Old Zoo Buildings

N

Nigel

Well-Known Member
I have decided to start a new thread from something that was briefly mentioned in one of the others .

Where do you put old buildings ?

Wellington Zoo ; the oldest in NZ . 100 years old this year . Although it is now doing well in the last decade to upgrade itself to a ( fairly )decent standard , many parts of it look its age .
As there is often inadequate funding from the city council , they have to recreate new enclosures from old . Often this means making a row of 4 adjacent cages into a single enclosure .
The only building that could be described as iconic 19 century Zoochitecture would be the old elephant house , which has been under utilised as a lizard nursery , conservation awareness programme , wet weather shelter ....

I dont mind if it stays where it is , if they could make FULL use of the building ( and not just 39.6 % ) perhaps expand the lizard nursery to be the "Reptile & Amphibian World " enclosure . ..... currently these are scattered in about a dozen locations all round the zoo .....

Any other old building in Wellington Zoo can be sold as scrap metal or kindling as far as I am concerned .....

Auckland Zoo ; For a relatively old zoo ( I think it is 98 years old this year ? ) they have done a nearly complete total makeover , similar to Melbourne Zoo transformation in the last 30 years .
The old dragon statue has been repositioned in the playground near the Farmyard exhibit ( it used to be in the old childrens farm )
The old elephant house has been turned into a conference centre
The old giraffe house is now the entrance to a multi species primate exhibit , with tarantula exhibit ( and room for more insect displays ) in the front entrance way .
The band stand is one of the few buildings that still exists on its original site , in its original condition , and its original purpose ! It has a NZ Historic Places Trust interest on it ( it cannot be disposed of easily )
The restaurant/cafeteria has been restored and modified/enlarged but without significantly changing its original character too much .
The high bridge with the toilet block under it still exists , but the pathway up the hill is closed to the public ( ie . it goes nowhere )

Hamilton and Orana Park do not have the problem of old structures .

An idea for an ornate , but outdated cage structure could be to put it right adjacent to the entrance building . The visitors pay their entrance fee , and then find themselves in an old cage ! This would be a good place to explain to the public that this type of enclosure has no more place in the modern zoo , but the zoo needs funds for the renovation of the oldest parts of the zoo

For zoos that have alot of steep land , I think that they could build a services block backed right into the hillside . For this they could have a loading dock and food preparation on the bottom floor , then animal hospital on the next one or two floors ,then staff meeting rooms/lunch room , then library and offices above that . All the resources together in the one building will help to consolidate the behind the scenes sites , and could free up some more land in the zoo .

Another suggestion from me would be to bury the nocturnal house underground , especially if the current nocturnal house never utilises real sunshine , moonlight , rain etc . That is what they have done with the nocturnal house in Wellington Zoo ( basically a glorified buried tunnel )
 
as i mentioned in an earlier thread melbourne is one of the oldest zoos in the world (i think it's about 140 years old) but fortunately, has only few buildings of historical singnificance left. two old iron-barred orangutan cages can be found on the main drive. fortunately there are no longer any actual animal exhibits along the main drive so these old enclosures don't intrude too much on any masterplanning. i remember as a child these cages still housed spider monkeys.

the zoo has a very old historic carousel, which has been carefully restored. i am very glad that the zoo removed the other nasty fairground rides in the "fun park" in the 90's sometime and you no longer hear aweful music blasting through parts of the zoo. instead the carousel park shares space with a semi-permanent marquee erected here to cater for functions held at the zoo. a much better use of the space i think.

the old cackatoo cage is of historical singnificance. though it is essentially still a massive brick and mesh domed aviary, it now houses macaws, squirrel monkeys, agouti and conures and is called the "amazon aviary". its a very old looking structure, but i see no reason why the zoo would not be able to utilise it no matter what they decide to do in this particular area of the zoo.

the old elephant house is now being used to host a bird show. i have always expected (and hoped) that the area surrounding the old elephant house would become a south american rainforest. it is essentially a moat and an unobtrusive old building that is mostly hidden behind the scences. the exhibit could be easily modified without destroying any of the historical aspects, to house tapir of monkeys or virtually anything.
 
