The future of the zoos of Northern California

[TheEthiopianWolf03]

San Francisco, Oakland, and Sacramento. These zoos have been complimenting each other to showcase many species. One zoo would have a species the other doesn’t.

Sacramento Zoo has already showcased their master plans and Oakland zoo is going to open Californian trail. The future seems to be very bright for these zoos. The question is, is it a good idea for the zoo trinity continue to complimenting each other? What path should Oakland and San Francisco take as a zoo? (Sacramento has a confirmed plan). Are there any animals that need to be represented by 1 of the 3 zoos?
But the most important question of all, what does the future hold for the 3 zoos?

 

[Arizona Docent]

It is an interesting question which can be expanded to ask how any citiy/region with more than one zoo interact. In my ad hoc opinion (meaning I have not "studied" the issue) it appears they do not coordinate much at all. Dallas Zoo and Fort Worth Zoo - I think several overlapping species. Lincoln Park Zoo and Brookfield Zoo the same. Wildlife World Zoo and Phoenix Zoo the same. Minnesota Zoo and Como Park Zoo some overlap (not sure how much). My city of Tucson is unique in that we have Reid Park Zoo with the ABC exotic animals plus Arizona Sonora Desert Museum with only local animals. Really this is an ideal setup.

The problem with Bay Area or any similar setup is local visitors expect to see certain animals. If one zoo has lions and tigers and giraffes and the other does not, they will lose visitors to the zoo that does. So they end up both having them. IMO this is both good and bad. The good is that perhaps they can coordinate breeding programs and make it less stressful on animals to be transferred across a city instead of across the country. The bad is you see the same thing at both which gives little incentive for people living near one zoo to visit the other (ZooChatters excepted of course).

I have not been to the zoo you mention yet (though SanFran and Oakland will be this summer). But once the amazing new California Trail opens, I wonder how many locals (or tourists) will really want to go to the San Francisco Zoo?

 

[TheEthiopianWolf03]

It is an interesting question which can be expanded to ask how any citiy/region with more than one zoo interact. In my ad hoc opinion (meaning I have not "studied" the issue) it appears they do not coordinate much at all. Dallas Zoo and Fort Worth Zoo - I think several overlapping species. Lincoln Park Zoo and Brookfield Zoo the same. Wildlife World Zoo and Phoenix Zoo the same. Minnesota Zoo and Como Park Zoo some overlap (not sure how much). My city of Tucson is unique in that we have Reid Park Zoo with the ABC exotic animals plus Arizona Sonora Desert Museum with only local animals. Really this is an ideal setup.

The problem with Bay Area or any similar setup is local visitors expect to see certain animals. If one zoo has lions and tigers and giraffes and the other does not, they will lose visitors to the zoo that does. So they end up both having them. IMO this is both good and bad. The good is that perhaps they can coordinate breeding programs and make it less stressful on animals to be transferred across a city instead of across the country. The bad is you see the same thing at both which gives little incentive for people living near one zoo to visit the other (ZooChatters excepted of course).

I have not been to the zoo you mention yet (though SanFran and Oakland will be this summer). But once the amazing new California Trail opens, I wonder how many locals (or tourists) will really want to go to the San Francisco Zoo?

SF zoo does have a few things going for it. For starters, Koalas have always been a crowd pull in any zoo. As well as gorillas, rhinos, and sea lions the zoo has a lot going for it. But the zoo makes up for the quantity of species, Oakland makes up with more qualitative exhibits. Elephant exhibit is one of the best in the nation and the opening of the new California trail will have large and top notch exhibits for each species. I think what the zoos should do is take advantage of the species they already have and start breeding programs in between the three of them. Thus this could create more movement in between zoos and thanks to the close proximity, the zoos can work at a faster pace. Oakland seems to be the outlier in between SF and Sacramento as they don't have Snow leopards, Red pandas, Sifakas, etc. But if the zoos do something like that with a species that they all have in common, will it help with breeding programs for said species or will it created unoriginality between the zoos? Sorry that it took a while to respond as I was flooded with work for the past few months.

 

[birdsandbats]

Minnesota Zoo and Como Park Zoo some overlap (not sure how much).

Minnesota and Como Park do have overlap, but not much. Without looking into it, my guess is they actually do work together to make sure there is little overlap. Here is a list of overlapping species at MZ and CPZ:

Caribou
African Penguin
Tiger
Gray Wolf

That's it. See what I mean?