boring australians?

[MRJ]

IIRC, you wanted to create a walk-thru habitat for your gliders?

Many Australian animals are nocturnal, so it makes sense to have night tours, but it is not always easy to convince people to head out into the woods at night. When Night Safari Singapore first opened in 90s, almost 70-80% of its visitors were tourists as locals didn't appreciate the idea of seeing animals at night. Only in recent years has the ratio of local vs foreign visitors evened-out a bit.

Yes we do want a walk-through, more so since seeing flying squirrels at Singapore Night Safari next year. I've got a couple of ideas, but it is a big commitment for us.

We do take private tours in with squirrel gliders, a great experience, but too difficult for general tours currently.

 

[MRJ]

It seems kinda strange to discuss in terms of boring backyard animals. You Aussies (and Kiwis) really do have a treasure trove on your hands with regards to local native species.

It seems some ARAZPA zoos do take the issue quite seriously, but then so much is behind the scenes too, like bilbies, Tassie devils. It seems sad that way.

How come that some Aussies regard it in a way "well, I get that in my backyard" seems uneducated at best. But hell, I cannot be the judge of that ... seems more something for you locals to comment on.

Is there an issue with PR or media in all this (too much focus on rhinos, giraffe ... the exotic over the local very rare species) ...????

Travelling in Europe I can not remember seeing many native European animals in zoos either In fact the number of Aussie zoos devoted to Aussie animals may exceed the number of European zoos devoted to European animals, and certainly far exceed on a per capita basis.

The "backyard" comment applies to our smaller, cat-sized, climbing animals. Most people see possums regularly, and have difficulty imagining that things like quolls and gliders can be much different. The marketing problems would be similar to trying to sell civets and bushbabies as your primary attractions.

Few zoos would keep devils and bilbys off limits without good reason. Both these species do have a high profile in the general community, devils for a long time and bilbys following the "Easter Bilby" promotions.

 

[Kifaru Bwana]

Travelling in Europe I can not remember seeing many native European animals in zoos either In fact the number of Aussie zoos devoted to Aussie animals may exceed the number of European zoos devoted to European animals, and certainly far exceed on a per capita basis.

The "backyard" comment applies to our smaller, cat-sized, climbing animals. Most people see possums regularly, and have difficulty imagining that things like quolls and gliders can be much different. The marketing problems would be similar to trying to sell civets and bushbabies as your primary attractions.

MRJ,

Undeservedly so, I agree ... native European animals do get a raw deal in most EU zoos too (notable exceptions are Germany and Czech Republic). It migh seem a bit universal blase attitude ... not to be interested in the LBJs .. So, I guess ... well we already have a thread for European native species in EU zoos where this has been discussed.

Marketing-wise, .... well if they do not come to you ... you have to bring it practically to their doorstep, I suppose. It really is PR/media attention for the LBJs.

In the Netherlands, we have a great org called VCN who basically champion the small and beautiful, having developped from an erstwhile badger/marten rescue service into an organisation for "cultured" landscapes and thus protecting the dormice, wood marten, European hamster, badger, wild cat .... et cetera.

 

[brad09]

hi all
i think the problem with people and aussie native animals is that the majority look similar and are of similar size. So people are not really intrested in seeing animals that look like possums or any other regular animals that they see in there back yards. People only want to see animals that attract ther intrest at zoos (even though alot of our native animals are really cool animals), i think that when people go to zoos they want to see native animals that they havent seen instead of another koala or emu they want to see things that are more unusual.
like when i go to somewere like taronga zoo i usually look at the platypus and nocturnal aussie animals, and i like koalas but i avoid them when i go to zoos course i have seen so many in the wild,and i think alot of other people do this with natives they see alot.