Why are there no zoos in Las Vegas?

SusScrofa

SusScrofa

Well-Known Member
Regardless of AZA-accredited or not. Vegas is a fun city with plenty of tourists. Even if you aren't into gambling or drinking you can find something fun to do. There's a pretty good aquarium inside Mandalay Bay (hotel itself is very nice to visit as well).
With Vegas's party reputation and larger than life image I would expect a zoo aiming to compete with the likes of San Diego and offering really interactive (perhaps even controversial) animal experiences. Yet as far as I'm aware, no zoological facilities are even in the state of Nevada outside of maybe some tiny roadside places.
What exactly is the reason no one has built a zoo in the city?
 
Because all of the people there are interested in a different kind of entertainment. Every few years someone tries to open a zoo in Vegas and it always fails.

There are several zoos in Nevada though, including three aquariums in Vegas, Springs Preserve (a native species collection in Vegas), two zoos in Reno, and a zoo in Imlay.
 
When one is visiting Vegas, going to the zoo probably isn't what most people have in mind. ;) The target audience of Las Vegas and the target audience of zoos are really quite different from one another. Despite this, there is always some sort of group who will pop up every once in a while trying to bring a zoo to Vegas, without anything ever coming from it.

Cross-posted with @birdsandbats. If anyone's interested in reading about a recent attempt to bring a zoo to Vegas, check out the thread below.

AZA Zoo for Las Vegas?
 
Vegas of course still has the party reputation but today also has much more of a broader, family-friendly appeal then in the past, I mean they now have an NFL and NHL team :)
I was not aware of any zoos in Reno. I looked it up and apparently there's the Sierra Safari Zoo, but despite the name it looks sketchy and even on the very low-bar google review, the ratings are terrible. So definitely giving off a "roadside" vibe.
 
SusScrofa said:
With Vegas's party reputation and larger than life image I would expect a zoo aiming to compete with the likes of San Diego and offering really interactive (perhaps even controversial) animal experiences.
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SusScrofa said:
What exactly is the reason no one has built a zoo in the city?
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SusScrofa said:
Vegas of course still has the party reputation but today also has much more of a broader, family-friendly appeal then in the past, I mean they now have an NFL and NHL team
Click to expand...

Tourists do visit zoos, but locals are actually the main base of zoo admissions and overwhelming base of membership dues. Vegas is now at the point where there is a strong base of middle-class families who would frequent a local zoo, but that's a very new development (within the last 2 or 3 decades) and very few major zoos were established that recently. A zoo in Vegas wouldn't "compete" with a zoo in San Diego anyway; tourists aren't going to choose to visit one city over the other based on which one has a better zoo.

I've said it a couple times elsewhere, but I'll repeat my perspective here: zoos are historical coincidences, not inevitable. They don't necessarily spring up in places that could theoretically support one; most major zoos have existed for a while and their location doesn't always make the most logical sense.

Even so, as others have pointed out there *are* zoological attractions in Vegas so it's not a completely unmet demand.
 
Yep, most municipal zoos in the US in second/third (or even lower) tier cities are relics of the New Deal era WPA. A lot of them thrived in the post war economic boom to come crashing down by the 70s. They mostly have upgraded and evolved thanks to the evolution of public/private nonprofit partnerships on said former municipal space.

Las Vegas simply wasn't a major city in that regard in the Post War economic boom.

Very few zoos have been founded from scratch since then to fill the voids in migration patterns. NC Zoo in the Research Triangle was founded as essentially part of state not municipal government. DAK and other attractions fill that niche for Central Florida. Most other "new" zoos ie Nashville are technically the same organization dating back but in a different location.
 
tschandler71 said:
Yep, most municipal zoos in the US in second/third (or even lower) tier cities are relics of the New Deal era WPA. A lot of them thrived in the post war economic boom to come crashing down by the 70s. They mostly have upgraded and evolved thanks to the evolution of public/private nonprofit partnerships on said former municipal space.

Las Vegas simply wasn't a major city in that regard in the Post War economic boom.

Very few zoos have been founded from scratch since then to fill the voids in migration patterns. NC Zoo in the Research Triangle was founded as essentially part of state not municipal government. DAK and other attractions fill that niche for Central Florida. Most other "new" zoos ie Nashville are technically the same organization dating back but in a different location.
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This is a perfect point, municipalities just are not building zoos at this point. Some enterprising individuals do, and that is the best possibility for Vegas. The weather will always be a challenge, but it is a challenge that can be met with the right animals and right design.

Just to clarify, Central Florida does have the Central Florida Zoo in Sanford, which is AZA, in addition to the private facilities like Wild Florida and Gatorland, and of course DAK. CFZ opened in 1923, the current location stared in 1975. DAK is certainly a major zoo, probably the most current major zoo built from the ground up, but anything Disney is a bit of an outlier.
 
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