drive thru zoos

[Jesse]

what are your thoughts on converting some of our open range zoos such as werribee or wpz to drive thru zoos. a great example of a drive thru zoo is longleat safari park. any comments on the topic would be great.

http://www.longleat.co.uk/safari-park/safari-journey.html

 

[ZYBen]

There must be a reason why it hasnt been done before.

Perhaps insurance is too high to do that kind of thing?

 

[Jesse]

there have been many zoos that have made a drive thru the star attraction. but i can see why there may be some reluctance in doing it. a number of animals could easily damage a car and possibly injure a person. it would be great though.

 

[Maguari]

There was some interesting discussion on Safari Parks and Australia on one of my photos from West Midland Safari Park recently: http://www.zoochat.com/219/giraffe-roadblock-west-midland-16-08-a-99995/

The impression seemed to be that Australian health and safety regs would probably make it unworkable.

The UK currrently has 7 zoos with own-car* drive-through elements (if I'm not missing any) - Longleat Safari Park, West Midland Safari Park, Woburn Safari Park, Knowsley Safari Park, Blair Drummond Safari Park, the Highland Wildlife Park and Whipsnade Zoo (the Passage through Asia area).

The only particular problem in recent years has been incidence of Simian Herpes among Rhesus Monkeys - Longleat is the only one of the above still keeping the species and theirs are currently in quarantine. Other than that, the parks work very well.




*I've not counted places like Port Lympne, who have paddocks with bus tours, as I understand that this type of exhibit is already present in Oz.

 

[Jesse]

i think that australia could manage having some hoofstock in a drive thru enclosure but with the tight government regulations i think a drive thru carnivore exhibit would be out of the qestion.

along with drive thru zoos are also walk thru enclosures housing monkeys and lemurs. i think attractions such as these would entice alot of visitors. altina wildlife park would be a perfect candidate for a drive thru zoo. currently you can only go into the zoo by appointment and even when in you are dragged around by a horse and cart. great idea but it would do much better if it was open to the public.

ps. does anyone know of any incidents happening in drive thru zoos.......such as injuries or damages to vehicles. also (sorry to go off topic) but is there a reason why altina isn't open to the public.

 

[Ara]

When the lion park craze was on in Australia some years ago they were all drive-thrus. At Warragamba near Sydney the public drove through lions, tigers and brown bears. Staff patrolled to make sure the inevitable idiots and thrillseekers stayed in their cars and kept the windows up. At times the lions would actually lie on your car!

At nearby Bullens Animal World you could drive through a large group of rhesus monkeys (who were pretty good at damaging your windscreen wipers) and also through herds of bison, camels, water buffaloes and deer.

They died out, I suppose, because once you had been once or twice there was nothing new. Nowhere near as good as a proper zoo.

 

[safariman]

No big damage or injury's in our park (Beekse Bergen Safaripark, Netherlands) only minor scratches on cars. We used to have cars driving by lions, rhino's, lions, cheetah, African wild dogs, giraffe, antelope. Skipped some of them to make walking area's. The best way to see our park is defenately by foot and bus (guided tour by professional trained presenters, so nu volunteers)

 

[Hix]

When the lion park craze was on in Australia some years ago they were all drive-thrus. At Warragamba near Sydney the public drove through lions, tigers and brown bears. Staff patrolled to make sure the inevitable idiots and thrillseekers stayed in their cars and kept the windows up. At times the lions would actually lie on your car!

At nearby Bullens Animal World you could drive through a large group of rhesus monkeys (who were pretty good at damaging your windscreen wipers) and also through herds of bison, camels, water buffaloes and deer.

They died out, I suppose, because once you had been once or twice there was nothing new. Nowhere near as good as a proper zoo.

There was also a large one at Beenleigh, between Brisbane and the Gold Coast. Disappeared in the 80's, I think.



Hix

 

[MARK]

There was also a large one at Beenleigh, between Brisbane and the Gold Coast. Disappeared in the 80's, I think.



Hix

I was glad to see this one close, tiny Tiger cages with a concrete floor and a large wooden box to sleep in, one lone asian elephant with no shade or barn (photos in gallery), not real good conditions

 

[Jesse]

I was glad to see this one close, tiny Tiger cages with a concrete floor and a large wooden box to sleep in, one lone asian elephant with no shade or barn (photos in gallery), not real good conditions

the horrible conditions that the big cats lived in at baccus marsh lion park were a far cry from decent. all the big cats had one sleeping den which was just a dingy wooden shed. contain the cats were flimsy tennis court fences and wood with nails sticking out were spread across the cage. not a plant in sight other than bindi patches and a single tree providing very little shade.

