Zoos and Economic Collapse

All of the City and State money allocated to the Wildlife Conservation Society goes into the operations and capital construction projects at the city's zoos and aquariums. The research and conservation work is all privately funded, but because the conservation staff are headquartered in NY, it is a far more cost-effective (low overhead) operation than any of the comparative conservation organizations (like WWF etc.). Many (most) of the Society's private donors are far more interested in conservation in nature, and restrict their gifts to that work, as opposed to helping the running costs of the zoo. As has been pointed out, very few donors (individuals, foundations or corporations) are very interested in funding day-to-day expenses, and prefer one-time building projects or special educational programs, not paying for keepers, animal food and snowplowing. This is why a base of government support is so important to most zoos.

And of course the biggest challenge to WCS is the huge drop in its endowment, which funded a lot of day-to-day expenses, but has lost more than a quarter of its value over the past year.
 
Gigit said:
Half term week at Paignton Zoo - they had 4000 visitors yesterday and would have expected 2000. The car parks have been full all week.
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Bulging at Marwell too. Had to queue for about 20 minutes to get in; big queue in the cafe as well. If the weather is half decent this summer, maybe the economic downturn wil work in favour of zoos in Britain at least.
 
sooty mangabey said:
Bulging at Marwell too. Had to queue for about 20 minutes to get in; big queue in the cafe as well. If the weather is half decent this summer, maybe the economic downturn wil work in favour of zoos in Britain at least.
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The problem for Paignton would be that hot weather would tempt people to the beach instead.
 
sooty mangabey said:
Bulging at Marwell too. Had to queue for about 20 minutes to get in; big queue in the cafe as well. If the weather is half decent this summer, maybe the economic downturn wil work in favour of zoos in Britain at least.
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Visited Chester a couple of days ago (the city, not the zoo) and got one of the buses which stops off at the zoo car park. This was about closing time and i haven't seen that many people there in the winter season for a while.
 
Am off to Chester today, I hoping its busy for the zoos sake but am dreading it if its too busy.
 
taun said:
Am off to Chester today, I hoping its busy for the zoos sake but am dreading it if its too busy.
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Is there really any chance the Zoo would be busy in February? Isn't it pretty cold over there in England? Here in the USA, no northern zoo would ever be very busy on a cold day. A couple months ago, I went to the Oklahoma City Zoo on a day when it was 15F (-9C). I just about had the entire zoo to myself, and this was a monthly "Free Admission Day".
 
ANyhuis said:
Is there really any chance the Zoo would be busy in February? Isn't it pretty cold over there in England? Here in the USA, no northern zoo would ever be very busy on a cold day. A couple months ago, I went to the Oklahoma City Zoo on a day when it was 15F (-9C). I just about had the entire zoo to myself, and this was a monthly "Free Admission Day".
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ANyhuis, as I posted earlier;

"Visited Chester a couple of days ago (the city, not the zoo) and got one of the buses which stops off at the zoo car park. This was about closing time and i haven't seen that many people there in the winter season for a while."

Currently in England it is a half-term school holiday which means that a lot of parents will have bored kids on their hands, which means zoos are visited quite often (as theme parks and other attractions are still closed in the UK).

It's obviously not as busy as the summer, but they are fairly busy places in a Winter season. Also, a weekday in term time will be quiet, but that's the same the whole year round.
 
ANyhuis said:
Is there really any chance the Zoo would be busy in February? Isn't it pretty cold over there in England? Here in the USA, no northern zoo would ever be very busy on a cold day. A couple months ago, I went to the Oklahoma City Zoo on a day when it was 15F (-9C). I just about had the entire zoo to myself, and this was a monthly "Free Admission Day".
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Chester was really busy, so much so it was impossible to move in some exhibits (Realm of Red Ape, Spirit of the Jaguar, to name a few)
 
okapikpr said:
The funding for the New York zoos and aquariums has been restored for this year....however next year it may not.

Watertown Daily Times | Zoo funds originally cut from budget restored
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Perhaps a strange question, but is that defendable in your country? Since the USA is almost broke, and the recession is hitting you extra hard, because of your 'creditcardculture'. Personally I find a zoo or aquarium a good cause for spending government money, but sure there are a lot of people who are very poor so the money would perhaps have been better spend there.....
 
Just a little info, but our regional news has reported that Dudley Zoo has recorded visitor increases of 7000 people in the face of the economic crisis
 
Seems UK zoos are had a strong half-term week. As predicted earlier in the thread, there must have been a lot more families staying at home this year instead of taking the kids on an expensive skiing holiday!
 
