Spec. Zoo Design questions

I have a couple of general questions for my spec Zoo:
  • What is the best way to have entrance animals (two entrances) while also mitigating clogged crowds and other possible issues? What are the best entrance animals for a Mediterranean and an Australasian island area (arid-adapted)?
  • How should I make the exhibit layout, placement, and building layout realistic while also making the hypothetical Zoo easy for visitors to move around?
  • In exhibits, what should be the ideal ratio of large, headliner animals to smaller, "less-interesting for the general public" animals?
 
MOG2012 said:
What are the best entrance animals for a Mediterranean and an Australasian island area (arid-adapted)?
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Mediterranean entrance : a wetland exhibit with Flamingos and a various array of other coastal birds, these species are colourful, vibrant and easy to see.
Australasian entrance : a mixed exhibit with Emus, Red Kangaroos and one Wallaby species, all of them are recognized as typical Australian species and appreciated by the general, non-expert public.
 
MOG2012 said:
What is the best way to have entrance animals (two entrances) while also mitigating clogged crowds and other possible issues?
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I think the best, and probably most obvious, way to avoided a clogged space is to a) make the entrance animal one that isn't a "headliner" but still has some intrigue, and/or b) make sure the entry area as a whole is spread out, prompting visitors to remain spread out across the space.
 
Van Beal said:
I think the best, and probably most obvious, way to avoided a clogged space is to a) make the entrance animal one that isn't a "headliner" but still has some intrigue, and/or b) make sure the entry area as a whole is spread out, prompting visitors to remain spread out across the space.
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I agree with B, in Burgers' Zoo the entrance animals are penguins, which are held in quite a long enclosure, encouraging people to essentially keep walking
 
Mr Gharial said:
I agree with B, in Burgers' Zoo the entrance animals are penguins, which are held in quite a long enclosure, encouraging people to essentially keep walking
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Van Beal said:
I think the best, and probably most obvious, way to avoided a clogged space is to a) make the entrance animal one that isn't a "headliner" but still has some intrigue, and/or b) make sure the entry area as a whole is spread out, prompting visitors to remain spread out across the space.
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I was thinking of having penguins (somewhat headliner), along with a mangrove enclosure (riparium) and some cockatoos for one entrance. The other entrance has a lizard & tortoise enclosure, flamingos, and Hamadryas baboon. Would that work. The lizard & tortoise enclosure + the mangrove riparium, and Penguin cafe are indoors
 
MOG2012 said:
I was thinking of having penguins (somewhat headliner), along with a mangrove enclosure (riparium) and some cockatoos for one entrance. The other entrance has a lizard & tortoise enclosure, flamingos, and Hamadryas baboon. Would that work. The lizard & tortoise enclosure + the mangrove riparium, and Penguin cafe are indoors
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I think those are good. Provides areas of interest for multiple demographics of zoo-goers, while being species that are active and relatively easy to see.

Not in relation to my response, what would the ideal numbers in each of the following mixes be for each species?
Mix 1 - Elliot's Pheasant, Mountain Peacock-Pheasant, Grey-winged Blackbird
Mix 2 - Chinese Hwamei, Himalayan Monal
Mix 3 - Japanese Sika, Black-necked Crane, Bar-headed Goose
 
Van Beal said:
Not in relation to my response, what would the ideal numbers in each of the following mixes be for each species?
Mix 1 - Elliot's Pheasant, Mountain Peacock-Pheasant, Grey-winged Blackbird
Mix 2 - Chinese Hwamei, Himalayan Monal
Mix 3 - Japanese Sika, Black-necked Crane, Bar-headed Goose
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Mix 1 - 1,3 Elliot's Pheasant/1,1 Mountain Peacock-pheasant, 1,1 Grey-winged Blackbird. Elliot's Pheasants would kill the Peacock-Pheasant so you have to choose one of them. (Two or more Galliformes normaly won't work together in one aviary, but there are some exceptions too)

Mix 2 - 1,1 Chinese Hwamei, 1,1 Himalayan Monal

Mix 3 - 1,1 Black-necked Crane, 2,2 Bar-headed Goose. I don't know much about deers and other mammals so someone else have to answer that.
 
Paul.Haerle said:
I don't know much about deers and other mammals so someone else have to answer that.
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Sika deer can live in very large (harem) herds, so there isn't a real max here. It depends on the size of the aviary I suppose. I don't really know what the minimum number would be, but 1.3 or 1.4 would be a safe bet
 
Paul.Haerle said:
Mix 3 - 1,1 Black-necked Crane, 2,2 Bar-headed Goose. I don't know much about deers and other mammals so someone else have to answer that.
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Could I increase the size of the crane group if I were to decide they would not be breeding? The number I had in mind was 0.4 but I don't know if that would work.
 
Paul.Haerle said:
How can I aviary rows attractive for visitors?
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Make the aviaries unique. Don't have 5 tropical Asian aviaries next to each other. Instead have, for example, a European coastal aviary, then an African savanna aviary, then an American forest aviary, then an Australian desert aviary, etc.

