Adelaide Zoo Pandas Wang Wang and Funi soon to be Adelaide Zoo stars

Hix said:
stereotyped behaviours, like pacing, are very difficult to break once established, and animals that move from one place to another will carry those behaviours with them. I am certainly NOT suggesting he developed his pacing at Adelaide Zoo.

I imagine most (all?) of the Pandas at the breeding centres in China must have developed stereotyped pacing and behaviours. Although they are often photo'd using large semi-natural outdoor areas, there are so many Pandas there nowadays I think a lot of them still spend much time segregated into smaller confined cages/areas. They certainly used to and I doubt that much has changed. When the 'panda' scientist George Schaller visited Wolong(?)some years go he was horrified at the conditions they were kept in.

I also suspect the Pandas in America and Europe(which all came from China apart from the Zooborns) have probably all got the same behaviours, but they just adapt it to the newer environment they find themselves in. Not always immediately noticeable of course, unless you stop and observe for a while as you did...
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
Wang Wang leaves giant panda debt for Adelaide Zoo | Herald Sun
ADELAIDE Zoo has a giant panda debt it will be paying off for a decade, the non-profit conservation charity says.

On the first anniversary of the pandas' Adelaide debut, Zoos SA chief executive Dr Chris West said the zoo was "not floating on a sea of panda dollars" and borrowed $6.7 million to turn the dream into reality, reported AdelaideNow.

"We are a charity, bringing very significant tourism revenue into South Australia but we are not loaded ourselves," he said.

"We are stretched - against a balanced business plan - and will be repaying the bank for a while. The time-frame for paying off the panda debt depends on several factors including visitation, other revenue and panda babies, but at the current rate it looks like it will be closer to 10 years than to five."

Giant pandas Wang Wang and Funi are on loan from the Chinese Government for 10 years.

The Federal Government is paying $1 million each year to the Chinese Government for the international breeding program that aims to save the critically endangered species.

A further $5 million promised in the lead-up to the 2007 Federal Election by then Foreign Affairs Minister Alexander Downer, never arrived because Labor won.

The State Government invested $18.9 million in the new entrance and fence, including a conference centre, but the zoo was left to find the $8 million for the panda exhibit from sponsors, donors and a bank loan.

The pandas have been a major drawcard for the zoo, pushing up the number of visitors by 70 per cent from 349,000 visitors a year to 595,000 in the first panda year.

Zoo membership has grown 25per cent to 32,500. More than 30 per cent of visitors came from interstate or overseas, most commonly from Victoria, NSW, Queensland, Western Australia and Europe.

Dr West said that's 180,000 people a year, bringing an estimated $192 million dollars to the state.

Tourism Minister John Rau agreed pandas were driving a "healthy rise in visitors from outside SA who have been spending money in our state".

"With only a handful of international zoos currently exhibiting this species, they are a real drawcard for South Australia and provide benefits for hotels, shops, restaurants and other tourist attractions," he said.
Click to expand...
 
I love the giant panda debate, as every non-Chinese zoo that has pandas must assess the pros and cons to having the burly bears in their collection. Adelaide has increased visitors by 70% in the first year, and those hundreds of thousands of extra people venturing through the gates must have spent a lot of cash at the restaurant, cafe or gift shop. On the other hand, no matter how many folks swarm the zoo in the future the rent/loan for the pandas is always astronomical and usually about one million dollars a year.

In the summer of 2008 on our 30-zoo road trip my wife and I visited all four American zoos that had giant pandas (San Diego, Atlanta, Memphis and National) and 3 out of those 4 zoos have actually bred the animals in the past decade. Memphis is the only zoo without a birth, but a panda baby is worth a tremendous amount of cash. Adelaide really needs a baby panda in the future to maintain excitement in South Australia, and if that amazing event does occur then it will be worth it for the zoo. Also, one must not forget that Adelaide has been attracting many tourists to the zoo rather than the usual local crowd, and I even know that some ZooChatters have made the trek from Melbourne and Sydney just to see the black-and-white critters!
 
just saw this news item from last month that slipped under our collective radars:
Panda keeper gives thumbs up for Adelaide breeding - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)
24 Feb 2011

Adelaide Zoo's giant pandas are getting a visit from the curator of the Vienna Zoo's panda exhibit.

Two pandas have been born in Vienna, the most recent last August.

