What zoo would you invest in

S

Strathmorezoo

Well-Known Member
You have won 100,000 000 on the lottery, so what zoo would like to contribute to for example you can build the one exhibit/area that you have always wanted to do. I will start off with Dudley zoo, completely renovated the old Bear Ravine into world class environment for Kodiak bears.
Just a bit of fun, let your imagination run wild
 
With 100 million dollars, why limit yourself to one zoo?! With that kind of money, you could really re-invent the entire zoo world. I'd instead found and host an exhibit design competition, where zoo employees, enthusiastic visitors, etc., can submit designs for innovative zoo exhibits *with winning designs actually being built*. This grant would be attempting to find the next thing to really move the entire zoo world forward. Think exhibits like Woodland Park Zoo's gorilla exhibit or Detroit Zoo's Arctic Ring of Life that really changed the way that zoos think about exhibiting a species. The other stipulation in this grant would be a focus on species that are in need of additional holders. Rather than emphasizing, say, ring-tailed lemurs, or other species that have robust, genetically healthy populations, I'd rather this grant go towards providing new exhibits for species that would really benefit from it.
 
I would choose Plzen Zoo for a tall building resembling the 'World of Birds' at Bronx Zoo and exhibiting animals at different levels of a forest, including subterranean animals, with a separate exhibition showing animals at different levels of the sea, including deep sea life
 
I don’t think 100 million is enough. I’d try to invest to get a chunguillion dollars instead. But since I am told that chunguillion is not a real number I will stick with the hundo million.

I’d split the money between the zoos I like and just hope that they could reach their goals.

But there’s a sinister voice in me telling me to do as my profile picture says and give all that money to the worst possible place to see how the results entail.
 
I’d follow the model Neil suggested and create a fund for different zoos to bid for as well as a partnership with native species reintroduction and support programmes.

I wouldn’t start my own zoo as don’t have the expertise but I’d hope for season tickets and perhaps a small viewing area I could visit out of hours! Dream zoo moment for the selfish bit of the cash.

The fund for actually doing good things would be available for zoos to complete a new or improved species habitat and fund acquisitions of the animals, construction, vets bills, keeper training, marketing and maintenance costs for the first 12 months to get the new or improved exhibit off to a great start.

While I have some ideas I’d love to see (wolves in a fantastic woodland at Whipsnade, a wonderful new walkthrough aviary at CWP) I’d ask the zoos to make the case for the new projects as they are the experts.I would hope it would particularly lead to support for species that are at risk of not being seen in Europe long term in introducing viable, beautifully exhibited and well cared for populations.

I’d also have some smaller grants for zoos or smaller collections to improve habitats that are out of date or to help research and breeding programmes.

And then the native species partnership, strengthening the education about, breeding and reintroduction of some of our most threatened animals.
 
birdsandbats said:
I was thinking of the zoo thing. I would just be intrigued to know if roadside zoos would actually improve if they got all of that money or not.
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Exactly. In my case I would give all that money to Yoshinori Horii, the notorious animal collector who I made a thread about who now operates a zoo under his wife’s name. He’d have no excuse to keep his animals in transport cages if he had 100 million but anyone who has observed this man’s actions knows that he will just waste all that money on buying new animals and subjecting them to shoeboxes over building a proper zoo.
 
birdsandbats said:
I was thinking of the zoo thing. I would just be intrigued to know if roadside zoos would actually improve if they got all of that money or not.
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PossumRoach said:
But there’s a sinister voice in me telling me to do as my profile picture says and give all that money to the worst possible place to see how the results entail.
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Some people run zoos for money and aren't interested in animal welfare. I doubt if they'd be more interested in animal welfare if they had more money.
 
PossumRoach said:
I don’t think 100 million is enough. I’d try to invest to get a chunguillion dollars instead. But since I am told that chunguillion is not a real number I will stick with the hundo million.

I’d split the money between the zoos I like and just hope that they could reach their goals.

