Kyabram Fauna Park Kyabram Fauna Park

CGSwans said:
When I visited about this time last year, staff said they were still proceeding with the existing master plan drafted while the council owned the zoo. I still suspecf that was a touch too ambitious to survive Zoos Victoria’s management, though.
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One problem is that. as far as I am aware, none of the major players involved with the master plan are still involved with Kyabram.

One option I have heard floated is threatened species breeding facilities.
 
MRJ said:
Not quite true.

The Management Committee was made up of Council and DSE representatives, but DSE was there more to advise, it had always been a community initiative and owned by Council. The land was owned/controlled by various entities. The reptile house proved a problem when the ZoosVic takeover occurred as it was built over two titles.

The Management Committee approached ZoosVic about the prospect of them taking over. After negotiation between the locals and the ZoosVic board, ZoosVic assumed ownership of all assets as well as the management. No money may have been involved but it was a definite transfer from one organization (or more than one in the case of the land) to another.

I doubt there would have been much effect on the local economy if it had just closed. The visitation was tiny.
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Does that make it fully under the zoosVic banner ?
It would be good to see them bulk up the collection with species they currently have breeding facilities for or could use extra space. While developing the site like Dubbo has with accomodation as a draw card. Feasibly they could market it as a weekend away type thing with popular species and animal encounters on the cheap as a draw card. It works somewhat for Dubbo could work for them and would make it more profitable and worth having more exotic/ popular species on site.
 
Tiger91 said:
Does that make it fully under the zoosVic banner ?
It would be good to see them bulk up the collection with species they currently have breeding facilities for or could use extra space. While developing the site like Dubbo has with accomodation as a draw card. Feasibly they could market it as a weekend away type thing with popular species and animal encounters on the cheap as a draw card. It works somewhat for Dubbo could work for them and would make it more profitable and worth having more exotic/ popular species on site.
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Yes, they are fully owned and operated by ZoosVic.
 
Tiger91 said:
Does that make it fully under the zoosVic banner ?
It would be good to see them bulk up the collection with species they currently have breeding facilities for or could use extra space. While developing the site like Dubbo has with accomodation as a draw card. Feasibly they could market it as a weekend away type thing with popular species and animal encounters on the cheap as a draw card. It works somewhat for Dubbo could work for them and would make it more profitable and worth having more exotic/ popular species on site.
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I think you've got a good idea here!
A breeding troop of Chimpanzees would be a point of difference to MZ and WORZ.
KFP could also become a second Victorian holder of Snow Leopard, creating an additional holder while the number of holders is dwindling. They could create a small precinct based around Himalayan species. They could also then make this be the property that they have on going Snow Leopard encounters.
 
The Sleepy Hippo said:
I think you've got a good idea here!
A breeding troop of Chimpanzees would be a point of difference to MZ and WORZ.
KFP could also become a second Victorian holder of Snow Leopard, creating an additional holder while the number of holders is dwindling. They could create a small precinct based around Himalayan species. They could also then make this be the property that they have on going Snow Leopard encounters.
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It would also help them be able to display more at Melbourne, in that for species like binturong, tigers, snow leopards etc they could then reduce enclosures space down to a single space, while building breeding complexes at Kyabram. Allowing more room for a better species list at Melbourne and reduce doubled up enclosures that zoos do for spacing requirements. While marketing Kyabram as a breeding facility, people will pay if the accommodation is good and you have reasonable animal experiences where you can see species and the breeding facilities on tours. The same can be used for all 3 of there flagship zoos where space is a premium. Accomodation with free entry to the zoo while your there, would attract people. And its just close enough to Melbourne to be feasible and not to long of a drive.
 
The Sleepy Hippo said:
I think you've got a good idea here!
A breeding troop of Chimpanzees would be a point of difference to MZ and WORZ.
KFP could also become a second Victorian holder of Snow Leopard, creating an additional holder while the number of holders is dwindling. They could create a small precinct based around Himalayan species. They could also then make this be the property that they have on going Snow Leopard encounters.
Click to expand...
Tiger91 said:
Does that make it fully under the zoosVic banner ?
It would be good to see them bulk up the collection with species they currently have breeding facilities for or could use extra space. While developing the site like Dubbo has with accomodation as a draw card. Feasibly they could market it as a weekend away type thing with popular species and animal encounters on the cheap as a draw card. It works somewhat for Dubbo could work for them and would make it more profitable and worth having more exotic/ popular species on site.
Click to expand...
Tiger91 said:
It would also help them be able to display more at Melbourne, in that for species like binturong, tigers, snow leopards etc they could then reduce enclosures space down to a single space, while building breeding complexes at Kyabram. Allowing more room for a better species list at Melbourne and reduce doubled up enclosures that zoos do for spacing requirements. While marketing Kyabram as a breeding facility, people will pay if the accommodation is good and you have reasonable animal experiences where you can see species and the breeding facilities on tours. The same can be used for all 3 of there flagship zoos where space is a premium. Accomodation with free entry to the zoo while your there, would attract people. And its just close enough to Melbourne to be feasible and not to long of a drive.
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Is the site big enough for that?
 
