Here are the other two subdrawings along with the lower level map.
Gomphothere's Zoo Design Thread
- Thread starter Gomphothere
- Start date
Visitor Experience Part I.
Visitor Experience Part II.
Visitor Experience Part III.
PastorOfMuppets
Member
Absolutely incredible work on the new section, as always. This zoo only gets better and better. Can't imagine what it will be when it's completed.
Thanks! Given the original concept, completion would take more time than I've got left on this earth, though! But am going to keep going for as long as I can. The Palearctic Tundra will be done before the end of the summer.
The Palearctic Tundra will be done within a few days, no later than this coming Monday. In the meantime, now that I've managed to learn how to do ecoregion maps (included in the Alaska Coast & Islands for the first time), I'm posting the maps showing the ecoregions included in the Antarctic, Galapagos, Temperate South America, and Nearctic Tundra exhibits.
I'm also in the process of deciding what section will be next. I've done both poles, the Galapagos, and ecoregions from each of the Nearctic, Neotropic and Palearctic, so I'm thinking I should do at least one from each of the remaining major regions, Afrotropic, Indo-Malaya and Australasia. Am considering the Queensland Tropical Rainforests in Australia (~680 species), Sri Lanka (~930 species), and Madagascar (~1325 species plus a few more on the surrounding island groups), each of which offers the advantage of a well-defined ecoregion or group of ecoregions so I wouldn't have too much trouble deciding which species to include and which not, and I don't think subspecies will be a major concern. (Those species numbers are overstatements since I would not include birds that only winter there.) While Madagascar involves the most species and might be biting off more than I can chew, they come in big bunches, e.g., almost all the ~200+ species of mammals are either lemurs, bats, tenrecs, rodents or carnivores, the 400+ species of reptiles are mostly accounted for by Lamprophiidae (snakes), chameleons and geckos. and all of the ~370 species of amphibians are anurans. In addition, there is a mountain of information available on the various ecoregions and their subdivisions. One issue with Madagascar is that a huge proportion of the species is either endangered or critically endangered, and learning about such species and their current status can be downright depressing, as I experienced while learning about the amphibians of Temperate South America.
Another possibility is to work on the Nearctic and Palearctic boreal regions. Doing the tundra areas of those two regions has already given me a pile of information about the boreal species, too, and there are lots of big, charismatic fauna in the boreal/taiga regions.
Am open to requests/suggestions.
I'm also in the process of deciding what section will be next. I've done both poles, the Galapagos, and ecoregions from each of the Nearctic, Neotropic and Palearctic, so I'm thinking I should do at least one from each of the remaining major regions, Afrotropic, Indo-Malaya and Australasia. Am considering the Queensland Tropical Rainforests in Australia (~680 species), Sri Lanka (~930 species), and Madagascar (~1325 species plus a few more on the surrounding island groups), each of which offers the advantage of a well-defined ecoregion or group of ecoregions so I wouldn't have too much trouble deciding which species to include and which not, and I don't think subspecies will be a major concern. (Those species numbers are overstatements since I would not include birds that only winter there.) While Madagascar involves the most species and might be biting off more than I can chew, they come in big bunches, e.g., almost all the ~200+ species of mammals are either lemurs, bats, tenrecs, rodents or carnivores, the 400+ species of reptiles are mostly accounted for by Lamprophiidae (snakes), chameleons and geckos. and all of the ~370 species of amphibians are anurans. In addition, there is a mountain of information available on the various ecoregions and their subdivisions. One issue with Madagascar is that a huge proportion of the species is either endangered or critically endangered, and learning about such species and their current status can be downright depressing, as I experienced while learning about the amphibians of Temperate South America.
Another possibility is to work on the Nearctic and Palearctic boreal regions. Doing the tundra areas of those two regions has already given me a pile of information about the boreal species, too, and there are lots of big, charismatic fauna in the boreal/taiga regions.
Am open to requests/suggestions.
Personally I feel having the next installment be one of those tropical regions to be better, as so far there's only been one real tropical installment uploaded so it'd be nice to see more.
I'm thinking seriously about Madagascar and using as inspirations Zürich's Masoala (perhaps several such rooms for different ecoregions) and the Bronx's Madagascar! (the juxtaposition of large and small exhibits, the use of sunken exhibit floors to put the lemurs at eye level, and displaying several classes of animals). One open question is whether to provide both indoor and outdoor exhibits for any of the lemurs, especially the larger species. A challenge is how best to display birds of prey and larger sea birds used to a tropical climate in a zoo located in a temperate zone.
