Zoos have just gone from personal to professional for me

W

WML

New Member
Hi everyone

Just joined this fascinating site a few weeks ago, as zoos have recently become a professional thing for me. I'm currently based in Singapore and working on the early stages of a project. (Can't say much more, unfortunately, as I've signed a confidentiality agreement.)

But I've always been a big fan of zoos and wildlife, and being able to combine this personal passion of mine with my professional sphere is a dream come true in many ways.

Reading this forum, it's obvious there are many zoo experts and experienced enthusiasts with great opinions. I'd love to ask the lot of you a number of questions at some point - at the moment, browsing the threads is educational in its own right!

Glad to have found this community --

WML
 
Welcome to ZooChat WML.

I hope you can widen the perspective from Singapore and surrounds like Malaysia with KL, Taiping, Melaka et al and Thailand and its various zoos for us.
 
WML said:
...I'm currently based in Singapore and working on the early stages of a project. (Can't say much more, unfortunately, as I've signed a confidentiality agreement.) ...
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You realize you are torturing a good percentage of the forum with this open ended statement. We want details and we want them now! :eek:

(Really good to have you btw)...
 
ha, unfortunately, yes, I can't say much about the project just yet! The good news is it's very early days, so we're at the stage of seeing what works with existing zoos, what doesn't, and how to make the next attraction even better. Which is where I'd love to hear from *anyone* with an opinion on this. I'll probably start up a thread about this soon!

Other than Singapore's excellent WRS attractions (Singapore Zoo, Night Safari, Jurong Bird Park, and the still-developing River Safari), I've only been to a few other zoos in the region: Chiang Mai Zoo in Thailand, Kuala Lumpur Bird Park in Malaysia, and the Mandalay Zoo in Myanmar (which I'd rather not think about because it was simply too depressing). The Chiang Mai Zoo and KL Bird Park were very enjoyable, from my perspective.

The other thing about Southeast Asia is that you have tropical fauna all over the place in parks and forests here. So it's fairly easy to just go into a city park and see free-roaming macaques and large monitor lizards. That kind of changes the local attitude to fauna, although it doesn't diminish the appeal of zoos.

It also means that "wilder" places to see fauna are within easy striking distance of cities. I've been to orangutan rehabilitation centers in both Borneo and Sumatra (the former feeling much more like an overtouristed zoo than the latter), and also seen a fair amount of wild fauna in jungles on both those islands. Once you know you can see fauna in the wild, that changes the zoo experience, although not necessarily for the worse (so long as the zoo is good).

But bear in mind that with abundance of fauna in this part of the world, there's a number of not-quite-zoo experiences that still bring the public in contact with animals: places like Tiger Kingdom in Chiang Mai (where you can get your photo taken with a tame tiger) or a Snake Farm I've been to in Bangkok, which also had a collection of a bear, wild cats, gibbons, in various cages. The Snake Farm was pretty shocking from an animal rights perspective, but people will still pay to go to these places.

Anyway, good to be on this forum and would love to hear your thoughts on any of the above.
 
I would expect such an organization to first define their mission, then commission a market analysis and from those develop a master plan (assuming the site has been identified and purchased). It is better to grow a facility out of a vision than to simply be what the neighbors are not. That latter approach offers little guidance on how to grow, IMO
 
Zooplantman said:
I would expect such an organization to first define their mission, then commission a market analysis and from those develop a master plan (assuming the site has been identified and purchased). It is better to grow a facility out of a vision than to simply be what the neighbors are not. That latter approach offers little guidance on how to grow, IMO
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hi Zooplantman - believe me, we are doing all of that: the market analysis, master plan, and clear vision. It's very early stages, though, so we're pulling together opinions and ideas from a range of sources while formulating that clear vision. Expect to hear more on this in the future!
 
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