Also, make larger aviaries with more species, rather than smaller aviaries with one passerine each. Give the visitors something to look for, so include smaller ground species along with the others
 
This question is regarding the Chester Zoo Masterplan that I am working on, but I just need help with deciding on what to repurpose an old monkey house into. I get this might be hard without knowing the context of the zoo, but here are the options:

1: A siberia house featuring an aviary in an old macaque indoor house that stretches outdoors with pheasants, perching birds and musk deer and an amur leopard habitat that is 2 of the monkey indoor and outdoor enclosures, connected with an overhead crossing

2: A caribbean house, the stream that acts as a barrier for the monkey islands outside is big and deep enough for manatees, there would be a caribbean aviary, a macaw aviary and a white-nosed coati habitat in the remaining enclosure.

3: A north america house , with a cougar habitat in the same style as the previously mentioned leopard habitat, a habitat for raccoons inside and outside in an old monkey habitat, a great grey owl aviary and an american black bear habitat.

The zoo has good representation of Asia and South America already, but no representation of those areas, and it has little to no representation of North America. The doesn't have a true leopard (unless you count the jaguar), no cold-climate black bears, no animals from the caribbean at all and the cold-climate bird selection is quite thin. Let me know what you think!
 
AmazonianHippo said:
This question is regarding the Chester Zoo Masterplan that I am working on, but I just need help with deciding on what to repurpose an old monkey house into. I get this might be hard without knowing the context of the zoo, but here are the options:

1: A siberia house featuring an aviary in an old macaque indoor house that stretches outdoors with pheasants, perching birds and musk deer and an amur leopard habitat that is 2 of the monkey indoor and outdoor enclosures, connected with an overhead crossing

2: A caribbean house, the stream that acts as a barrier for the monkey islands outside is big and deep enough for manatees, there would be a caribbean aviary, a macaw aviary and a white-nosed coati habitat in the remaining enclosure.

3: A north america house , with a cougar habitat in the same style as the previously mentioned leopard habitat, a habitat for raccoons inside and outside in an old monkey habitat, a great grey owl aviary and an american black bear habitat.

The zoo has good representation of Asia and South America already, but no representation of those areas, and it has little to no representation of North America. The doesn't have a true leopard (unless you count the jaguar), no cold-climate black bears, no animals from the caribbean at all and the cold-climate bird selection is quite thin. Let me know what you think!
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Space-wise, I think maybe a Smoky Mountains might be a good exhibit, starring American Black Bears. I don't think there would be enough space for the Cougar but maybe a bobcat or lynx would work. If you want a Caribbean area, maybe you could do a Gulf of Mexico (not America) exhibit travelling from the Everglades to the Caribbean to the Yucatan Peninsula
 
I'm not too familiar with the layout of Chester's monkey house, but I agree a Central American area would be quite nice, and a Gulf of Mexico exhibit that ranges from the Swamps of the South/Eastern US to the Caribbean islands and the Yucatan would be a very unique idea.

You could include American alligators, Raccoons, Margays, Coati, one of the Central American spider monkeys or White-faced capuchins, and there's plenty of smaller reptiles from the islands for a reptile section, as well as both freshwater and saltwater fish for an aquarium. A Cuban wetlands aviary with American flamingos, Roseate spoonbills, American white ibises, etc to finish it off and you've got a great allround region
 
Mr Gharial said:
I'm not too familiar with the layout of Chester's monkey house, but I agree a Central American area would be quite nice, and a Gulf of Mexico exhibit that ranges from the Swamps of the South/Eastern US to the Caribbean islands and the Yucatan would be a very unique idea.

You could include American alligators, Raccoons, Margays, Coati, one of the Central American spider monkeys or White-faced capuchins, and there's plenty of smaller reptiles from the islands for a reptile section, as well as both freshwater and saltwater fish for an aquarium. A Cuban wetlands aviary with American flamingos, Roseate spoonbills, American white ibises, etc to finish it off and you've got a great allround region
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Great idea! Only that we've already got a Latin American aviary with those birds and both a capuchin and spider monkey species that are going to be given a new habitat in the rainforest exhibit being made in 2028...

Thanks for the feedback Mr Gharial and MOG2012, I'll have a think about it!
 
I can't provide a link to another thread, so the best I can do is advertise to you : Check out the Chester Zoo Spec Thread!
 
What do you think about non-birds in bird parks ?
Would you mind if you see many of them in a bird park/ Do you think there is a "maximum number" for them ?
 
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Paul.Haerle said:
What do you think about non-birds in bird parks ?
Would you mind if you see many of them in a bird park/ Do you think there is a "maximum number" for them ?
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I'm not interested on most of these species, as they are often common popular (more than birds in most cases) "filler" species as Red-necked Wallabies, Meerkats, Ring-tailed Lemurs... unless there are rarer species in interesting habitats (for example Agutis, Armadillos, Mouse Deer... in a bird house).
 
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