Zoos in Malls
- Thread starter vogelcommando
- Start date
I don't think malls in zoos is a "new" trend in the Philippines. Animal collections are every where in the country. Peter Dickinson's page says there are between 2000 and 3000 zoos there, which is a shocking number.
Philippine Zoos
Philippine Zoos
In North America there have been at least two mall zoos that I'm aware of.
The once (and still?) largest mall in the world in Edmonton, Canada had a zoo in the 1980s with big cats and monkeys I think. Maybe snowleopard visited it in his youth? This mall also once had bottlenose dolphins and an aquarium with penguins and sea turtles.
There was a zoo in the mall in Ontario, California that focused on native California species. I never visited it before it went under, but it had harbor seals, bobcats, armadillos, and several other native species. When it closed down most of the animals went to the Orange County Zoo in Irvine.
The once (and still?) largest mall in the world in Edmonton, Canada had a zoo in the 1980s with big cats and monkeys I think. Maybe snowleopard visited it in his youth? This mall also once had bottlenose dolphins and an aquarium with penguins and sea turtles.
There was a zoo in the mall in Ontario, California that focused on native California species. I never visited it before it went under, but it had harbor seals, bobcats, armadillos, and several other native species. When it closed down most of the animals went to the Orange County Zoo in Irvine.
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West Edmonton Mall was for many years the largest shopping mall in the world but now it has slipped down the list to be somewhere in the top 15-20 malls. Anyway, I spent the first 10 years of my life living in Edmonton and I vividly recall seeing a large number of animals at the shopping complex.
There is still the CAZA-accredited Sea Life Caverns, a rather ghastly little aquarium, that is home to penguins, sea turtles, sharks and an assortment of smaller aquatic species. The dolphins are long gone but Sea Lions' Rock has been the replacement for quite some time.
The mall never had a designated "zoo" but there were animals scattered throughout the place such as baby Bengal tigers, American black bears, cougars, flamingos and other smaller creatures. Also, there were gold-painted aviaries for a variety of macaws and other birds.