ANyhuis said:
Others, however, have been poisoned by idealism, thinking they can ignore entertaining their customers and instead concentrate ONLY on conservation and education. As long as the taxpayers were footing the bill, they could afford this idealism, but not anymore. I'm not at all opposed to conservation and education, but if there's no money, they won't be possible anymore. Zoos have to concentrate first on their attendance gate, and do so by providing a quality entertainment product for their paying customers.

In the end, zoos need to follow the advice of none other than Walt Disney himself (...)
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No offence, @ANyhuis, but don't you think that "poison" is a "little" bit too harsh, inept and offensive, to say the least? All the commercial, entertainment-orientated zoos/animal theme parks you mentioned also profit from the conservation idea(l)s promoted by the Jersey Zoo and similar institutions. Usually, they don't appear in the public to be above such blue-eyed "idealism"-especially, if it can be used as advertisement and for the justification of keeping wild animals for public entertainment.... The latter is a privilege (one could also say alibi...) most circuses, the other form of animal-themed entertainment does not have, making it more prone to public critique.

One could pretend to be impervious to the necessity of conservation & keep on just concentrating on the entertainment aspect-to go down with the ship like the musicians on the Titanic...Or, as BG and AKD do, use conservation as a fig leaf and invest at least some of the money (earned from the entertaining display of wild animals) on the protection of the native habitats...
In any case, I don't think that Walt Disney is the best role model when it comes to creating and running a 'good' zoo...


Anyway, back to the main topic. It seems that the current financial crisis might deliver the final blow to the already struggeling world-famous German Bird Park Walsrode.
Kreist der Pleitegeier über dem Vogelpark Walsrode? - DIE WELT - WELT ONLINE
(unfortunately, this article is only available in German)

One negative result of the crisis could be, at least for some of the major zoos, that families with a low income might not be able to visit zoos on a regular basis, if at all.
Several of the Dutch zoos, but also some of the German zoos (like Hamburg or Hannover) charge entrance fees of almost € 20 a person (in the case of Hamburg, as a combi ticket > € 20), with (more or less) slightly lower fees for older kids. Let's say a couple with three kids (age 10, 7 and 3 years, respectively) wants to visit Burger's Zoo
Burgers' Zoo

3x17.50 + 15.50 = € 68
And that's without the amount of money spent on transport to and from the zoo, food, beverages, ice-cream, souvenirs, rides...
Luckily, more and more zoos offer annual tickets-but those aren't for free either, and not that useful if you don't live closeby...For some people, zoos or animal amusement parks might become an unattainable luxury they can't afford-which could also have an effect on the zoo.
 
@sooty mangabey: Sure, no problem:

"The world-famous bird park is in a serious financial crisis. If the recovery plans fail to achieve the desired effect, the park will have to be closed within a few weeks.
In 2000, the Kreissparkasse Walsrode (a local penny bank) as the main creditor of the park had already gone for insolvency proceedings. Currently, the park is owned by the company of a tax counsellor from Hamburg

The park hasn't recovered from the drastic decline in visitor numbers in 2006, among others due to the Avian Influenza panic. Last year, only 280.000 people visited the bird park-according to the park's current manager, at least 310.000 a year are needed for the park to be efficient.

Local politicians and communities now try to get at least 12-15 million Euros from EU local tourism subvention funds to grant the park and its 150 employees a future. According to them and the bank manager, the Bird Park has been too often neglected in the past in favour of other zoos, like Hannover or Osnabrueck. They're expecting a solution till the end of March.

Should the money come in, it is planned to invest it in the creation of new attractions-among others, a treetop pathway, a research centre and a new Penguin exhibit."
 
It doesn't appear that the situation in Walsrode is improving; according to a local newspaper:

-60 employees haven't received any salary since December, resulting in 47 law suits
-the gardeners consider going on strike, while the keepers don't want to leave the animals behind
-Various craftsmen and food suppliers demand their money; public services already wanted to cut down water, heat and electricity supply to the park
-A Belgian investor seems to be interested; however, this would collide with the EU tourism subvention fund guidelines.

...Pretty bleak situation...
 
As a small bird park, Birdland (Glos, England) seems to be doing better for the 'economic crisis'.
Our prices are low (£6 as of easter) and we are sited in the Cotswold (very touristy).
When I started 7 years ago you could go all week (Mon-Fri) and see about 5 people. This year, regularly having 20-30 daily for penguin feeding
 
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