Siegfried & Roy’s Secret Garden and Dolphin Habitat Siegfried and Roy have disappeared

DavidBrown said:
Siegfried is dead at age 81 and Roy died in 2020. What will become of their zoo at the Mirage? Hopefully the animals will be well-kept and live good lives if the facility is shut down, now that their patrons are gone.



Siegfried Fischbacher, Magician of Siegfried & Roy, Dies at 81
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I hope it isn't shut down, given their legacy and the amount of animals they have, I imagine the Secret Garden would be kept as a tribute to Siegfried and Roy (maybe even a Cat Conservation Center for rare species like Sumatran tiger, Transvaal lion, clouded leopard, fishing cat, sand cat, ocelot, stuff like that. Maybe @Arizona Docent could have a couple ideas as to what could happen with the space in terms of potential species?)
 
@Wyman While your suggestion is grand, it will never happen. Las Vegas is about making money pure and simple. The Secret Garden was not some conservation project - it was an additional attraction to lure people to The Mirage based on the performer's fame. When I visited it years ago (1997) the admission fee was ten dollars which was in my opinion a rip-off for what you got to see (maybe five exhibits?). Who knows how much it costs now? I have a strong suspicion that it will disappear in the near future, just as the free white tiger palace at the hotel entrance disappeared once they stopped performing.
 
It will be intriguing to see what becomes of the zoo as there are only 7 exhibits there. When I visited in 2017 there was a total of 10 dolphins (in two pools that were connected) and then 6 exhibits of big cats. There were a couple of tiger enclosures (orange and white tigers), an African Leopard (black), an Amur Leopard and a couple of enclosures for White Lions. That's the entire zoo and obviously the dolphins will be the most difficult to find a home for should the zoo ever close down.

Also, inside the lobby of the Mirage Hotel is a 53-foot long aquarium tank behind the check-in desk. It is 8 feet high, 6 feet wide; it has 4 inch thick acrylic and holds 21,000 gallons of water. For a random aquarium in a hotel it is really nice and it was teeming with all sorts of colourful fish and even a few eels back in 2017.
 
I would suspect that Siegfried had made arrangements for the animals long term. I had two chance meetings with him at the exhibits, and he clearly had genuine love for the animals. I would not be surprised if the Mirage already owned the animals as some sort of agreement with Siegfried and Roy prior to their deaths.
 
I give it 2-5 years before the whole area is redeveloped. I have been to Vegas a fair amount of times, and that land is worth more to the resort as something new to attract people. It was already expensive for what it was, I only went back in 2007 and have not been back to it since then because of the cost compared to other options.
 
Having visited this facility multiple times, I was always impressed with the level of care and enrichment provided to the dolphins. Something has changed I am afraid. It is anticipated that the Secret Garden and Dolphin Habitat were slated for closing after the Mirage was sold recently and with the deaths of both Siegfried and Roy, maybe it is just best to move the dolphins out now. I will miss them in Las Vegas, but it may be time for their welfare.
 
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