Austrian curator Eveline Dungl thinks there is a good chance Adelaide's pandas Wang Wang and Funi will conceive once Funi reaches maturity in about six months.

"She's still quite young but in the future she might be a good mother," she said.

"I think as long as you're able to cool the inside of the enclosure, to provide some artificial snow maybe or to make it wet enough for them it might be OK."

Adelaide Zoo's senior panda keeper Simone Davey recently went to Vienna with her team.

Its zoo has had a breeding pair of giant pandas from China since 2003.
Click to expand...
 
Going to Adelaide next Friday for the weekend with a mate. Hopefully i will get to see the pandas.
 
'She's still quite young but in the future she might be a good mother'

You don't need to be much of a Panda expert to make a statement like that!
 
Cookies must be enabled | Herald Sun
13 August 2012

They live apart and barely known each other, but there'll be little time for romance when giant pandas Wang Wang and Funi date in the next few weeks.

The Adelaide Zoo is counting on the couple conceiving during the 36-hour window of opportunity that opens when Funi comes into season.

Female pandas only ovulate once a year and Adelaide Zoo spokeswoman Alison Hassel said everything was on track for the breeding attempt to go ahead soon.

"The first time she (Funi) was here she came into season in October, and last year it was September, so we are expecting any time between the end of this month and mid next month," she said.

Adelaide Zoo has ruled out using "panda ****" - movies depicting mating pandas - to teach the pair how to mate, despite its success in China.

Zoos SA, which recorded a debt of $7.5 million this year, hopes the arrival of a panda cub would boost visitor numbers.

Zoo staff will test Funi's hormones daily over the next few weeks to see when they are at their highest.
Click to expand...
 
I think there would be a better guarantee of success if China were to release e.g. two adult male Pandas to another Zoo (e.g. Taronga Park) in Australia. When the Adelaide female is nearig her oestrus period, the two extra males are temporarily sent there to stimulate the natural system where several males congregate around an oestrus female and vie for mating rights. They could be given access to her at different times to prevent actual fighting. Afterwards the other males simply return to their 'host' zoo.

Wishful thinking maybe but I am sure more Giant Pandas in zoos would breed successfully if such a system was adopted.
 
Fewer patrons visit Adelaide Zoo as novelty of pandas wears off | adelaidenow
8 November 2012


ZOO attendance has plummeted to pre-panda levels over the past financial year.

Today, members of the Royal Zoological Society of South Australia will receive a letter about changes to the board and publication of the 2011-2012 annual report.

The report is available online and is yet to be tabled in Parliament.

Outgoing president Kevin McGuinness, who chose not nominate for another term, said there was "no question" the past 12 months had been a "tremendous challenge".

"The level of debt with Westpac was reset to $7.5 million at a concessional interest rate and with a five-year term," he said.

"In addition, the State Government agreed to increase the annual operating grant to $4.5 million as well as providing additional funding to meet interest costs on the Westpac debt."



Revenue dropped almost $2.4 million, because admissions slumped. At Adelaide Zoo, total admissions fell to 395,632 from the peak of 490,591 in 2009-10 and 485,382 in 2010-11.

"We saw a spike in 09-10 and 10-11, which was anticipated. That was after the arrival of pandas," Zoos SA chief executive Elaine Bensted said.

"It's just simply that that spike hasn't been maintained. We've gone back to slightly above where we were, before the arrival of the pandas."

Ms Bensted has been in the role since September, following the resignation of former chief executive Professor Chris West in April, but she remains up-beat.

"It's excellent, I'm loving it. It's a great organisation," she said. "There is incredible potential for Zoos South Australia to thrive in the future."

Memberships are down to 26,754 from 29,027 in 2011, largely due to a fall in family memberships from 24,466 to 20,569. But there are more life members and bequests.

There is no plan to review admission prices.

A chartered accountant, a marketing guru, a zoologist and the Guide Dogs SA chief executive officer are new Board members, who will help guide the organisation through the coming year.

UniSA animal behaviour expert Dr Carla Litchfield has been nominated for president and Rodney Hobbs vice president, subject to ratification at the AGM on November 29.
Click to expand...
 
I can't believe that the peak attendance when the pandas were new and exciting only reached just below 500,00. Adelaide is a city with a population over 1 million and I assume there were quite a few interstate and even international visitors to boost those numbers. Perhaps more needs to be done to increase local visitation amongst Adelaidians. I doesn't help that the journey from Australia's other large cities will take quite a few hours and there aren't any other major population centres in the whole state.
 
