ara, was thinking the same thing today, but tell me how many of the more than 5 million people who visit our 4 major zoos every year will go to taronga, melbourne, adelaide and perth zoos in one year, let alone 5 or even ten? and stand there, thinking, god, i saw the same type of elephant, giraffe, lion and zebra last month in NSW?
the zoos will never look the same, for one thing there will be the select, individual native species which characterise the zoo, like Perth with its numbats, etc.
and the zoos are all moving in fairly different directions. long-term, both melbourne and taronga may be similar but i dont think perth and adelaide will resemble them ultimately.
taronga for one will always have the premier range of great apes in this country. they will also end up with representative eco-systems of most continents. but perth and maybe adelaide will lack extensive south american exhibits, marine super exhibits etc. adelaide wont have elephants, but may be able to strengthen its SEA collection in other areas. and if it ends up that most Australian zoos have pretty much the same collection plan, then surely thats not a bad thing. its a sign theyre acheiving their goals. im over the stamp collecting mentality. thankfully, so too are our zoos.
that the species is being phased out though, to make room for additional animals for the struggling serval, golden cat and fishing cat programs.