Osedax said:
Is the site big enough for that?
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It works out to be twice the size of taronga.
Which would be large enough for it, while giving them enough room for actual breeding species and then species that are fan favourites like meerkats etc.
 
The Sleepy Hippo said:
I think you've got a good idea here!
A breeding troop of Chimpanzees would be a point of difference to MZ and WORZ.
KFP could also become a second Victorian holder of Snow Leopard, creating an additional holder while the number of holders is dwindling. They could create a small precinct based around Himalayan species. They could also then make this be the property that they have on going Snow Leopard encounters.
Click to expand...

Tiger91 said:
It would also help them be able to display more at Melbourne, in that for species like binturong, tigers, snow leopards etc they could then reduce enclosures space down to a single space, while building breeding complexes at Kyabram. Allowing more room for a better species list at Melbourne and reduce doubled up enclosures that zoos do for spacing requirements. While marketing Kyabram as a breeding facility, people will pay if the accommodation is good and you have reasonable animal experiences where you can see species and the breeding facilities on tours. The same can be used for all 3 of there flagship zoos where space is a premium. Accomodation with free entry to the zoo while your there, would attract people. And its just close enough to Melbourne to be feasible and not to long of a drive.
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I like this idea. Thinking outside the box, Zoos Vic will probably want to work towards establishing Kyabram as their own zoo and generating a point of difference compared to the other three facilities over the next decade.

The idea of them serving as a specified threatened species breeding base is a nice one, and certainly something not done in Australia yet, let alone Victoria. The space they have would also allow for breeding facilities to be set up with large enclosures and the like.

Focusing on species like Snow Leopard, African Wild Dog, Golden Lion Tamarin, Tasmanian Devil, Brazilian Tapir and Addax all of which are endangered and are apart of regional breeding programs for their respective species. Whilst not 'ABC' species, they'd still be a huge draw if displayed in a huge, natural setting that Kyabram could provide.
 
Looking at satellite images they would have pretty much infinite space in the form of farmland to the east if needed, so space probably wouldn't be an issue.
 
Krookaburra said:
Looking at satellite images they would have pretty much infinite space in the form of farmland to the east if needed, so space probably wouldn't be an issue.
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I think it’s reasonable to expect a slow development of Kyabram into anything to rival Australia’s top regional zoos. Even though they’re now part of Zoos Victoria and have space to expand, the elephant complex at Werribee and the redevelopment of Melbourne Zoo will surely be taking priority; along with further progression of the Werribee masterplan (Waterhole exhibits).

That’s not to say Kyabram will stagnate, but the advances could well continue in the same vein as the meerkats that arrived as the first exotics in 2022 (lemurs, porcupine etc) over the next 5-10 years.

As thrilling as it’d be to see lions, tigers and great apes, I struggle to foresee anything this ambitious within the decade.
 
Zoofan15 said:
I think it’s reasonable to expect a slow development of Kyabram into anything to rival Australia’s top regional zoos. Even though they’re now part of Zoos Victoria and have space to expand, the elephant complex at Werribee and the redevelopment of Melbourne Zoo will surely be taking priority; along with further progression of the Werribee masterplan (Waterhole exhibits).

That’s not to say Kyabram will stagnate, but the advances could well continue in the same vein as the meerkats that arrived as the first exotics in 2022 (lemurs, porcupine etc) over the next 5-10 years.

As thrilling as it’d be to see lions, tigers and great apes, I struggle to foresee anything this ambitious within the decade.
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Yeah for sure, I went there myself and it seems to be in between a private piece of land that happens to have animals and an actual zoo, there were some nice new bits like the koalas, some old bits being rebuilt and some old bits being quasi abandoned. I'm definitely optimistic but in my opinion it would do better as a nicer version of private country zoos than as a worse version of urban zoos.
 
I could see it becoming a bit of a dumping ground for Melb, Werribee and Healesville to free up space and breed native animals, especially with them receiving the Zoosvic stamp of approval. (meerkats near a cafe)
 
Krookaburra said:
A flying fox aviary in Healesville with Kyabram's foxes would be pretty cool ngl...:rolleyes:
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Healesville had flying foxes but these were removed because of disease risk. My guess is that will happen in Kyabram too.
 
@The Sleepy Hippo

They are an underrated critter Vervets monkeys hey, very charismatic and interesting to see and watch for lengthy times. If a zoo's cafe had enough space for an area with a viewing area for Vervets and another section bordering Meerkat exhibit would be fantastic (Meerkats still being very popular with general visitors). The Vervets would probably try asking for food through the glass though unless viewing was one way.
 
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