yea at taronga they carnt touch the elephant templs, some of the brick work, and some other buildinhg, and aivary and i am pretty sure they carnt touch himilayan tahr mounatian
 
Adeliade is teh Second oldest in aust, 128 yr old she is and she is also plaugued by old buildings, THe old Elephant house was meant to be demolished, but got hertige listed and is not the elephant interpretive centre, the Flamingo exhibit is also hertige listed theres a little grotto in it thats cant be removed and its stuck there forever now, so the flamingos are still in the enclosure thats was there when the zoo opened (well got flamingoes), the Macaw Aviaries are the same, but they look very good, the stained glass windows and are well planted, they are very nice for an old exhibit. the old hippo house is also hertige listed and is bow used as the Gum and Bamboo store, thats it for adeliade i belive i will check more on sunday
 
Did you know that Adelaide zoo was the last zoo in the world to hold a Javan Rhino, I think the date for that was about 1910.
 
yea i heard that, but it was always thought to be indian, until it died only then it was identified as javan.
 
I heard that it lived there for a long time, I will try and find out what years it was there.
 
So will I, whoa a javan rhino so thats where the Museum Specimen came from, it is an ippressive animal
 
Ben, are you saying that they have a museum Specimen of a Javan rhino in Adelaide Museum, if they have maybe its the only one anywhere????.
 
Yes there is one there, i will go soon and get you all a pic, i can tell you naything abotu it if you want i have spent hours looking at there specimens
 
From what i can rember i think the zoo had it for a long time, maybe the zoo have a record of were they got it from, that would be real interesting, the only other zoo that i know that have had Javan rhino is London zoo and that was a very long time ago.
 
javan rhino

there is a specimen in london's natural history unit. on the subject of asian rhinos scientists in malaysia's sabah state announced the discovery of 30 sumatran rhinos on the weekend.
taronga's heritage features also include its upper and lower entrance, giraffe house, the spotted deer shelter, aquarium fascade, the rustic stone bridge leading down the central staircase, moore park aviary and perhaps the central seal pools.
many histrorical features of taronga have been retained and continue to be utilised. they include the bear canyons, various aviaries, spider monkey exhibit and most of the aboe. others have been put to new uses-the top cafeteria used to be a koala exhibit!
 
A little bit more on Adelaide's Javan Rhino;-

A male, it was bought from an animal dealer in Singapore in 1886,(in the belief that it was an Indian Rhino), and lived at Adelaide for 21 years, dying in 1907.

A post mortem showed that it died of old age and that its teeth were so worn that it could not properly chew its food. For the previous 2 years it had been kept alive by feeding it bran mashes and similar food.

The body was given to the Sth. Aust. museum, and it was skinned and mounted for exhibition, where, I believe, it can still be seen today. (I saw it in 2002.)

41 years later (in 1948) a visiting American zoology professor saw it and pointed out that it was a Javan, not an Indian Rhino. (I imagine that there were a few red faces!)
 
Ara said:
A little bit more on Adelaide's Javan Rhino;-

A male, it was bought from an animal dealer in Singapore in 1886,(in the belief that it was an Indian Rhino), and lived at Adelaide for 21 years, dying in 1907.
it was skinned and mounted for exhibition, where, I believe, it can still be seen today. (I saw it in 2002.)
41 years later (in 1948) a visiting American zoology professor saw it and pointed out that it was a Javan, not an Indian Rhino. (I imagine that there were a few red faces!)
Click to expand...

Does that mean that Adelaide Zoo never knew it was a Javan/Lesser one horned during its life at the zoo?- probably not...

I've recently seen an old b/w postcard of a keeper feeding this rhino at the zoo-it was definately a Javan, the skin fold behind the neck is distinctive.
 
Cincinnati Zoo has three of the oldest zoo buildings in America (two of which were there when the zoo opened). One of the old aviaries is now the Passenger Pigeon Memorial. The Monkey House is the Reptile House, but there are plans to turn it into a cafe. And the Elephant House has never changed its purpose...it still holds three elephants and they are doing renovations to allow bulls.
 
melbourne zoo surprisingly has virtually no obvious signs of its origins.

its purportedly the 3rd oldest zoo in the world!
 
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