The next section is finished: THE PALEARCTIC TUNDRA: SCANDINAVIA TO SIBERIA
(This can be found on the attached master plan as #201; the original, pre-research thought was to have separate European and Asian tundra exhibits, see #202, but the overlap of species made this inappropriate.)
Excerpts from the Concept :
The concept is an enormous expanse that is still largely wild; much of it is surprisingly wet (including the deltas of the many great rivers draining northern Eurasia into the Arctic Ocean and the Bering Sea), key parts of it are mountainous, and almost all of it is notoriously cold, some of it colder than most other land on earth except Antarctica. It is no surprise that this was the last stand of the Woolly Mammoth. It is currently home to a salamander that is mobile at a temperature as low as 0.5°C/33°F and is capable of surviving temperatures as low as -40°C/-40°F and even of walking away after thawing out from apparently having been frozen solid in permafrost. The permafrost here, by the way, reaches down as far as 2000 feet/600 meters.
As a result of climate, history and politics, much of this area (and some of its animals) are unfamiliar to most people. It is the summer breeding grounds of birds with among the most remarkable migration trips in the world, including the Arctic Tern and the Pectoral Sandpiper, whose trips are on the list of longest, and the Great Snipe, famed for the speed and non-stop length of its flight. Siberia is home to the Taimyr Reindeer herd, the largest in the world, 400,000-600,000 animals (formerly about one million) and to some of the coldest spots on earth, including the coldest permanent human settlement, Oymyakon. The sheer size of this bioregion (5000 kilometers/3000 miles east to west) and the natural barriers in the terrain have resulted in animal species with as many as eight subspecies native to this single region. Many of the animal species here were first named (scientifically) by Linnaeus himself, and the prevalence of nominate subspecies, especially on the European tundra, is testimony to the historic centrality of Europe in the field of taxonomy. The region’s plentiful fresh waters are home to a great variety of fish, especially Salmonidae, and many areas within the region market themselves as fishing paradises.
As with the Nearctic Tundra, the exterior exhibits are for ungulates (here, Reindeer and Snow Sheep instead of Caribou and Musk Oxen), Wolves, Wolverines, foxes, waterfowl, ptarmigans, sea and shore birds, loons and cranes, gulls, birds of prey, ravens, and a few rodents and lagomorphs. The centerpiece of this exhibit area is an artificial mountain. On the outside, visitors see Snow Sheep (the Asian cousins of North America’s Bighorn Sheep), Pikas, Marmots, Tundra Wolves and Wolverines. Beneath them, however, the mountain’s interior houses and displays the region’s small mammals (shrews, voles, lemmings, and mustelids), smaller birds (passerines), reptile (one), amphibians, invertebrates, and freshwater fish. The aquatic exhibits are arranged around a central hall, which is dominated by a herd of recreated Woolly Mammoths marching down the center, a species that last survived before extinction on Wrangel Island off the northeast coast of Siberia. There is also a series of dioramas displaying other of the Siberian Ice Age megafauna. The non-exhibit public facilities include an Ice Age Theater, a classroom, a gift shop and a café.
(The cross-section drawing will help you understand this aspect of the design.)
The exhibits cover roughly twenty-six acres (10.5 ha). The approximate animal census is 42 species/subspecies and 348 specimens of mammals, 172 species/subspecies and 705 specimens of birds, one reptile species with four specimens, and four amphibian species with sixteen specimens, for a total of 219 species/subspecies and 1073 specimens (not counting fish or invertebrates). There are approximately 80 species/subspecies of fish on display.
(These are all listed on the attached concept. Combined with the previous sections, not adjusting for overlaps in species/subspecies, the totals now stand at 311 mammal species/subspecies and 1705 specimens, 832 bird species/subspecies and 3995 specimens, 287 reptile species/subspecies and 649 specimens, and 61 amphibian species/subspecies and 242 specimens, for a total not counting fish and invertebrates of 1493 species/subspecies and 6591 specimens).
(This can be found on the attached master plan as #201; the original, pre-research thought was to have separate European and Asian tundra exhibits, see #202, but the overlap of species made this inappropriate.)
