Kyabram Fauna Park Kyabram Fauna Park

Would t
Zoofan15 said:
Though that would be nice, by housing them exclusively at Kyabram, it’d encourage people to visit. If they can see them at Melbourne Zoo, they’d be unlikely to make the trip for the purpose of seeing a Sri Lankan leopard.

Sometimes having the same species across multiple zoos can support a breeding programme, but in this case, they’d benefit from having a point of difference.

Melanistic Sri Lankan have been reported in the wild, but none exist within the captive population. Melanism in leopards in a recessive gene and is less prevalent than in Jaguars, where melanism is a dominant gene. Nonetheless, it’s more common within the Indian and Indochinese leopard population.
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I’m trying to think of a species that would encourage people to drive this distance, but also not make me drive the distance if you know what I’m saying. Larger megafauna that couldn’t fit at MZ would be my priority. What this would entail I’m not sure, but feel free to brainstorm. I certainly wouldn’t want to drive that far to see a Sri Lankan leopard. A capybara would be a simple addition and is outrageously popular with the public. Something I’ve always wanted for MZ is a walkthrough enclosure with capybara, which may be achievable at Kyabram
 
CGSwans said:
Kyabram and Melbourne do not share the same market. Nobody (except us) is ever going to travel from Melbourne to northern Victoria for a small-ish zoo, Sri Lankan leopards or not.
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Even at this point I'm 50/50 on whether it's worth a visit. I rarely visit Healseville (once very 3/4 years or so) and that can be a day trip. Kyabram's pretty much double the distance and would just be quite a journey to travel there and back. I face the same issue. For what? I really think they would need to implement something HUGE to draw Victorians as a whole in. But at this rate, I'm sure Zoos Vic are confident with Kyabram as it is and won't necessarily look to expand it any bigger than it currently is. Maybe add a few exotics here and there but that'll be about it.
 
 
What was the purpose of buying this place, zoos vic already have Healesville for natives and that seems to be the direction they are keeping for the most part. It would have been good to see them develop this site with exotics.
 
Tiger91 said:
What was the purpose of buying this place, zoos vic already have Healesville for natives and that seems to be the direction they are keeping for the most part. It would have been good to see them develop this site with exotics.
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Zoos Victoria never purchased the Zoo. A large part of its management was done by the Department of Sustainability and Environment (the name at the time). The internal decision was made to incorporate it with Zoos Victoria, as closing it would have been a big hit for the region.
 
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CGSwans said:
The purpose of taking it over was because the government didn’t want it to close.
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Mlawlor said:
Zoos Victoria never purchased the Zoo. A large part of its management was done by the Department of Sustainability and Environment (the name at the time). The internal decision was made to incorporate it with Zoos Victoria, as closing it would have been a big hit for the region.
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Oh right, so it was more of a tourist for the area government type deal that they just throw under the zoos vic banner. That would make more sense, as zoos vic already had the 3 other zoos.
Hopefully one day we will see some nice developments done at the site.
 
Tiger91 said:
Oh right, so it was more of a tourist for the area government type deal that they just throw under the zoos vic banner. That would make more sense, as zoos vic already had the 3 other zoos.
Hopefully one day we will see some nice developments done at the site.
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I would imagine it will be more than just throwing it under the banner, they have full control now and would have expectations on how it will operate. It has only been two years, so things like this will take time to take fruition, especially with so much energy being put into the elephant redevelopment at Werribee. But there have been a few new appointment in positions in the last 12 months that will help lead to new things.
 
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.
 
Mlawlor said:
Zoos Victoria never purchased the Zoo. A large part of its management was done by the Department of Sustainability and Environment (the name at the time). The internal decision was made to incorporate it with Zoos Victoria, as closing it would have been a big hit for the region.
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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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