Zoos with additional parks

MKE Zoo guy

MKE Zoo guy

Well-Known Member
5+ year member
This is primarily looking at zoos in the US. Something that I noticed since St. Louis Zoo has achieved their new tax is that they're a new group of zoos forming within the US. This new group I want to call the primer zoos. Within this category they are more or less the more famous zoos within the States, they have a decent funding, not saying they are perfectly funded, but what is new is that they have a wild life reserve or safari park associated with them.

I think that this new type of associations forming between zoos and wildlife reserves is an interesting one and I am curious on how these new relationships will play out. Time and time again I hear about zoos facing increasing pressure about holding animals in captivity and putting them on display. Reading about how zoos are looking to museums on how to display their collections. Is this the answer to some of the critics? As they work on redesigning zoos to be more spacious and recreating the environment that the species is from, that they are also making this large reserves to help with the conversation efforts around the world but also making sure that zoos have a healthy and diverse population moving forward.

I am curious on the messaging that is going to be going forward both on the critics but also on those championing these new facilities. Also, curious to see what other zoos will follow in the coming years in obtaining or creating these wildlife reserves/safari parks?

Zoos that have additional parks associated with them
* San Diego Zoo
* National Zoo
* Columbus Zoo
* Bronx Zoo (Wildlife Conservation Society)
* North Carolina Zoo
* St. Louis Zoo (soon to be)
 
Depending on how you look at it, you could say that Milwaukee County Zoo and Oceans of Fun is an example of this.
 
What are you considering as a "a wild life reserve or safari park associated" with the Bronx Zoo. Certainly not the City zoos or Aquarium. St Catherine's Island is no longer being used. And the field work WCS does around the world doesn't seem to be in the same category as The WIlds.
 
kiang said:
The Audubon zoo in New Orleans has Survival Center
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You're right! There's several centers out there that I might have missed. Thanks for point that one out.
birdsandbats said:
Depending on how you look at it, you could say that Milwaukee County Zoo and Oceans of Fun is an example of this.
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Not really sure how you would consider this to be in the same category. Yes they may have another venue in another state but its a venue and not a large property of sorts. Now if Milwaukee bought into the Geneva Safari Park, or even the Shalom Wildlife Sanctuary then yes, but as of right now I don't consider Milwaukee up there with additional additional facilities.
Zooplantman said:
What are you considering as a "a wild life reserve or safari park associated" with the Bronx Zoo. Certainly not the City zoos or Aquarium. St Catherine's Island is no longer being used. And the field work WCS does around the world doesn't seem to be in the same category as The WIlds.
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I might have miss spoken with the WCS, specifically the Bronx. Also, with North Carolina Zoo, being as large as it is, it kinda has the reserve/safari park built into it.

I was looking into the relatively new organization that formed called The Conservation Centers for Species Survival. They list some of the places that I've mentioned and others from around the world.
Conservation Centers – Conservation Centers for Species Survival This is what I was thinking about defining reserve/Safari Park. It's interesting to note that the San Diego Zoo isn't part of this organization.
 
I can't think of anything for the Bronx Zoo, either.

A big one you missed - Lee G. Simmons Safari / Conservation Center, owned/run by Omaha's Henry Doorly Zoo. Most of their animals aren't publicly viewable. The public part is open April-October.

Smithsonian's SCBI is only open to the public one day a year. It used to be members only on that day, but the last few years it's been open to anyone.

St. Louis already has something off-site, but I don't know much about it, other than they keep most of their cheetahs there.
 
I wouldn't call C2S2 new. It's been around about 10 years now.

Saint Louis previously had an off-site facility that later spun-off on its own independent organization called Endangered Wolf Center.

It was quite fashionable in the 1980s for the major zoos to acquire an off-site property like San Diego had. Busch Gardens, Cincinnati, Brookfield (defunct), Sea World Orlando (defunct) and others acquired these properties back then.

Lowry Park, Jacksonville, Woodland Park, Reid Park, Portland, and Oakland have all tried or talked about acquiring extra properties at some point.

San Antonio Zoo had/has partnerships with several ranches.

Other zoos not yet mentioned that have an off-site property include Pittsburgh and Nat'l Aquarium's soon to be dolphin reserve. Disney at one point was operating the National Elephant Center before it closed and they attempted to buy White Oak when it was for sale.
 
gerenuk said:
Saint Louis previously had an off-site facility that later spun-off on its own independent organization called Endangered Wolf Center.
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Their current one is separate, I'm not sure if it has an official name.

Thought of another - along with the Wilds, Columbus Zoo has a facility in Myakka City, Florida that's primarily for marine mammals.
 
gerenuk said:
Lowry Park, Jacksonville, Woodland Park, Reid Park, Portland, and Oakland have all tried or talked about acquiring extra properties at some point.
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Lowry Park first had the off site center in the Green Swamp. Basically it consisted of some pens with Red Wolves and was overseen by the Park Ranger (I forget if he was a state ranger or other) and I believe zoo employees came by to assist. This was in the early 90s at some point.

