Who wants to own a zoo?

Owning a zoo

  • I want to own a zoo

    Votes: 28 82.4%

  • I do not want to own a zoo

    Votes: 6 17.6%
  • Total voters
    34
animalszoos

animalszoos

Well-Known Member
5+ year member
Which of you wants to own a zoo?
How realistic do you think your chances of owning a zoo are?
If you did own a zoo, how high would it be ranked (top 100, top 10 etc.)?
List your reasons for owning/for not owning a zoo.
Also mention space (acres, cost etc.), number of species and economical profit/loss.
 
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Of corse that I want to own a zoo, and think that most zoochaters would too.

I think it is realistic, particularly if you have enough money just to build the enclosures, and rest infrastructure; you can get zoo animals as donations from other zoos, if you provide approipriate conditions and plans for their care. Certantly you will not get donation like gorillas, sumatran tigers, okapis or other more threathened species initially, but you can get pretty much wide variety of zoo animals.

You can start even with just 5 species of zoo animals and enclosures for animals from 5 species.
 
Batto said:
Or what about the running costs?
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The running costs should be covered by income from tickets, and eventualy other alternative way(s) of earning like: taking place of weddings, making film about the zoo and then selling the film for TV-station (Animal planet?) (film-making), animal-toys-shop, restaurant(s) in the zoo, etc. Without income, the zoo would normaly wont cover the running costs and would not exist.
 
Nikola Chavkosk said:
The running costs should be covered by income from tickets, and eventualy other alternative way(s) of earning like: taking place of weddings, making film about the zoo and then selling the film for TV-station (Animal planet?) (film-making), animal-toys-shop, restaurant(s) in the zoo, etc. Without income, the zoo would normaly wont cover the running costs and would not exist.
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“Should be“, “eventually“, “selling films“, “etc.”...
Maybe you should contact the financial department of a real zoo for more realism..
 
Batto said:
“Should be“, “eventually“, “selling films“, “etc.”...
Maybe you should contact the financial department of a real zoo for more realism..
Click to expand...

Why not Batto, making short educative film, like for example in ten series for up to 45 minutes, that's not highly unlikely. You can sell such film, maybe for up to 1,000,000 euros to Animal planet, I don't know.


My selling is with two ''ll'' :)
 
I'm not sure I would like to own a zoo spontaneously, but I would love to work at a zoo and work my way up the ladder.
 
Hello. I have thought this would be a great place to discuss my ideas and plans for opening a zoo in or around the Bangkok Thialand area. I am at the very early stages of opening a rescue centre in the Bodmin Cornwall area. Although this is not quite the same as a zoo the process is fairly similar with regards to seeking funding,chairty registration, business plans, planning permission, networking and working alongside other organisations, seeking professional support and help, managing and financing while relying on donations and voluntre work. I travelled to Thailand several years ago and witnessed some poverty driven zoos, animals where in awful conditions and the zoo's where more then often empty. Thailand's economy relays heavily on tourisim which meant that without ticket sales these zoos and the owners are struggling to support the cost leaving both animals and themselves in difficult positions. It also means that there largest visitors are from britian or america. As the western world appear to be more inclined to seeing healthy animals in large cages and with all the Facebook post sharing information on these zoos it would make these zoo less of an attraction. I thought intensely about using this as an advantage to opening a zoo where I could collaborate some of these small zoos and combine them into a larger more attractive for everyone zoo meaning a much higher chance of profit. After researching and applying for funding for years I have stumbled across trust funds who have millions to give for purposes like this,I've also contacted a few organisation in thialand to gather more information. My dream would be to meet a few people who would be willing to take on this huge challenge!! Zoo yes I would love to own a zoo :))
 
I would do small carnivores only and if I really put my heart into it I suppose I could on a small scale. I have contacts with breeders in the USA and some species like serval, caracal, geoffroys cat would be easily obtainable. Orphaned bobcats and foxes no problem either. My pet peeve of most (almost all) zoos is that relative to their budget they give very little to conservation. Even the AZA which is allegedly the gold standard has a facility average of just over two percent to conservation. This is appalling. I would make a commitment from opening day that half of all donations go directly to field conservation and the other half goes directly to the facility and animals (with zero funding for the all volunteer staff, at least initially).
 
Knowing me I will end up owning something unusual like a zoo someday (another possibility is a folding kayak shop/rental place).

It would depend on what was available, really. I know of a large patch of forested land, maybe I would have a drive through ice age park with Elephants, Tapirs, and the like.
 
I'd start with buying some land that's in a cheap place but not too far from people with money. I'd probably just start with deer and antelope. Maybe some monkeys and whatever else I can get. As I work my way up, I'll try to gain more trust, and as that goes up, animals and infrastructure will improve.
 
How realistic do you think your chances of owning a zoo are?

I think that's really hard... It doesn't mean to be pessimistic, but itsn't easy spend a lot of money to open a zoo and to keep it.





If you did own a zoo, how high would it be ranked (top 100, top 10 etc.)?

It depends on financial conditions... But in general, I think that the strong in my zoo would be the quality, not the number of animals. Then it depends on the viewpoint.





List your reasons for owning/for not owning a zoo.

I think one of the big reasons I want a zoo is that few large zoos have healthy animals, as usually the big zoos aren't private.





Also mention space (acres, cost etc.), number of species and economical profit/loss.I want to own a zoo.

This depends heavily on the financial condition and location, but basically I would buy a space that would last a long time.
I probably would build a zoo in Brazil, as it is a great country that doesn't have very good zoos.
I would start with species that aren't too expensive, are easy to maintain and are hard to find in Brazil to be the stars, such as Ring-tailed lemurs, Meerkats, Kangaroos, Chameleons... In addition, some simple animals (mostly native species) like birds, reptiles, monkeys...
 
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FelipeDBKO said:
I would start with species that aren't too expensive, are easy to maintain (...)Chameleons... In addition, some simple animals (mostly native species) like birds, reptiles, monkeys...
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Once again: chameleons aren't in general easy to maintain. Some can be easier to care for than others given the correct husbandry parameters, but they're certainly no "beginner" reptiles-just as the majority of reptiles (but also birds & even more so monkeys) are not "simple" to care for. You might have a climatic advantage in parts of Brazil for the outdoor husbandry of tropical reptile species in comparison to, say, most of Europe or North America, but that doesn't negate the previous lines.
 
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