Dinosaur "Exhibits"

T

tschandler71

Well-Known Member
10+ year member
What is the point of these traveling exhibits of statues? I mean at least 15 years ago they had traveling exhibits of animatronic dinosaurs so it seems a little pointless.

I get the money making zoo ponzi scheme reason but I am curious the intellectual justification for them?
 
I totally agree with you. pointless. zoos are focusing on kids and moms more than your average zoochatter who likes zoo.
 
I just grew up in the wrong era. I wish I saw zoos back in the day. I heard the collections back then were awesome. I know gerenuk but when zoos add 4D theaters and kid rides then to me there leaning towards a certain crowd.I heard san diego zoo was putting in some kinda ride called Angry Birds. when I heard this I was like wowwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww!!!!!!!! with big eyes 8D
 
A zoo displays living animals it seems like they are cheapening the meaning of zoos to do things like this when they are consolidating animals species.
 
The reality is that dinosaur statues will most likely bring in more visitors than that fourth lemur species or whatever, and they don't incur any feed, keeping or vet bills.

Things like dinosaurs, rides etc subsidise the live exhibits, in a lot of cases. Species diversity is no longer economic when many zoo visitors expect $10m+ exhibits for everything.
 
I remember seeing an animatronic dinosaur display in the Minnesota Zoo's Tropics Trail in 1990, so the concept isn't new. Although I certainly liked dinosaurs as a little kid, the display seemed a big out of place. It was a bunch of animatronic dinosaurs all over the exhibit.

I can see adding rides and Imax theaters and things like that, but I would much rather see the money go toward better animals displays (and more hoofstock! ;) )
 
Amen Elefante on the hoofstock thing. I have almost completely convinced my father to convert some of our acreage to exotic hoofstock. Its problematic because of Alabama state laws to protect the whitetail deer herd. The law is vague but anything that could be considered Deer (Cervidae) is illegal to import into Alabama and sometimes the wildlife officials bend the rules even more rigidly to include things like Kudu.
 
tschandler71 said:
Amen Elefante on the hoofstock thing. I have almost completely convinced my father to convert some of our acreage to exotic hoofstock. Its problematic because of Alabama state laws to protect the whitetail deer herd. The law is vague but anything that could be considered Deer (Cervidae) is illegal to import into Alabama and sometimes the wildlife officials bend the rules even more rigidly to include things like Kudu.
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I've heard that kudu weren't imported into New Mexico because they could carry some disease that would affect cattle. That's why the fish and game imported gemsbok instead to the White Sands Missile Range. So maybe kudu are more strictly controlled. I'd look into something like addax, blackbuck, or scimitar oryx.
 
elefante said:
I've heard that kudu weren't imported into New Mexico because they could carry some disease that would affect cattle. That's why the fish and game imported gemsbok instead to the White Sands Missile Range. So maybe kudu are more strictly controlled. I'd look into something like addax, blackbuck, or scimitar oryx.
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How do you think Addax and Oryx would do in Alabama? We have a seasonal climate but our Winters are relatively warm. Those problems can be solved with barns of course. What concerns me is the humidity. We have nine months of basically wet tropical weather here.

And to clarify we already have years of experience in Hereford Cattle, Bison, Donkeys, Walking Horses, Goats, and Llama/Alpaca.

How much acreage of just basic cattle pasture would a Oryx family group need? We have a pasture we currently don't use thats 30 acres with about 5 acres of it old growth hardwoods (Oak Hickory Pecan Cypress Beech Birch) and a 3 acre pond. Does that sound good?
 
tschandler71 said:
How do you think Addax and Oryx would do in Alabama? We have a seasonal climate but our Winters are relatively warm. Those problems can be solved with barns of course. What concerns me is the humidity. We have nine months of basically wet tropical weather here.

And to clarify we already have years of experience in Hereford Cattle, Bison, Donkeys, Walking Horses, Goats, and Llama/Alpaca.

How much acreage of just basic cattle pasture would a Oryx family group need? We have a pasture we currently don't use thats 30 acres with about 5 acres of it old growth hardwoods (Oak Hickory Pecan Cypress Beech Birch) and a 3 acre pond. Does that sound good?
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I don't know the first thing about raising exotics, I was just mentioning those as possible exotics if you did want to have exotics. I'm sure you could find information online. Disney's Animal Kingdom has addax so if they do okay there I would imagine they would be fine in Alabama. Lion Country Safari has gemsbok and they seem okay on videos I've seen.

I'm surprised llamas and alpacas do well in a Southern climate. It seems like they would overheat, although I do know that Lion Country Safari has them and they seem to be doing okay on videos I've seen.
 
We have to sheer the Alpaca a lot. We have over 300 acres total pasture land and 200 pulpwood thats leased to Bowater (paper company).

Cattle, Bison, and Pulpwood are our actual money making business. The other animals our pets.
 
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