I’ve been doing some digging into material costs for building large enclosures, and I can’t seem to find why zoo enclosures cost so much. I’d love to start a zoo/conservation effort with huge enclosures (a square mile/640 acres). It’d cost about $1.5 million for the fencing and posts (25 foot tall tiger fence, 7ft in ground, 18ft above, with barbed wire at the top and fence posts every 10ft as per the standard code says). I get that labor costs would double or triple that 1.5 million, thats still only 4.5 million (land costs a lot too, let say $20 million for 10,000 acres. That’d still only about 6.5 million, and some enclosures cost $50 million (Toyota Elephant Passage at Denver Zoo) and are a fraction of the size. Is it the buildings of these enclosures that cost so much? I’d love some insight please
Enclosure size
- Thread starter Ryry123
- Start date
Ztlabraptor211
Well-Known Member
I assume a lot of it is the detailing that sets apart large well financed zoos and the smaller roadside zoos. I’m sure it wouldn’t cost that much to have essentially fenced in grassy fields to house animals, like a large farm, but then in enclosures like the Toyota Elephant passage there’s landscaping costs, which especially pile up when you include water features, decor like species specific enrichments and faux rockwork, construction of buildings, both through materials and worker costs, whether it’s a shelter for the animals or an indoor viewing area or both, potential guest viewing areas outside, and I could be wrong about this but I believe animal import costs play a role
Fair, creating and constructing an enriching environment for an animal probably isn't the cheapest, but I think if you bought a whoooole lot of land, thered be quite a few natural elements already in place in a square mile enclosure. The trees and any natural bodies of water that are there can be left, you can use an excavator to create hills and burrows for fairly cheap, and I'm sure it'd be cheaper to just get giant rocks instead of making fake ones. You can buy boulders for 100-800 per ton
Zooplantman
Well-Known Member
Is a zoo exhibit merely a huge fenced pasture?
You are putting one fence around a square mile? No subdividing? No gates? How will anyone see your animals? I suspect you need a great deal more fencing.
You forgot to build holding buildings. They require keeper work space, food storage, animal holding areas, plumbing, heat, electricity, etc.
There must be a place to separate animals who are being introduced or quarantined. More fencing, more drinkers, more everything
There needs to be animal food storage which, depending on the animals concerned, can get large and complicated (a hay storage barn? refrigerated meat storage? etc,)
You may need to run utilities to the site. That can get hugely expensive
If there will be guests there needs to be paths. If there will be care for the animals there needs to be roads.
In existing zoos any new enclosure usually requires the demolition of what was already there. That is not cheap (and you pay to remove the debris)
Real boulders may be cheaper than artificial ones but they also take up more space and you can't construct a non-climbable wall out of them
Your soil may not be suitable for growing grass under large animals and may need to be amended.
Do these animals get a pool or drinking water?
There may not be existing trees to provide shade for animals and visitors or the existing trees may not be salvageable.
Zoos are educational organizations and so need signs and other educational material.
In addition to the fence to keep animals in, you need fencing to keep stupid visitors away from the animal fence.
Many zoo exhibits today also include snack bars or bathrooms for guests.
The simple fence is the easy bit
You are putting one fence around a square mile? No subdividing? No gates? How will anyone see your animals? I suspect you need a great deal more fencing.
You forgot to build holding buildings. They require keeper work space, food storage, animal holding areas, plumbing, heat, electricity, etc.
There must be a place to separate animals who are being introduced or quarantined. More fencing, more drinkers, more everything
There needs to be animal food storage which, depending on the animals concerned, can get large and complicated (a hay storage barn? refrigerated meat storage? etc,)
You may need to run utilities to the site. That can get hugely expensive
If there will be guests there needs to be paths. If there will be care for the animals there needs to be roads.
In existing zoos any new enclosure usually requires the demolition of what was already there. That is not cheap (and you pay to remove the debris)
Real boulders may be cheaper than artificial ones but they also take up more space and you can't construct a non-climbable wall out of them
Your soil may not be suitable for growing grass under large animals and may need to be amended.
Do these animals get a pool or drinking water?
There may not be existing trees to provide shade for animals and visitors or the existing trees may not be salvageable.
Zoos are educational organizations and so need signs and other educational material.
In addition to the fence to keep animals in, you need fencing to keep stupid visitors away from the animal fence.
Many zoo exhibits today also include snack bars or bathrooms for guests.
The simple fence is the easy bit
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Although far from an expert in design or construction of zoo exhibits, costs vary wildly for a what you may consider a small exhibit compared to a large plot of land that can multiple acres in size. As for the example of the Denver Zoo with Toyota Elephant Passage, costs due such exhibits can be tied with their location. It’s been brought up before in other discussions on here in Zoochat why certain exhibits costs so much especially in the US. For example, Denver is a major city and very popular as well. Typically these larger and well known cities come with HUGE construction costs while other cities around the country or world can create an elaborate/immersive exhibit for the fraction of the cost it would take for such zoos like San Diego Zoo and Safari Park. I think location is one of the biggest factors for driving up costs with zoo exhibits.
Besides what has already been mentioned you have forgotten to account for the repairs of you fences and upkeep of the exhibits. And I know it's been said already but the reason it's less expensive is because you are basically building a farm stye exhibit not a professional AZA zoo exhibit. If you want to know what goes into those check out the AZA animal care manuals. Animal Care Manuals | Association of Zoos & Aquariums
Also with TEP as the example, there are 4 large pools that need filtration which add on to the cost immensely.