Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary Giant Pandas

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Pandas in QLD

Yeah , I think it is somewhat wishful thinking that there will be giant pandas on exhibit in the state for quite some time .
The closest possibilities ( in QLD ) would be Australia Zoo , or another exhibit at Dreamland , but neither of those places are currently up to exhibiting giant pandas .
My pick for the most suitable place would be either Taronga Park or Melbourne Zoo . Especially if they needed a temporary exhibit that would bring in ALOT of visitors .
Auckland had them for a few months , and the whole area was packed -- alot of people were disapointed that the whole area was so crowded they didnt get to see what they most wanted to see . Even at Washington DC s National Zoo , the panda house was packed with Chinese tourists !!
 
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they were vvvvery popular when they came to melbourne and taronga also. i imagine the auckland pandas were indeed the same pair we had here touring australia?....

another thing that may be worth considering is that, i would assume, all other zoos with pandas outside china would be government funded - not privately owned. i would be very supprised considering how much diplomatic effort is involved in securing pandas in the best circumstances, if the chinese would be happy to lease them to a private enterprise!

its all dreamy la-la stuff.

that said i wouldn't be remotely supprised if the whole giant panda idea gets thrown out there from one of the major zoos. the way things are going we may very well have a mandarin-speaking prime minister by the end of the year.

no doubt that would help ;)

personally? i find they sleep an aweful lot!! though they are admittedly a little more exciting than koalas....
 
Pandas In queensland..

Surely melbourne would be more appropriate climate wise. Keeping of pandas is incredibly expensive. food id not the problem though. I have been told and please correct me if I'm wrong, that the animals are leased by the government for a very substantial fee. possibly this fee is covered by increased visitor numbers. Food is reasonably easily obtained. Majority of bamboo species grow very quickly and often become pests in backyards (canberra gets alot of it's bamboo from residential areas, so does melbourne, as well as it's own plantations)
 
i'de be all for melbourne eventually getting pandas - the brown bear exhibit could effectively be redeveloped for them - if it wern't for the rediculous amount of money in rent that must be paid, with inital attendance increases eventually failing to offset the costs...

they end up costing the zoos a fortune in money that, despite going to panda conservation, would probably be better spent on a species that doesent already recieve a hell of a lot of attention anyway.
 
Melbourne Bear enclosure would be ideal for Giant Pandas-fill in the water moat and bark floor that whole area, add lots of bamboo and perhaps a few fir trees and it would be great.
 
patrick said:
they were vvvvery popular when they came to melbourne and taronga also. i imagine the auckland pandas were indeed the same pair we had here touring australia?....
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Indeed they were.

jarkari said:
I have been told and please correct me if I'm wrong, that the animals are leased by the government for a very substantial fee. possibly this fee is covered by increased visitor numbers.
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Correct again - US$ 1 million per year for each animal, I believe. And it would be almost impossible for any zoo in this region to ever raise an additonal US$ 2 million per year from increased visitation.
 
and I must agree with Patrick ......

.... that they were not the most megafaunic of animals that have been exhibited at the zoo -- even kangaroos and wallabies are alot more popular in NZ zoos than those big sleepy pandas that showed as much life as lethargic koalas .
 
the whole things a croc of ****. its about as likely to happen as john oward is to commiting to kyoto.
but if they had to come to australia, and taronga ended up with a pair, id put them back where they originally lived, in the gorilla enclosure (who would of course be relocated to a congo forest elsewhere ;) )
but im sure queensland would be a great place for pandas. after all, they keep an arctic ursid up there too
 
