establishing a future for zoos

PossumRoach said:
Now I do have one idea of making space and it is building multiple story animal houses for smaller species. Bronx’s World of birds comes to mind. However I am sure that such animal houses would still cover a huge horizontal area. And it definitely would cone with its own problems despite the fact that I can’t put a finger on one.
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Sealife London Aquarium uses this to great effect, as far as I can tell they take up a tiny amount of city surface area with multiple (5 or 6 I think?) storeys going downwards.
 
pachyderm pro said:
EDIT - I almost forgot to mention the greatest zoo hotel of them all, that Chinese polar bear hotel that recently opened! Truly an awe-inspiring experience for visitors and state of the art enclosure for the bears. Arguably the greatest zoo exhibit of all time.
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It is interesting to consider that the bulk of ideas discussed here as "the future of zoos" have been discussed by zoos for at least a decade and very little has come of any of it
 
Commercial attractions are not a sure recipe to make money. Two very themed zoos in Europe: Hannover and new Emmen both ran into financial problems.

Over the years I see that zoos split into several sub-categories. Commercial theme park zoos and giant countryside safari parks/open range zoos are just two sub-categories of a zoo. No sub-category of zoo seems to come to dominate others, they rather coexist in relatively stable relative proportion.

Thinking about conservation, biggest impact for money comes perhaps from smallish, conservation-oriented zoos which focus on relatively few species, often one group of animals, and usually are creations of one charismatic owner.
 
CGSwans said:
I'm not going to get into the weeds of this, my intention was to state high-level objections to the underlying values behind such an approach.

I will say that, broadly, your ideas represent a fundamental change to what zoos are and can be, and in ways that go beyond aesthetics and revenue. It isn't the case that all zoo visitors can simply hop in a car and go to a major theme park (sorry, zoo) miles away down a freeway. Inner urban sites impose space restrictions, but they come with the compensating ability to reach and be reachable by the communities they serve. This is particularly important for zoos to be able to maintain equitable access for people of lower socio-economic status.

I think your intention is fine, but you are burning down the village in order to save it. And frankly, save it from what? It is time we move past this "how do we save zoos from themselves" argument. We've been having this discussion for 50 years, and while there is always room for a conversation about how zoos can continue to improve, the old collected wisdom - that zoos must move away from small cages, etc etc - is tired and out of date. Across the developed world, the vast majority of urban zoos have already achieved precisely that.

The solutions for species of welfare concern are known and, for the most part, implemented at zoos that have the space and resources. Zoos that don't have those resources are more often than not making the correct decision to phase out of species they cannot maintain well, leaving them to those they can.

And, coronavirus disruptions aside, the zoo sector as a whole is stunningly successful. More than a billion people visit zoos every year. Major urban zoos attract revenue in the tens of millions and are regularly able to invest in exhibit complexes of eye-watering cost, which rather suggests rumours of the death of zoos have been exaggerated. There is of course also a great many small zoos, many of them private businesses, that scratch a living too.

All of the above is before we come to the core point that people who enjoy theme parks - and resort hotels, for that matter - are already amply served by those industries. Why shouldn't those of us who enjoy zoos continue to enjoy a type of institution that has been successful now for 200 years?
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I suppose we will just have to agree to disagree on this one. I can understand not wanting a theme park atmosphere to take over a zoo with the add-on of a hotel establishment, but I still think this can be done tastefully. It's not something that I think should be in every major zoo, but I think if the zoo has the resources and ambition to pull it off without effecting the usual atmosphere, I say go for it.

TeaLovingDave said:
As *is* the case at some collections..... including the aforementioned Pairi Daiza :p contrary to what @pachyderm pro claims.
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I was not aware of this. What species are kept on display only at the hotel? I was under the impression that everything could be seen normally as well.
 
Another thing thing zoos could do is offer different ways to get from one part of the park to another. Like having a African themed boat dock at an African section that leads you to a Amazon themed section. Going away from Africa you can get glimpses at some of the animals through foliage and things, but as you get closer to the Amazon the foliage starts to become more dense and tropical and you can see some of the animals that live in that region. The place you get off is an Amazon themed boat dock. This is one example I could think of.
 
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