Excerpts from the Concept :
The concept is an enormous expanse that is still largely wild; much of it is surprisingly wet (including the deltas of the many great rivers draining northern Eurasia into the Arctic Ocean and the Bering Sea), key parts of it are mountainous, and almost all of it is notoriously cold, some of it colder than most other land on earth except Antarctica. It is no surprise that this was the last stand of the Woolly Mammoth. It is currently home to a salamander that is mobile at a temperature as low as 0.5°C/33°F and is capable of surviving temperatures as low as -40°C/-40°F and even of walking away after thawing out from apparently having been frozen solid in permafrost. The permafrost here, by the way, reaches down as far as 2000 feet/600 meters.
As a result of climate, history and politics, much of this area (and some of its animals) are unfamiliar to most people. It is the summer breeding grounds of birds with among the most remarkable migration trips in the world, including the Arctic Tern and the Pectoral Sandpiper, whose trips are on the list of longest, and the Great Snipe, famed for the speed and non-stop length of its flight. Siberia is home to the Taimyr Reindeer herd, the largest in the world, 400,000-600,000 animals (formerly about one million) and to some of the coldest spots on earth, including the coldest permanent human settlement, Oymyakon. The sheer size of this bioregion (5000 kilometers/3000 miles east to west) and the natural barriers in the terrain have resulted in animal species with as many as eight subspecies native to this single region. Many of the animal species here were first named (scientifically) by Linnaeus himself, and the prevalence of nominate subspecies, especially on the European tundra, is testimony to the historic centrality of Europe in the field of taxonomy. The region’s plentiful fresh waters are home to a great variety of fish, especially Salmonidae, and many areas within the region market themselves as fishing paradises.
As with the Nearctic Tundra, the exterior exhibits are for ungulates (here, Reindeer and Snow Sheep instead of Caribou and Musk Oxen), Wolves, Wolverines, foxes, waterfowl, ptarmigans, sea and shore birds, loons and cranes, gulls, birds of prey, ravens, and a few rodents and lagomorphs. The centerpiece of this exhibit area is an artificial mountain. On the outside, visitors see Snow Sheep (the Asian cousins of North America’s Bighorn Sheep), Pikas, Marmots, Tundra Wolves and Wolverines. Beneath them, however, the mountain’s interior houses and displays the region’s small mammals (shrews, voles, lemmings, and mustelids), smaller birds (passerines), reptile (one), amphibians, invertebrates, and freshwater fish. The aquatic exhibits are arranged around a central hall, which is dominated by a herd of recreated Woolly Mammoths marching down the center, a species that last survived before extinction on Wrangel Island off the northeast coast of Siberia. There is also a series of dioramas displaying other of the Siberian Ice Age megafauna. The non-exhibit public facilities include an Ice Age Theater, a classroom, a gift shop and a café.
(The cross-section drawing will help you understand this aspect of the design.)
The exhibits cover roughly twenty-six acres (10.5 ha). The approximate animal census is 42 species/subspecies and 348 specimens of mammals, 172 species/subspecies and 705 specimens of birds, one reptile species with four specimens, and four amphibian species with sixteen specimens, for a total of 219 species/subspecies and 1073 specimens (not counting fish or invertebrates). There are approximately 80 species/subspecies of fish on display.
(These are all listed on the attached concept. Combined with the previous sections, not adjusting for overlaps in species/subspecies, the totals now stand at 311 mammal species/subspecies and 1705 specimens, 832 bird species/subspecies and 3995 specimens, 287 reptile species/subspecies and 649 specimens, and 61 amphibian species/subspecies and 242 specimens, for a total not counting fish and invertebrates of 1493 species/subspecies and 6591 specimens).
Here are the overall "birds-eye" exterior and cross-section views.
Here is the enlarged exterior view of the west third and the ground floor of the building.
Here are the enlarged exterior view of the central and east thirds and also the plan for the building's second floor.
Visitor Experience Part I
I considered giving this a subtitle: Sandpipers can be pretty, too! There are some very attractive species of Scolopacidae in this regions.
I considered giving this a subtitle: Sandpipers can be pretty, too! There are some very attractive species of Scolopacidae in this regions.
Visitor Experience Part II
Visitor Experience Part III
Visitor Experience Part II Is missing
Trying again for Vis Exp II
You can't tell the players without a scorecard. I forgot the full key, now attached.
Bengal Tiger
Well-Known Member
What section do you plan on doing next @Gomphothere? Also, very, very impressive project 