with animals to get the permits? Who do I get the permits from? How exactly do I get local and exotic animals to my zoo? And what about the other things I would need that I can't even begin to think about? etc etc

Oh so many questions!

Any suggestions on how one would proceed? (I won $43 in the lottery earlier this week, so I'm feeling lucky about winning the big one! :D)

Cheers guys!
 
Quickest way: buy one.

Starting from scratch in Victoria, it is easy, all you need is planning permission and a licence from DSE. However, from personal experience:

Planning permission took us 3 years. Of course you will have to find an area where what you plan is an allowed usage. It is getting harder to find sutably zoned land in many areas that you might want to set up in.

Then you will have to deal with DSE (no damage to the environment), EPA (waste water disposal) and Vicroads (traffic issues). Things will happen like, when we wanted to build our wetland it was classified as a dam, when we discussed our sewage system it became a wetland again. Yes each classification resulted in more servere requirements against classification the other way round. We missed out on this, but today we would have had to have the property surveyed by the local aboriginals for cultural relics. And if you plan to dig more than 300mm into the ground they will want to hang around to make sure you don't dig up anything significant. I am sure there are others I have forgotten. All of the above you pay for of course.

Council will advertise your application. This may result in objections, in our case only two, and their attempts to get others to support their objection was rejected by our other neighbours. But if you want exotics I imagine you might have an entirely different experience. As I said it took us 3 years (they did change the planning scheme halfway through) and we did have broad support form the Council and the local community.

Once you have planning permission you can build your zoo. DSE have a number of requirements for issuing a licence, the most servere is that they must inspect the enclosures before they issue the licence. (Interestingly they don't ask for any evidence of your knowedge of animal husbandry). We were lucky in that many of the animals we wanted we could hold on private licences anyway. Different story for exotics, so I imagine you would have to have somebody with an appropiate licence hold your animals until you get a licence. Could be difficult.

Getting animals is largely a process of building relationships with the people and institutions who already hold them. There are dealers overseas who you can buy exotics off, but importing is a long-winded and expensive process.

Lastly some financial advice. Make sure you marketing budget is at least 3 times what you think is reasonable, and don't expect to make a profit for at least 5 years.

Hope that helps.
 
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MRJ summed it up pretty well.

I would only add that, when you do your costings, whatever the figure comes to - double it. Not your projected income, your costs. Then see if the project still looks viable.

Ask yourself, why do I want to do this? If the answer is - to make money, forget it. I can't speak for MRJ but I do know that we will never be driving a Rolls-Royce!

You will need to be able to sustain yourself and your animals for at least the five years that MRJ indicated. So you will possibly need an outside job while your wife looks after them, or vice versa.

Once you've established your park, be prepared to have to share it with every ******** within travelling distance of it. People who think it is their right to tease your animals to make them "do something" because they've paid their money to come in. People who are sure that those stand off barriers were not put there for them. People who will want to feed your animals pies, sausage rolls and soft drinks because "they look hungry". People who have a pet cat at home so they know more than you do about looking after lions. You will come to look forward to closing time each day with a passion that you did not previously know that you possessed!

So why do we do this? Because of those lovely hours alone with your animals before opening time and after closing time. Because of all those little milestones that you share with your animals - like our first ever African Grey egg this week. Because, when all is said and done, you CAN make a difference.

If you truly and dispassionately decide that this is what you have been put into the world to do, go for it. All true animal people will help as much as they can.

Be aware though, there are at least four people on this forum in Australia alone who have the same aspirations as you!! Good luck.
 
Hi Guys,

Thanks for the detailed responses. To the other forumites, please keep the posts coming!

I'll respond to both you guys collectively if you don't mind.

So from what I understand, setting up a zoo will take far more time and money than than one would expect possibly by a factor of 2 or 3. There seems to be a fair bit of red tape involved with getting the right permits but that is expected I suppose.

Regarding the profits, see my first post about winning the lotto or developing the next Facebook! :) If I become that wealthy, then making a profit from the zoo is the least of my concern.

