The funding is secure - the zoo builds a new predator facility
With donations totalling 18 million kr. (2.42 million €) from The Obel Family Foundation, Villum Foundation and the Augustinus Foundation - supplemented by a contribution of 2 million kr. (270.000 €) from Aalborg County and contributions from the Aalborg Zoo sponsor club at 2 million kr. (270.000 €) - the funding is secure and Aalborg Zoo can go ahead with its next major construction project.
We have long wanted to replace our now outdated predator exhibits with an entirely different complex that will be ground breaking in terms of both animal welfare and enrichment, the visitors' experiences and design. With 100% financing in place we can now begin to create what I would not hesitate to describe as the most modern and well as biologically and architecturally interesting predator facility in Denmark, said the zoo's chairman of the board Arne B. Schade.
The new facility will consist of two very large exhibits, one for the tigers and one for the lions. Both species have a huge increase in space compared to their current area as the tigers get twice as much space as now, while the lions will have an even larger area to roam. Meanwhile the indoor visitor area will be tripled in size.
With the new exhibit we will break sharply with the traditional rectangular style, as the exhibit's outer profile will be made of staggered fences, curves and angles. The outer fence is a mixture of tall treetrunks of polished Robinia, steel fences, artificial rocks and glass viewings - and in the future, the audience will experience the animals in three dimensions: underground, ground and high above the exhibit. You will be able to walk along winding jungle trails around the plant through an underground tunnel down at eye level with the tigers and move up in the treetops, where walkways lead to the towers located inside the animal facility, says zoologist Per Christiansen.
The tiger exhibit will be planted with large trees and undergrowth, which simulate the forest areas where you normally find the animals, but there are also large open areas along lakes and streams. The lion exhibit becomes more open with lower plants and few large trees, so it resembles the open areas lions naturally move in.
The new facility enhances our capabilities as a research and education institution, which is a very important element in zoo work. We will also have the opportunity to engage in very important and exciting breeding programes with lions and tigers. It is linked to that we will change the familiar African lions out with highly endangered Asiatic lions, while the equally well-known Siberian tigers will be replaced with Sumatran tigers, which also are critically endangered in the wild. We will thus be able to use our new tigers and lions to actual conservation and restoration of endangered natural stocks, says Per Christiansen.
Zoo director Henrik Johansen expect a visit increased by just under 10% in the first two to four years, which corresponds to 35-40000 extra visitors a year:
From our experience we estimate that about one in five of these visitors will come from outside the North, which will have a positive impact not only in zoos economy, but also significantly on the general tourism revenues in the area.
Initial work with the new predator works are already underway and immediately after the high season's end begins the actual construction. It is planned that animals and humans could take the plant for use in connection on Easter 2012.
They will be some of the first new imports to enter Europe since the early 1990's due to the fact their parents originated from one of the Indian zoo's