Later the CEO of Lowry Park started to plan on the off site facilities that have become Giraffe Ranch (his house I believe) and Safari Wilderness. That debacle was one of the issues that brought him down. He was having zoo employees working there, loaning animals, possibly using zoo funds for construction and care.....it was a mess. Had he been allowed to stay on it is possible the facilities would have been integrated into LPZ at some point. As it is I doubt the board has any inclination to add any off site facilites like these any time soon.
 
Gerenuk said:
It was quite fashionable in the 1980s for the major zoos to acquire an off-site property like San Diego had. Busch Gardens, Cincinnati, Brookfield (defunct), Sea World Orlando (defunct) and others acquired these properties back then.
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I wanted to mention this. I'm a little hazy on details but Brookfield's history book Let the Lions Roar covers their experience with off-site management, which was largely viewed as a financial failure. The site is today known in Australia as the Brookfield Conservation Park, a few decades later.
 
JVM said:
I wanted to mention this. I'm a little hazy on details but Brookfield's history book Let the Lions Roar covers their experience with off-site management, which was largely viewed as a financial failure. The site is today known in Australia as the Brookfield Conservation Park, a few decades later.
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That was a conservation project that Brookfield started in Australia. Their off-site property was in Illinois at a place now called Wildlife Prairie State Park in Hanna City.
 
MKE Zoo guy said:
Although the article is locked for me, this is what I’m referring to. The zoo’s that are more well known or becoming known are starting to get into animal reserve/safari business too. Is this becoming the new normal for zoos, partnering with, buying, or creating their own reserve/safari?
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Cincinnati Zoo has had an off-site facility since the 1980s. In addition, they partnered with the other Ohio zoos in the 1990s to start up the Wilds. It wasn't until the 2000s, that Columbus Zoo took over operations of the Wilds when it was having financial difficulties. This isn't a new zoo fad, but one where American zoos have created 1-2 every decade or so. Like you mentioned, its kinda of a step in every major zoo's evolution.
 
As @gerenuk said, C2S2 is not a brand new association and is not directly what your are talking about (traditional zoos adding larger safari parks). It started as a consortium of five or six large safari parks with a conservation emphasis. Some were associated with a partner zoo (eg The Wilds) and some were not (eg Fossil Rim). I just looked up their website Conservation Centers for Species Survival – Assuring a Future for Species and am surprised to see their membership now includes some traditional zoos as well (eg Nashville Zoo, Oklahoma City Zoo) and also a couple overseas institutions (eg Taronga, Australia). Honestly this whole organization is a bit perplexing to me as I am not entirely sure how it differs from working together as part of the AZA.

I think your intended topic, zoos that have off site safari parks, is very interesting and I will address that in a followup post.
 
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Some U.S. zoos with public and private off site centers (some names may be slightly off):

Omaha's Henry Doorly Zoo - Lee Simmons Safari (public)

Smithsonian National Zoo - Front Royal Conservation Center (private)

San Diego Zoo - San Diego Zoo's Safari Park (public)

Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium - Northwest Trek (public)

Cincinnati Zoo - Mast Farm (private)

Columbus Zoo - The Wilds (public)

Audubon Zoo with San Diego Zoo - Freeport McMoRan Audubon Species Survival Center (private)
 
The last one on my list above is especially intriguing because the off site facility near Audubon Zoo (in New Orleans) was started by Audubon Zoo but has asked San Diego Zoo (on the opposite side of the country) to be a partner in managing it. Although the partnership was announced a few years ago, the actual transfer of animals from San Diego happened about a year ago. Here is an article published at that time (September 2017): Conservation Partnership Launches in New Orleans
 
Arizona Docent said:
The last one on my list above is especially intriguing because the off site facility near Audubon Zoo (in New Orleans) was started by Audubon Zoo but has asked San Diego Zoo (on the opposite side of the country) to be a partner in managing it. Although the partnership was announced a few years ago, the actual transfer of animals from San Diego happened about a year ago. Here is an article published at that time (September 2017): Conservation Partnership Launches in New Orleans
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Essentially, this newest iteration of the Audubon Species Survival Center, the Alliance for Sustainable Wildlife, was born because San Diego had the money and Audubon had the space. San Diego had been long been interested in expanding their breeding facilities, but they did not want to do it in California because of the high cost of construction. Historically, beyond the whooping and Mississippi sandhill crane breeding and recovery programs, the SSC's main focus was reproductive research, largely with cats but also with ungulates. When the labs all but shut down and the researchers left, there was 1,000 acres of Louisiana swamp up for grabs, so it was the perfect place. There was a bit of a rocky start and there were construction delays, so San Diego had to collect and house the first group of animals at the Safari Park for the first couple of years. That said, the facility is flourishing now, there have been a great number of births, and they are looking towards the construction of Phase II of the project now.
 
Arizona Docent said:
Honestly this whole organization is a bit perplexing to me as I am not entirely sure how it differs from working together as part of the AZA.
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I don't know much of anything about C2S2, but the facilities they have listed on the cheetah page are the 9 official breeding facilities per AZA. All of them have their breeding centers primarily behind-the-scenes or completely off-site.
 
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