Proposed redevelopment at Wellington Zoo - Meet the Locals.
Kiwi creatures for zoo's new themed project | Stuff.co.nz
Wellington Zoo is building a $4.3 million New Zealand-themed precinct as part of a major 10-year redevelopment.
The project, Meet the Locals, will occupy about a third of the zoo area by the time it is completed.
The first phase is scheduled to be finished by the end of this year, with a $900,000 aviary now being built.
The project will be on hold in the next financial year while the sun bear enclosure is upgraded. Most of the work will be done in 2012-13.
Zoo chief executive Karen Fifield said Meet the Locals would trace the Kiwi landscape from the coast to the mountains, beginning with little blue penguins and finishing with a highlands area populated by kea and kaka.
Meet the Locals is the second biggest project in the zoo's 10-year capital development plan, after the $6.5m Nest animal hospital, which was completed last year.
The zoo would not lose any of its present animals in making way for the new displays, Ms Fifield said. Some would be rehoused in other areas and the project would occupy some parts of the zoo that are unused at present, such as the zebra paddock.
It is being funded through the zoo's $20.8m 10-year capital development plan, which is now in its fifth year.
Wellington City Council has contributed $15.6m, leaving the zoo trust to raise the remaining $5.2m.
The trust had so far raised about $3m, Ms Fifield said.
Meet the Locals will also include a farmyard petting zoo and a barn inhabited by invertebrates, including weta.
Ms Fifield said the farmyard elements were a nod to the strong role of agriculture in New Zealand.
From the barn, visitors will move into a walk-through forest aviary with kaka, kereru and kakariki, and on to a highlands area occupied by deer and Himalayan tahr, and up into The Roost, an aviary for kea and other native birds.
Ms Fifield said it was not possible to include every native species because of Conservation Department rules and regulations.
"For example, we wouldn't hold takahe because of the requirements – you'd need a huge area and we'd end up having the whole zoo taken up by about two creatures."
Kakapo will not be coming to the zoo because they are isolated to a population on Codfish Island, near Stewart Island.
But there will be rare creatures, including the Otago skink, which is critically endangered. The zoo will be involved in a "breed for release" programme to help replenish the skink's population.
The zoo will not take animals from the wild except under DOC programmes, and does not plan to breed animals for sending overseas.
Ad Feedback Ms Fifield said she hoped people would see the new area as a way to get to know their own country. "We'll never have elephants at Wellington Zoo [again], but it's really important that people love their own country, and what's happening in their own backyard."
Kiwi creatures for zoo's new themed project | Stuff.co.nz
Wellington Zoo is building a $4.3 million New Zealand-themed precinct as part of a major 10-year redevelopment.
The project, Meet the Locals, will occupy about a third of the zoo area by the time it is completed.
The first phase is scheduled to be finished by the end of this year, with a $900,000 aviary now being built.
The project will be on hold in the next financial year while the sun bear enclosure is upgraded. Most of the work will be done in 2012-13.
Zoo chief executive Karen Fifield said Meet the Locals would trace the Kiwi landscape from the coast to the mountains, beginning with little blue penguins and finishing with a highlands area populated by kea and kaka.
Meet the Locals is the second biggest project in the zoo's 10-year capital development plan, after the $6.5m Nest animal hospital, which was completed last year.
The zoo would not lose any of its present animals in making way for the new displays, Ms Fifield said. Some would be rehoused in other areas and the project would occupy some parts of the zoo that are unused at present, such as the zebra paddock.
It is being funded through the zoo's $20.8m 10-year capital development plan, which is now in its fifth year.
Wellington City Council has contributed $15.6m, leaving the zoo trust to raise the remaining $5.2m.
The trust had so far raised about $3m, Ms Fifield said.
Meet the Locals will also include a farmyard petting zoo and a barn inhabited by invertebrates, including weta.
Ms Fifield said the farmyard elements were a nod to the strong role of agriculture in New Zealand.
From the barn, visitors will move into a walk-through forest aviary with kaka, kereru and kakariki, and on to a highlands area occupied by deer and Himalayan tahr, and up into The Roost, an aviary for kea and other native birds.
Ms Fifield said it was not possible to include every native species because of Conservation Department rules and regulations.
"For example, we wouldn't hold takahe because of the requirements – you'd need a huge area and we'd end up having the whole zoo taken up by about two creatures."
Kakapo will not be coming to the zoo because they are isolated to a population on Codfish Island, near Stewart Island.
But there will be rare creatures, including the Otago skink, which is critically endangered. The zoo will be involved in a "breed for release" programme to help replenish the skink's population.
The zoo will not take animals from the wild except under DOC programmes, and does not plan to breed animals for sending overseas.
Ad Feedback Ms Fifield said she hoped people would see the new area as a way to get to know their own country. "We'll never have elephants at Wellington Zoo [again], but it's really important that people love their own country, and what's happening in their own backyard."