PAT said:
I can't believe that the peak attendance when the pandas were new and exciting only reached just below 500,00. Adelaide is a city with a population over 1 million and I assume there were quite a few interstate and even international visitors to boost those numbers. Perhaps more needs to be done to increase local visitation amongst Adelaidians. I doesn't help that the journey from Australia's other large cities will take quite a few hours and there aren't any other major population centres in the whole state.
Click to expand...

I totally agree, and the poor attendance is downright shocking. Of the 4 American zoos with giant pandas, San Diego receives 3.3 million visitors per year, National Zoo 2.3 million annually, Memphis 1.1 million and Atlanta about 850,000. All of those zoos received pandas and had a boost in attendance that has been maintained for years. The fact that Adelaide received a boost and then the numbers dropped back down again definitely shows that there is a lack of zoo fans in the area.

There are some cities in the United States where the population of the city equals the annual visitation numbers at the local zoo, and examples that are close would be Omaha, Oregon, Reid Park and many others. The city of Adelaide has a million people and so in theory the zoo (if it was actually popular) would equal that number but the truth is not even close. Even in Calgary there are 1.2 million people and also 1.2 million folks who visit the zoo each year, and there are some incredibly cold winters in that region that feature extremely chilly temperatures. Why can't Adelaide entice locals to visit the zoo? Is the zoo regarded as being too small? Is the weather too hot? Too dry in the summer?

I visited in 2007 and toured Adelaide Zoo, Monarto Zoo, Cleland Wildlife Park and Warrawong Sanctuary in the area, and does having 4 places to visit (plus a couple of others) dilute the visitor numbers for the zoo? Do most tourists venture forth to Kangaroo Island rather than stay in the city? I'm quite puzzled as to why Adelaide Zoo has gotten itself into a financial mess with its pandas when most people were predicting a roaring success.
 
Many people comment that the admission prices are too high and that's why they're not visiting. I think that is probably the main reason, as I do think it is quite expensive for a relatively small zoo. I think if they had free entry for children on weekends and during holidays like Melbourne Zoo or a similar scheme, more people would visit.

Adelaide Zoo is certainly in a good spot, I'd say it's much easier to get to for most people than other zoos/wildlife parks in SA.

A panda cub (or even another 'high profile' baby) would be great for visitor numbers I think. It seems Monarto's been having more breeding success with the larger animals these days.
 
I believe there is no way you should compare North American zoo attendance, or other Australian big city zoo attendance, with Adelaide without considering surrounding cities and the broader population within "reasonable" driving distance and the total number of tourists received to each city as a whole each year (domestic and international) (PAT also implies this). I have been to Adelaide several times on business in the last few years but unfortunately I've never had time to go to the zoo. Anyway, the point i wanted to make was that although I found Adelaide to be a beautiful city well worth visiting, it is an extremely isolated city that people almost never pass through (by plane or car) - even Perth is more likely to be used for people coming to and from Africa, Asia and Europe. Further, (as Snowleopard notes) Monarto zoo is also in the Adelaide "catchment" so you would really need to include those visit numbers. Finally, the number of tourists that visit Adelaide each year would be a very small proportion of all the North American cities mentioned. Take San Diego for instance which is right near other big cities like Los Angeles and a major international tourist destination. Even some of the smaller American cities mentioned have a much larger population "catchment" from surrounding cities and towns. Now, perhaps it is true that the people of Adelaide aren't embracing their zoo as much as other cities, but I'm just saying you can't match overall visit numbers with other places without considering Adelaide's isolation and that they get comparatively very few visitors to Adelaide for any reason!
 
Yes, I believe that the higher prices in admission and membership have contributed to many fewer people visiting the zoo, and gaining memberships. Even I haven't visited the zoo or bought a membership in over a year now, where I had had a membership for 5 years.
I also think that with the introduction of the pandas, the new facilities and the loss of many species from the zoo due to the space required for these facilities and pandas have made people wish they had 'the little old adelaide zoo' back.
 
Adelaide Zoo isn't even expensive - $30-odd for an adult - about 1/2 the price of places like Australia Zoo.

I think they might be getting less $$ as people who are visiting are those with the yearly memberships from other states, of which South Australia has a reciprocal agreement with: The 3 in Vic, two in NSW, and 1 in WA.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top