New accredited zoos

elefante

elefante

Well-Known Member
15+ year member
Out of curiosity, do you think new accredited zoos will be built in the near future somewhere in your country? For example, in the U.S., it seems that pretty much every major city has a zoo and that there aren't any plans for new facilities. I'm not sure how active animal rights activists are in regards to zoos being built and with the general attitude about things like orcas in captivity and circuses with animals it makes me wonder if new zoos will be built anytime soon. Thoughts?
 
In Czech republic, we see a boom of small private "amateur zoos" right now. Basically, people that own some exotic animals decide to make their collection accessible to general publicum. Some people are ex-cirkus employees, ex-animal traders, some are long-term hobby breeders, some are just fascinated with exotics and want to finance their collection by ticket sale. These small collections usually are located in places with cheapest land, so in villages and small towns in rural areas, with almost no visitor amenities (parkplace, toilets...). They are often of lower quality of animal housing, but vet officials try to keep at least some bare minimum standard. Ministry of the Environment issues on average 2 new zoo licences annually.

Slovakia and Poland see very similar trends. Economy in booming, people have more money for travelling and leisure time, hobbies. Zoo attendances are growing and small private zooos meet demand. Ofcourse, these private zoos rise and fall with that one person that owns and runs them. That makes their future bleak. But at least some of them might get established long term, become important tourist attraction and thus get future support of local municipality. We will see.
 
In Denmark, there was a boom of "mini zoos" in the 1990's and early 2000's. Since then, very little in the way of new zoos have opened, and you regularly hear about the smaller zoos being on the verge of bankruptcy, only to be saved in the last second (Odsherred Zoo and Glad Zoo on top of my head), so I honestly don't think we have the "catchment area" for any more zoos unless some of the already existing ones close.

I can only think of three new zoos that have been opened since this "mini zoo boom"; Zoopark Sydsjælland in 2007, Den Blå Planet in 2013, and Pangea Park this year. Den Blå Planet is not a completely new place as it's just the old Denmark's Aquarium moving into a new location with a new name, and I'm not actually sure that Pangea Park has a zoo license. I haven't visited, but it seems to be a tiny place that only keeps some of the animals that are easily acquired by private hands, such as coypu, kookaburras, and spurred tortoises.

I know that all of the "mini zoos" (with the only exception is Guldborgsund Zoo which is owned by the municipality) are privately owned, and the owners are getting by in years, most of them being in the 55-65 years range. I imagine most of them will retire during the next 10 years and put the zoos on sale, and then we'll find out if mini zoos are still marketable in Denmark, or if only the larger zoos will remain.
 
elefante said:
Out of curiosity, do you think new accredited zoos will be built in the near future somewhere in your country? For example, in the U.S., it seems that pretty much every major city has a zoo and that there aren't any plans for new facilities. I'm not sure how active animal rights activists are in regards to zoos being built and with the general attitude about things like orcas in captivity and circuses with animals it makes me wonder if new zoos will be built anytime soon. Thoughts?
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Yes many major city’s in the US do have zoos but there’s also a large number of mini zoos that don’t. Many feel burden or that they don’t feel that the accreditation is really the best for them.

For example the elephant issue in the US is a lighting rod between the two groups. There are a few elephant sanctuary’s with the states that they aren’t accredited because they don’t believe in the mission of the accreditation.

I feel like there will be additional accreditation zoos in the future. They will be just zoos that gave into the pressure to be accredited in order to maintain what they have.
 
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