Irish zoos - few and far between

S

Shirokuma

Well-Known Member
Reading the thread about zoos in the UK, I started to think about Ireland.

Ireland isn't a huge country but two 'proper' zoos and very few smaller establishments (none of which are regular zoos) plus a mixed facility like Tayto Park is still a very small number. If we think of the island of Ireland then you still only get three proper zoos.

Yes the population is relatively small - but not much smaller than Denmark for example - and slanted towards Dublin (and Denmark's is slanted towards Copenhagen) and the surrounding area but I'd have thought that the tourist industry as well as local population could sustain a small to medium sized zoo (maybe like Newquay or so) in somewhere like Galway.

Does anyone think that Ireland could sustain another zoo or two?

And does anyone know of any attempts to come up with somewhere?
 
Irish zoos....

Isn't there a lot of privately owned big cats in the Republic?
 
There isn't an equivalent of the UK's Dangerous Wild Animal act so it wouldn't surprise me. I've heard of lots of dangerous snakes and other reptiles knocking about.
 
I suppose that Fota is Cork's zoo. (London) Derry * has a population of just under 100,000, as does Limerick. Enough for a zoo to be self-sustaining, in the likely absence of state aid?

* Please don't ask. We could be here all month, if not longer....:(
 
Shirokuma said:
Yes the population is relatively small - but not much smaller than Denmark for example - and slanted towards Dublin (and Denmark's is slanted towards Copenhagen) and the surrounding area but I'd have thought that the tourist industry as well as local population could sustain a small to medium sized zoo (maybe like Newquay or so) in somewhere like Galway.
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Maybe part of the difference is that Denmark's zoos are easily accessible by a large part of continental Northern Europe -only a drive is required, as compared to the more expensive & logistically trickier business of getting to Ireland which involves a ferry or plane (or endurance swim:D).
 
To compare Ireland with New Zealand, which has a very similar population size to Ireland (the Republic), a distribution similarly skewed towards a major city, (Auckland has ~1.3 million), although there are more large centres of population than Ireland (based on what Wikipedia says). Ireland covers an area roughly a quarter the size of NZ. But NZ apparently has loads more zoos - 4 major zoos, a couple of aquariums, and a large number of smaller zoos, wildlife parks and bird collections. These are largely supported by domestic visitors, except for a few that are geared more towards tourists.

It does then, to me, seem like Ireland could support more zoos. Perhaps its more a historical artefact, with zoos being rare in the past, and certain factors preventing the widespread establishment of zoos and wildlife parks seen in the UK during the middle part of the 20th Century?
 
zooboy28 said:
To compare Ireland with New Zealand, which has a very similar population size to Ireland (the Republic), a distribution similarly skewed towards a major city, (Auckland has ~1.3 million), although there are more large centres of population than Ireland (based on what Wikipedia says). Ireland covers an area roughly a quarter the size of NZ. But NZ apparently has loads more zoos - 4 major zoos, a couple of aquariums, and a large number of smaller zoos, wildlife parks and bird collections. These are largely supported by domestic visitors, except for a few that are geared more towards tourists.

It does then, to me, seem like Ireland could support more zoos. Perhaps its more a historical artefact, with zoos being rare in the past, and certain factors preventing the widespread establishment of zoos and wildlife parks seen in the UK during the middle part of the 20th Century?
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maybe the bolded part has something to do with it. The place is so small that the few zoos there suffice.
 
there are a number of other smaller wildlife parks around the country as well, dingle aquarium, fenit aquarium (possibly closed now, not sure) and coolwood wildlife park in killarney, are all located in kerry, i'm sure there are plenty of other smaller places like this around the place with aviaries, primates, and other small animals on display.

also, having dealt with npws on animal import myself, i think that anyone who tried to get a zoo licence may face an uphill battle.
 
Maybe there aren't many zoos I'm Ireland is because there aren't many zoos in Ireland. What I mean is that I grew up being taken to the zoo and maybe that's why I love zoos. I often wonder whether I'd like football if I'd been taken to it growing up, it's not always the case but perhaps more zoos would generate more interest in them.
 
imo the place most in need of a zoo would be along the west coast, somewhere like limerick, ennis or galway could work.
 
There are so many small places around the country. I think that they are very bad at advertising and social media. Most dont even have websites!

Belfast zoo is one of the big four (Dublin, Fota & Tayto) however it is really struggling by all accounts. I think visitor numbers are very low compared to the others and it is getting run down.

Tayto and Dublin zoo on the other hand are thriving.

There are a few struggling collections too. Portaferry aquarium for example is on the verge of closure.

Perhaps the Irish public prefer to support the big reputable zoos rather than the privately own places?
 
I personally think Ireland could substain 2 more zoos one in the west and one in the south east the two biggest tourist hubs in the country
 
ireland is going to get a pile of new zoos (in theory anyway) as npws are about to start enforcing a rule that requires 'collections of animals in facilities closed to the public, but which are exhibited to the public in an area external to the facility (e.g. animal encounters, hawk walks etc)' to be licenced the same as a zoo. I can assume that many of these people haven't opened to the public as they didn't want the hassle of a licence, but now they'll have to get one anyway they may decide to open a zoo anyway.
 
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