This leads me to a philosophical question Steve asked: why do I want to do this. My wife tells me that if I open a zoo, I will close it to the public the next day for all the cons that Steve listed (patrons teasing the animals etc), as I would not want there to be any risk of ********s harming them. I suppose she has a point, as Steve quite rightly pointed out: I want that quiet time with my animals. I want to be able to care for, and interact with those animals that for all my life I have had to view through wire mesh or perspex.

So maybe what I want is really a private menagerie! Or maybe I am naive enough to think that I can "make a difference" and change people's attitudes to wildlife. I think it is a combination of both really, plus the desire to become a specialised breeder of a particular endangered animal (not sure exactly which yet). So let's call it 33% each then.

I think that there are far more than 4 Aussie forumites who harbour desires of opening their own zoo. The more the merrier I think!

Question for the zoo owners: do you ever get to go on vacation? My wife (the voice of reason) tells me that if we open a zoo, we will not be able to go on vacation and that I would not want to leave the animals to be tended to without me around.

Question 2: Would I have to go the same route of permits etc if I wanted to open a private menagerie that was not open to the public, and was involved in maybe breeding for sale and/or for conservation (like PRIAM, say)?
 
Listen to the "voice of reason"!

#1 If you are anything like us you will truly think that nobody looks after your animals as well as you do. And you will be right! If this is going to happen for you, both you and your wife will have to be singing from the same songbook. If you own a zoo or park, vacations will not figure in your thinking a great deal.

#2 You will not get permission to operate a private menagerie with exotic mammals or reptiles. End of story.

A "fair bit of red tape"? You ain't seen nothing yet!
 
It sounds to me, Nanoboy, like you would probably get equal enjoyment from maintaining a decent sized collection of native and (for ungulates and birds) exotic species that you can keep as pets and (hopefully) breed for a bit of extra income.

The benefits to this are that you don't have to go through the lengthy and expensive process MRJ outlined, nor do you have to deal with the problems that Steve has described. As for holidays - that's always a difficulty with keeping animals, whether as a private keeper or a zoo-owner. There are potential ways around this for both situations, but at least in the latter case this is dependent on you having a business model that allows you to hire sufficient keepers, and probably a general manager, who can make your presence at the zoo less essential. Not a situation that I imagine either Moonlit or Darling Downs would be at (yet).

With the private keeper scenario, it's less straightforward. Depending on your financial capabilities, you might be able to hire keepers for short-term work. For example, if you had a collection that required, say, 2 hours of maintenance a day, you might be able to advertise at the nearest wildlife park or zoo for keepers who want to earn a little extra money. A less expensive, but probably more difficult approach, would be to try to form relationships with other animal keepers where you could care for each other's collections on a reciprocal basis (this *does* mean that you would need to return the favour when the other person wants to go away, but would be very good if you could find a trustworthy person).

Perhaps it's advisable to try maintaining a reasonably sizable collection (I'm talking 50+ animals, from a variety of different species and even classes of animal) to see if it's for you, before jumping into making it your primary job.
 
Also, take up Zen Buddhism or some such faith that will teach you inner peace and serenity, otherwise you will go screamingly insane having to deal with the red tape at all levels of government in this so-called free country we live in!

Alternatively, make LOTS of money and go set up your zoo in some third world country where it will be easier to do.
 
Thanks for the comments guys.

CGSwans, I like your suggestion of having a decent sized private collection to start off with. If even I went with just native and exotic parrots (for example, cockatoos and macaws), then the collection would become quite large. I like the idea of paying for some extra assistance (a manager and or some keepers) in the "I won a couple million in the lotto" scenario.

Regarding opening a zoo in a third world country...... well I have visited a few zoos in developing countries, and the attitudes of local patrons to the animals would mean that I would have more security on staff (to eject people) than keepers!
 
I've seen some magnificent private collections, especially of birds, that would be be the equal of many zoo collections. On the other hand if you want to do something serious for science or conservation it is often better to concentrate on one or two taxa. There have been some notable contributions in both areas by private individuals.

Steve Robinson said:
I can't speak for MRJ but I do know that we will never be driving a Rolls-Royce!
Click to expand...

