Auckland Zoos New Elephant Exhibit » Auckland Zoo

30-11-2006

ok i know what you mean, GREAT NEWS hehehe

30-11-2006

Zoo Boy, I wouldn't have thought that elephant exhibits such as Melbourne's, Perths or Taronga's, not matter how appealing they may or may not be, would be rate as a perfect elephant world in Australia, would you?

01-12-2006

well think in comparrison to the usa, and europe, they have really quite, s hit exhibits, i think in austrlaia we have a high zoo standards for exhibiting elephnats, as of now.
lets not argue, ther best scenarios would be fencing of huge proportions of the daintree, but i think zoo have a high standard for there eles, i mean everything could be better, but when we look at whole pic, abr 2, the whole elephant population of australia is housed very well, where as in usa and europe, maybe only 25 % are housed to this standard

01-12-2006

so now were advocating fencing off threatened eco-systems in australia and destroying habitat here in order to keep a threatened foreign species???
this confuses me as much as wantng to jeapordise quarantine rules and keeping exotic pets with pest potential

01-12-2006

I thought it was such a bizzare comment to make that words continue to fail me....

01-12-2006

i was saying the BEST scenario for ELEPHANTS, by no means would anyone do this, it was a simple comment, as the rainforest closely represents the natural habitat, and THAT would be BEST for the ELEPHANTS

01-12-2006

Who said the elephant exhibits in the US and Europe are **** on what bases was that Statement made, hmmm interesting!. Also lets not forget that the US has Hundreds of Elephants there not just a few as we have here.

01-12-2006

i no, but thst why we can create good ones, as we do have a small population, and they are s hit, on my judgemnt, im saying from wht i have seen, some us and europe zoos are appauling, thou i will say they are trying to fix em

01-12-2006

I not really following here, you say they are **** exhibits from what you have seen?, so what have you seen of them?, how can you judge them?,
with so many places keeping them of course there going to be some that could be better, while some are outstanding.

01-12-2006

i understand mark, some are amazing, but some are quite horrible, much like atrongas old exhibit, go to this site, Zoo Elephant - Asian Elephants at the Zoological Gardens of the World and view some of the zoos, some are great, some are really bad

01-12-2006

The same can be said of exhibits for all species, all all zoos throughout the world, not just elephant exhibits - some are good, and some are bad.

01-12-2006

exactly zoopro, you are completely right, i was relating to this thread of elephants thou

YAY!!! its xmas time - set up the tree today!!!!

01-12-2006

from what i have seen, i personally feel australias elephant exhibits arn't exactly outstanding....more so just acceptable. the facilities in terms of health and management of the animals are generally good or great, but thats offset by the small size.

i also have a personal distaste for any zoo that needs to keep elephants indoors for any extended period of time due to the climate.

my feelings - just in case ya didn't get it by now!!!!

good zoo elephant exhibits
02-12-2006

having been to europe and seen quite a few zoos there, i can say that most zoos that dont have the facilities to keep them dont have them, as opposed to trying to maintain them in sub-standard exhibits. for this reason, edinburgh zoo and paris zoo are both 'elephantless', and so is the national zoo of the UK, the london zoo. romes zoo, too, is phasing them out in the future.
the zoos that do have them though, or the ones i visited, must be doing something right, as both whipsnade, with a 5 acre + exhibit and amsterdam zoo are breeding succesfully. these zoos underscore the importance of maintaining 'herds', which i think is more important than space, although obviously there is a standard of space all elephants need.
but as good as these exhibits are form the elephants perspecive, they arent perfect and also makes me question-what is the reason for having zoos? not elephants in zoos, weve had that debate, but what purpose do zoos serve???. neither whipsnade or amsterdam engage the visitor as melbourne's 'trail of the elephants' or taronga's 'wild asia' seem to do, in so far that there are educational outcomes from these exhibits that are valuable, ie
elephants are important
elephants are important to eco-systems
elephants have a place in asian culture
elephants live with other rainforest species, and they are all inter dependent...
this comes back to zoo pros comments about good and bad exhibits for all species. a good zoo exhibit for any animal would reflect its natural habitat, but what about the info being presented, etc...
its these key themes presented by australia's zoos which make me think our exhibits here, whilst not perfect, are at least doing their job at getting across conservation themes. of course, both australian zoos and european zoos boast portfolios of in-situ conservation projects, another aspect of 'zoo work' that could be better communicated, if only to 'legitimise' and reinforce the role of the modern zoo

02-12-2006

really? i don't particuarly think our zoos stand out above other well-funded zoos of the world for education or gathering public support for conservation initiatives.

what zoos can do to improve in this department, the role of what exactily a zoo is today, where they are going and what they should be, is not a particuarly new topic to this forum..

...you should try and have a search through the old threads..