 

[jay]

To me that they existed in Austrtalia and then died out syas something about their viability.

 

[Jarkari]

The drive through parks mentioned were primarily if not all owned by the Bullens and they closed not for lack of numbers but stafford being a circus man for generations got sick of all the changes that he was being forced to make,. so he shutup shop and probably savedhimself millions.


Twpz was discussing opening up a huge safari area at the back of the zoo as isthe national zoo and aquarium but one with drive through lions, tigers, hoofstock and primates is out of the question.

TWPZ has the one drive through area "the savannah" but the cost involved in making an entire park drive through would be crazy, and it would be very difficult to comply with standards here

 

[MARK]

Twpz was discussing opening up a huge safari area at the back of the zoo as isthe national zoo and aquarium but one with drive through lions, tigers, hoofstock and primates is out of the question.

There was some talk a couple of years ago about a safari drive though (in zoo trucks), there was something on the net back then which said an area of 550 arces, now that would of got people though the gates, BUT with the importation problems for "game" type animals I guess numbers and species would of been limited?

 

[Jarkari]

Twpz was discussing opening up a huge safari area at the back of the zoo as isthe national zoo and aquarium but one with drive through lions, tigers, hoofstock and primates is out of the question.

There was some talk a couple of years ago about a safari drive though (in zoo trucks), there was something on the net back then which said an area of 550 arces, now that would of got people though the gates, BUT with the importation problems for "game" type animals I guess numbers and species would of been limited?

It would boost numbers but I have a feeling this is now not going to happen in the near future. Animal Numbers to fill such a place would be difficult but that would be awesome.

There are alot of things like these that could boost numbers at TWPZ and our other open range zoos, but the city zoos will always have priority.

 

[MARK]

It would boost numbers but I have a feeling this is now not going to happen in the near future. Animal Numbers to fill such a place would be difficult but that would be awesome.

There are alot of things like these that could boost numbers at TWPZ and our other open range zoos, but the city zoos will always have priority.

You are correct, money that could have been put into a project like this would of been earmarked for more spending at Taronga, something to bring in the punters at WPZ is really whats needed for people to travel that extra distance

 

[Steve Robinson]

The drive through parks mentioned were primarily if not all owned by the Bullens and they closed not for lack of numbers but stafford being a circus man for generations got sick of all the changes that he was being forced to make,. so he shutup shop and probably savedhimself millions.

In the interests of historical accuracy it should also be noted that in many instances Bullens owned the animals but not the land. They partnered the landowners in the Lion Park ventures.

The Yatala park land, near Beenleigh, was owned by the Hunter family of nightsoil and garbage removal fame. The value of the land eventually increased to the point where it was more profitable to subdivide it than to run a Lion Park. That land is now the "Lion Park Industrial Estate"! The Springwood site of the Ashton's Lion Park is now the site of the massive Hyperdome Shopping Centre.

The Lion Parks at places like Paraparaumu and Henderson in NZ suffered a similar fate.

 

[ZooPro]

In the interests of historical accuracy it should also be noted that in many instances Bullens owned the animals but not the land. They partnered the landowners in the Lion Park ventures.

The Lion Parks at places like Paraparaumu and Henderson in NZ suffered a similar fate.

Thanks Steve - I'm all for historical (and even more so, current) accuracy The lion park at Paraparaumu had been very badly run for a lengthy period prior to its closure, and in fact, it was the manager of the park at the time, who made many of the practices at the park public knowledge, via reports to the authorities and media, in an attempt to have an under-funded and very poorly-run animal park closed down. Thankfully, this was successful, even though it meant that the manager managed himself out of a job!

 

[jay]

Thanks Steve - I'm all for historical (and even more so, current) accuracy The lion park at Paraparaumu had been very badly run for a lengthy period prior to its closure, and in fact, it was the manager of the park at the time, who made many of the practices at the park public knowledge, via reports to the authorities and media, in an attempt to have an under-funded and very poorly-run animal park closed down. Thankfully, this was successful, even though it meant that the manager managed himself out of a job!

Now that was a person who truelly believed in ethical behaviour.