Hmmm, I've often wondered what I would like to house in my 'fantasy' zoo. Bearing in mind the limitations that you've imposed I would like to focus on a small but varied collection 'weird and bizarre' animals.
The number one animal on my list and my 'flagship' species would be the platypus; they are my favourite animal and used to a temperate climate so I think they would do well in England. They are fascinating creatures and could have a large outdoor pool with a waterfall and plenty of rocks to forage under and between, looking for crayfish/'yabbies'. This could be linked to an inside underwater viewing pool with access to tunnels and a sleeping den. This may or may not be linked to a web-cam. In my experience, platypus are very crepuscular creatures so it may be possible to see them in their outdoor pool during the early morning and into the evening; alternatively visitors will have the opportunity to see them performing natural behaviours in their inside questers.
Continuing with the Australian theme I would also like to house a couple of short-beaked echidnas and one/two wombats in a relatively small short-walled exhibit. I'm not sure how amenable this would be to the English climate but this is a fantasy zoo...
I love visiting 'nocturnal houses' at zoos so my zoo would definitely have one of those. Continuing with the strange and unusual theme I would like to house aye-aye and long-beaked echidnas and possibly some Asian pangolins (this may help raise awareness of the illegal wildlife trade in SE Asia).
2 acres is a small area so I wouldn't house any big carnivores or ungulates, nor any big apes. The inspiration for my zoo would come from enterprises such as 'Howletts' and 'Port Lympne' wild animal parks which function primarily as centres for conservation, with public visiting a distinct by-product. As such my enclosures really would focus on being immersive and at aiming to promote natural behaviours. Other species that I would love to have in 'my' zoo would be clouded leopards (my favourite, and surely one of the most beautiful, felids) and fennec foxes (again, they wouldn't take up much space). I would love a large walk-through enclosure, based on the Amazon basin (similar to what they have at London Zoo) which would house lots of marmosets and tamarins plus sloths and, hopefully, a tamandua.
My zoo would also definitely have pangolins and aardvarks. Whilst hard to keep in captivity I just think they are really interesting, yet relatively unknown species.
Ok, in terms of birds my 'fantasy' zoo would also include cassowaries and kiwis plus a variety of colourful psittacines and lots of toucans. Reptile species would include tuatara, gharial and, of course, a huge male Komodo dragon!
