@Zorro That makes sense about Monarto's idea in the 1990s with African Elephants, also considering Monarto's big African-centric theme over all its history (with endangered Australian mammals and birds too couldn't finish the sentence without acknowledging lol), remember when learning of the African Elephant culling in parts of Africa thinking was surprises that at the very least European and North American zoos didn't intervene with taking in the Elephants marked for culling (especially with the numerous programs to watch in the '90s highlighting the horror of what ivory poachers committed, does anyone else remember watching 'Widget the World Watcher' growing up lol?). But obviously with the 'lay of the land' with our zoos now it's balancing a future commitment to Asian Eles' so would be good if Monarto could come on board. Thanks heaps for the insight into what Monarto was thinking of pursuing back then.
@Jambo Yes the funding from the (SA in their case) state government definitely gives Monarto an advantage over Altina. But Altina has done exceedingly well with its super impressive animal collection despite being a private zoo. The NSW state government would be wise to give Altina one of those big dollars donations it sometimes gives to private enterprises to help 'bolster/foster its development' as they sometimes say it (though sadly the only private enterprises that ever seem to get donated to by the NSW state governments tend to be some of the politicians greedy 'fat-cat' mates, but I'll leave it at that). Jtbc do know Monarto like Adelaide Zoo is owned by the RZSOSA so is technically a private zoo too, but obviously receive a lot of money from the SA state government (probably not as much as they deserve though imo).
@Zoofan15 I totally agree with you that Monarto would be wise to go with housing a small female here over a surplus bull bachelor herd; given Monarto would have the most space to offer and as Swanson02 found out wand to try go with 3-4 Elephants initially, and we need a guaranteed home for Permai and (poor repeatedly rejected) Burma it would be a superbly worthwhile gesture by Monarto (also could see some other zoos in our region being more open to holding a small male bachelor 'herd' but much less likely to consider a slightly larger-but-still-on-the-small-side matriarchal herd for the spatial reasons we all know so well are a pre-requisite). Would be great if Monarto could work out an arrangement with Australia Zoo & Sydney Zoo..hope to be proven very very wrong but get the sense those two zoos are probably the most difficult non-government zoos to enter into an arrangement with, again hope am wrong with that suggestion, just a bit of a sense about them. Possibly Mogo in the difficult to team-up with department too, except for example they worked with Taronga in regards to co-operation trade with Snow Leopards (though I guess Taronga had helped them in their setup days with giving Mogo their Pumas for example, and then receiving WL Gorillas from Taronga in 2013 was a major win-win for Mogo).
@Swanson02 poor Samorn )-: , can imagine that tragedy probably only further stalled Monarto's managerial debate about whether to obtain (other) Elephants as Samorn's accidental moat fall death would of set a bad precedent.
