I'm working on upgrades to an ancient otter exhibit and we are looking for cost comparisons for American River Otter exhibits to evaluate the early cost estimates coming in for the upgrades we'd like. Anyone have real numbers for new/ expansion or similar animal exhibit?
The Milwaukee County Zoo will be building a new North American River Otter Exhibit soon. I don't know the cost. http://www.bizjournals.com/milwauke...ukee-county-zoo-plans-7-million-new-west.html
You have to compare aples to apples: square footage, pool sizes and depths, number of animals in holding, underwater view or not,construction costs in your area, extent and condition of rockwork, etc. Oh and American river otter? Giant? Simply getting the costs of someone else's otter exhibit will not really be of much use to you
This has details of an otter exhibit built at Chester Zoo: ZooLex Exhibit At Zoo Zlin: ZooLex Exhibit At Zoo Miami: ZooLex Exhibit Minnesota Zoo: ZooLex Exhibit National Zoo: ZooLex Exhibit If you search "otter" on the gallery on the zoolex website, there are a lot more exhibit examples and details.
Otter Exhibit Understood. We have animal exhibit designer on board, but need to find other examples. They provided some comparisons Amer. River and other types of Otters, in other countries, states... I need to demonstrate that this is a modest, cost effective way to go to my finance folks (state project). Range of costs for new vs renovation-larger/small all helpful. I can break down cost/type/size of exhibit, but need examples to start with. Other types of otter would be applicable for cost/ sq ft info. Ideally with plan or images. This is fine for the purposes I need this for. American River Otter. 2 otters, no underwater viewing, enlarged land area, new 12x16 holding building planned, new gunite rock formations/waterfall, some glass walls, reuse of existing tank/water system is where the savings will occur. Thanks
I believe that HorseChild's idea of looking at Zoolex may be the best bet. Just make sure that the otter exhibit listed was not part of a larger development (such as at ZooMiami) because it gets vague as to exactly which amounts apply to other adjacent areas.
You might check with folks at the Sacramento Zoo in California. They recently modified an old otter exhibit, turning it from primarily concrete to a naturally landscaped exhibit. The pool is still the same and does not have underwater viewing, but the exhibit went from a cage with concrete flooring to a much more naturalistic enclosure. Here is a picture of the refurbished exhibit: http://www.zoochat.com/948/north-american-river-otter-exhibit-302825/
Thanks, I have. Unfortunately these are all much larger and involve other areas. The interpretation cost on the Minnesota Zoological garden alone is more than the total budget for our otter expansion. This is a very small nature center that features native animals that live in the surrounding 7,000 acre reservation. It is a 1962 concrete exhibit that desperately needs to be redone. We have a good design, just looking for comparables to make the case on cost. Appreciate the suggestions.
Just looked back at your initial post. So you have received cost estimates. Your designers should be able to give you feedback on those. They have done other exhibits.