Every zoo I can think of has animals from somewhere that has a different climate from the area the zoo is situated. Queensland's polar bears may be at the extreme of opposite climates but is it any worse that snow leopards in summer time at Sydney or Gorillas in New York's winter. I thought the aim of zoos was to display different animals from around the world to compare the way these animals have adapted to their environment. Thats why meerkats are kept in exhibits that mimic their arid home range for example. To show the way they have evolved to survive in their eco system.
If zoos only displayed animals suitable the exact environment of the area around the zoo, all Taronga would have would be blue tongues and sea gulls.
I do agree that Currumbin may have bitten off more than it can chew by trying to get pandas, but I wish them all the luck in the world and hope that it does happen. It might turn out to be the wrong place for them but it isn't any worse than the touring pandas of 1988. I reackon that was pretty ordinary having pandas displayed for 3 months in one zoo and then moved to another zoo for another 3 months. I guess it's a matter of sitting back and waiting to see what happens.
Without being rude, sometimes it sounds like people like it when plans like these fail so they can say "I told you so!!"
 
thats a fair enough point, but summer temperatures in the snow leopards range can get pretty warm too. my comment about the polar bears was more tongue in cheek.
as for the plan failing and i told you so, i hope i wont still be on this forum debating it if it does, as i dont see it happening for at least 5 years. 'i told you so' in advance.
honestly, i dont care whether its white lions, giant pandas, or blue whales, i think that for now our regions zoos would all be much better off focusing on managed species. if currrumbin wanted to embark on a foray into exotic species i could think of stacks of chaismatic, exotic species we already have right here in the country which would make far better candidates. even if zoos roles were simply limite dto displaying a representative selection of the world's fauna, then again i can think of far more species that currumbin would be better for. i mean, if its so hell bent on displaying chinese type fauna then why not develop a greats now leopard exhibit, with langur and red panda etc around it?
and if you consider the giant pandas as a kind of 'user pays' system with a massive fee, i just cant see how currumbin could both balance its books and find resources to plough back into ground-breaking research that cant be carried out in either china or the usa.
seaworld has/had the money to import a non-recommended species into the region. im not currumbins accountant but unless this whole operation is sunbsidised by the QLD government then i cant see it going ahead.
i mean, were still talking about it 3 weeks after it was announced, but theres been no more news
 
boof said:
Every zoo I can think of has animals from somewhere that has a different climate........is it any worse that snow leopards in summer time at Sydney or Gorillas in New York's winter.
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no, not really. as you know i frequently pay out on zoos about the climate thing. but its not that i have a problem with them keeping tropicals in cold temperate climates per se (or vice versa).

for me its about wether or not a zoo can provide for the animal and that includes taking ito account the climate of the area and the housing the zoo provides.

if the animal must spend extended periods of time inside to protect it from severe weather - then the question is wether the zoo can provide the appropriate evironment indoors. generally there is no problem adequately housing a meerkat or monkey indoors - elephants and giraffes are another story...

so i don't believe that henry doorly zoo should close down "lied jungle" but neither do i believe that elephants in a "barn" in alaska or rhino in the czech republic have a great quality of life for much of the year.

polar bears at seaworld - well do they adequately provide for them? i think they do. the zoo has come up with a way to keep them cool outdoors.

boof said:
If zoos only displayed animals suitable the exact environment of the area around the zoo, all Taronga would have would be blue tongues and sea gulls.
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well now be fair - thats not exactly true. and are we talking environment or climate here? i would describe sydney's climate as a one that actually falls within a comfortable range for many species worldwide. native animals aside (and their are many more species native to nsw than seagulls and blue toungues!) i think the climate is very similar to that experienced in northern india, southern africa, the himalayan foothills or the middle section of south america. the topography does not lend itself well to elephants or many hoofstock - but i for one (and i'm not saying you ever said i did) have no recollection of ever being pro-elephants at taronga...

boof said:
I do agree that Currumbin may have bitten off more than it can chew by trying to get pandas
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and i'de call that an understatement ;)

boof said:
Without being rude, sometimes it sounds like people like it when plans like these fail so they can say "I told you so!!"
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well its a bit of a trade off betwen the feeling of proving you were right and the negative repercussions of whatever the failed "plans" were...

but yes - i generally like being right! ;)
 
ha ha ha!

a few years ago melbourne zoo dug up some records that appeared to indicate they had bred some thylacines in the early days!
 
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