But there’s a sinister voice in me telling me to do as my profile picture says and give all that money to the worst possible place to see how the results entail.
Click to expand...

birdsandbats said:
I was thinking of the zoo thing. I would just be intrigued to know if roadside zoos would actually improve if they got all of that money or not.
Click to expand...
If I was to give that sort of money to any zoo (and especially a roadside one), it would be heavily earmarked. Donate money with, say, an earmark of "to improve the welfare of the zoo's existing animal collection", and then it cannot be used towards acquiring new animals, expanding with horrible exhibits, etc. With $100 million, the other option of course would be to buy the roadside zoo, and hire experts to run it that would actually do things properly.
 
Neil chace said:
If I was to give that sort of money to any zoo (and especially a roadside one), it would be heavily earmarked. Donate money with, say, an earmark of "to improve the welfare of the zoo's existing animal collection", and then it cannot be used towards acquiring new animals, expanding with horrible exhibits, etc. With $100 million, the other option of course would be to buy the roadside zoo, and hire experts to run it that would actually do things properly.
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A roadside zoo costs a lot less than $100 million. :p

There's actually a roadside zoo here in Wisconsin (Animal Haven Zoo) going up for sale in a few years if anyone wants it.
 
PossumRoach said:
I don’t think 100 million is enough. I’d try to invest to get a chunguillion dollars instead. But since I am told that chunguillion is not a real number I will stick with the hundo million.

I’d split the money between the zoos I like and just hope that they could reach their goals.

But there’s a sinister voice in me telling me to do as my profile picture says and give all that money to the worst possible place to see how the results entail.
Click to expand...
Could be a massive gamble
 
birdsandbats said:
A roadside zoo costs a lot less than $100 million. :p

There's actually a roadside zoo here in Wisconsin (Animal Haven Zoo) going up for sale in a few years if anyone wants it.
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Agreed, however with $100 million you'd have more than enough to not just buy the zoo, but also put significant funding into improving it. That's also enough money that you'd likely be able to convince a zoo owner to sell you their zoo even it wasn't on the market.
 
Strathmorezoo said:
You have won 100,000 000 on the lottery, so what zoo would like to contribute to for example you can build the one exhibit/area that you have always wanted to do. I will start off with Dudley zoo, completely renovated the old Bear Ravine into world class environment for Kodiak bears.
Just a bit of fun, let your imagination run wild
Click to expand...
Bronx Zoo needs a lot of investments to make it the best zoo in the world, I would use the money for the Bronx Zoo to make it the best Bronx Zoo it can be, cause it's been in neutral for over a decade now.
 
I would set up an AZA fund that works with TAGs, SSPs, and individual zoos to help with the importation of new founders for struggling SSP species, identified candidate species, etc. Or perhaps even pick a few Critically Endangered animals that don't have an SSP and fund them from scratch.

My sense is that there are many animals that could ethically and legally be obtained -- without doing harm to the wild population -- but that zoos/tags/ssps often do not have the resources or need assistance navigating the red tape.

Even better if I can get an accounting/investing genius to set up an endowment to fund the program using only dividends, so that it can be long-term instead of a one time injection.
 
I would give it to Lincoln Park Zoo. Everything they've done in the last twenty-five or so years has been pretty amazing, and I'm sure they would put it to good use. I considered giving it to a more struggling local facility but they have the best track record easily.

Neil's suggestion is obviously the best one, of course.
 
I would use this on Zoo Granby. My home zoo is not the best in the world, the zoo received plenty of criticism and said that they are in small enclosures, but I still love the zoo. The first thing is buying the zoo and MORE acres, 60 acres is not enough. Expand the exhibit and create a look like the natural environment and renovate the zoo. I would also invest my money. Remove all cages and use nature as a barrier between animals and visitors. Build a new exhibit to house the former animals at the zoo like an Andean bear, ocelots, Przewalski's horse, and more. Add new species to the zoo
 
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