Can't say buying a Rolls-Royce is on the list of objectives I have for Moonlit. However I do know that John Knowles, founder of Marwell Zoo in the south of England, sold his Rolls-Royce to finance a herd of zebras. Ample evidence the best way to make a small fortune in zoos is to start with a large one!
 
I have a question somewhat related to this topic. If you own two different non-govt zoo's, is it easy or difficult to move animals between the two facilities?

Likewise, if you had one zoo in Australia, and say, one in South America, would it be hard (if the imported animals are allowed in Australia) to import into the country?

Lastly, how difficult is it to import straws of semen for exotic animals where AI is available to use? I'm assuming that big cats are unable to do AI with, as is the case in domestic cats (I breed pedigree British Shorthairs).
 
FriendOfTheZoo said:
I have a question somewhat related to this topic. If you own two different non-govt zoo's, is it easy or difficult to move animals between the two facilities?

Likewise, if you had one zoo in Australia, and say, one in South America, would it be hard (if the imported animals are allowed in Australia) to import into the country?

Lastly, how difficult is it to import straws of semen for exotic animals where AI is available to use? I'm assuming that big cats are unable to do AI with, as is the case in domestic cats (I breed pedigree British Shorthairs).
Click to expand...

#1 Just the same.

#2 Just the same.

It makes no difference whether you own the other zoo or not.

#3 We last looked at this a few years ago when Dr David Blyde was still at TWPZ. In those days we wanted to try AI with generic tigers. The technology wasn't available then for big cats but may be now. Elephant semen has been imported in the past and possibly other species as well.

Are you saying that you can or you can't use AI with your British Shorthairs?
 
You can not do AI with any domestic cat because of the fact that the penis with its hooks is what actually causes the eggs to be released.

Unless they create some sort of artificial domestic cat penis machine to stimulate the egg release in the females, whilst at the same time inserting semen into the female queen, it's un-doable.

Then you'd have to work out how to collect the semen in the first place. :D
 
Steve Robinson said:
#1 Just the same.

#2 Just the same.

It makes no difference whether you own the other zoo or not.

#3 We last looked at this a few years ago when Dr David Blyde was still at TWPZ. In those days we wanted to try AI with generic tigers. The technology wasn't available then for big cats but may be now. Elephant semen has been imported in the past and possibly other species as well.

Are you saying that you can or you can't use AI with your British Shorthairs?
Click to expand...

The Germans are doing great work, each year they cone back they being new contrptions. We could have new wild bloodlines for ungulates without needing to move animals in the future, I'd imagine at least five years away.
 
Is it the same situation in big cats? I've never thought to research to see if it was the same in all felines of different sizes.

A total shame really, as there are so many cats throughout the world I'd love to use in my breeding program, but can't without importing. Dog breeders have it easy! :cool:

So AI can be done in successfully in eles - anyone know if it can it be done in animals like buffalo, przewalski horse etc like can be done in domesticated cattle/horse breeds?

Am I safe to assume that it should be an easy process (for a Veterinary AI specialist) to do in Gorillas/Chimps/Orangs?
 
Going back to the original conversation thread (and aimed at MRJ and Steve), I was wondering do you need a specific licence regarding exotics over natives? Is it easier to display commonly available species and domestics, or does the DSE regulations apply equally because it is still a 'zoo'? Do the regulations differ remarkably between the states?

Sorry for the barrage of questions but I am not familiar with the minute details regarding owning & running a collection in Australia, but it would be interesting to compare with the situation in the UK. Obviously there are certain species that can be kept without licences, those that can be kept with a DWA licence (basically dangerous and big species) and a different licence if you are open to the public (ie. a zoo).
 
Another question regarding keeping animals in a private collection: can you give me an idea of what I can keep privately?

There are a few macaws that you can keep as pets, and based on my local reptile shop, there are quite a few types of snakes, turtles and frogs I can keep, as well as a raft of local birds.

But what about things like kangaroos and wallabies and wombats? Or sugar gliders and possums and quolls? Or what about foxes and dingos? etc etc

Cheers. (I am just trying to build up a mental picture of the animals that I could potentially keep in a private collection.)
 
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