I believe after following zoos for many years one of the main problems with 'most"of the big Australian zoos is they are government run (Adelaide zoo is run by a society) which seem to hire 'business people" who are not really "animal people" who then hire consultants who then advise zoo management the way forward. The trend in resent years to down size animals species and the on/off again stop and starts with one species then another does not boy well for the regions collections. In the near future even more species will be lost in the regions animal collections, there appears to have been little forward thinking outside the box. My own view is zoos in New Zealand do a better job than in Aussie also some of the smaller regional zoos here are doing a better job than the state run zoos, a case in point is the Maned wolfs as many would know an endangered species that needs some captive breeding, when the main zoo holding the species lost interest they were taken up by a small regional zoo and they have looked back, I believe they have bred at least 26 so far with a number being sent to other regional zoos. Also they have imported new bloodlines for this breeding program, I take my hat off to them. This is what our Big guys should be doing but appear to have lost the will or their way. I have heard some of our big guns are scared of the animal rights groups hence another reason for not showing live animals the "theatre" appears to some as a better option and less live collections, This is my view, if some dont agree that ok.