So many of the exhibits at Werribee (cheetah, lion, hippo, vervet monkey, meerkat, etc) appear to be excellent, and yet there badly needs to be hundreds more animals added to the zoo to make it a truly viable, successful tourist attraction. Maybe if either elephants, gorillas or chimpanzees are added in the future, as has been rumored in the past, then Werribee will become half as popular as the Melbourne Zoo.
Well, Gorillas are definately going to Werribee in the next couple of years and there exhibit well be the first stage in a $25m jungle precinct. Expect lots of construction.
well, i'd argue its proven over the last 25 years that it's plenty viable and successful. however, i do agree that it would be the best open range zoo in australia and indeed one of the best in the world if was developed further and acquired more animals. but what animals werribee lacks, it has made up for with investment in "africanising" the landscape and building (largely) fence free, immersion style exhibits. sadly, due to the plants potential as a weed, the zoo backflipped at the request of the DEH and removed all the mature african thorn acacias that it had planted throughout both the drive-through and walking trail exhibits. still, with so many other matured african and simulator plants (such as australian acacias and boabs), the zoo is miles ahead of the other two open range zoos on the landscaping frontier. in addition i can not brag enough about the value of that floodplain that makes up the main african savanna. you can't buy that sort of landscaping. so what i'm getting at is, that coupled with it being just 40 mins from a city of 4 million people, werribee zoo is poised in the most advantageous position of the 3 open range zoos in australia. its relatively easy to acquire some new animals - its not easy to build the foundations that the good directors of werribee have achieved in doing. so i agree - but i think they have actually done things rather well there so far.
