Sydney Zoo $36 million zoo with roaming African animals planned for Blacktown

Good.

 

The restrictions seem to acknowledge the problem without in any way offering a meaningful long-term solution, and presumably annoying Featherdale and the new zoo in the process.

 

I can't understand the restrictions placed on (Western) Sydney Zoo.

When a supermarket opens in a country town, they are not prevented from selling sausages in deference to the local butcher or cakes to protect the baker. Competition is good for consumers, and that extends as much to Zoo exhibits as anything else.

I enjoyed my visit to Featherdale in 2012 immensely, and I'd have been back since if it were only easier to get to. I want them to continue to thrive, but I don't see why they've obtained what is essentially a veto over a rival organisation's collection.

 

Perhaps I should have said acknowledge 'a' problem. But basically yes, I think you're right. In any case, they aren't going to be in direct competition. If I understand Featherdale correctly, it's a small native wildlife park. Even if WS Zoo builds a carbon copy of Featherdale within itself, the price point difference should surely allow them to differentiate themselves?

 

Interesting one. The marginal cost of (Western) Sydney Zoo adding koalas and kangaroos - really the only parts of Featherdale's collection that would be specific revenue drivers in their own right - would be pretty low. Eucalyptus browse is costly to obtain - either in labour to collect it remotely or land for plantations - but kangaroos certainly are dirt cheap. So WSZ could very likely absorb the costs of maintaining them within the wider business and thus compete with Featherdale for the package tour market, most of whom wouldn't be paying front gate prices per head anyway. Also worth pointing out, though, that Featherdale already has direct competitors for the foreign tourist market, with Taronga, Sydney Wildlife World and the Australian Reptile Park all making similar offers to the market, which makes the protectionism all the stranger.

Where Featherdale is in the most trouble is the market for local families, where I suspect most will find paying more for elephants, big cats and great apes whilst staying much closer to home than remote Taronga is very appealing. A family of four can currently go to Featherdale for $88 or Taronga for $133, which doesn't include the hassle of getting from, say, Penrith to Mosman (which as a point of reference takes longer, according to Google Maps, than getting from Leeds to Yorkshire WP), or parking for that matter. If WSZ finds a price point of around $125, and that extra $37 includes all the big charismatic megafauna, then that's going to cause trouble for Featherdale.

 

Re. Taronga suing 'Sydney Zoo' over their name, I had wondered how this would work with the studbooks. Every studbook I've seen lists 'Sydney' as the location of any animal held at Taronga Zoo, so if the new zoo was called 'Sydney Zoo' this would no doubt create confusion, especially in the international studbooks (i.e. people overseas who perhaps aren't familiar with the situation).

 

Update on Sydney Zoo (as of June 2018)- Progress has been made on the Entry Building, the Administration Building, and the Reptile/ Nocturnal House. A very interesting design.
Materials for the animals' enclosures are also beginning added.

 

It is somehow strange to see a zoo being built on an empty space (green lawn so to speak), from the scratch. I´m used to zoos that evolve slowly over time, starting from "two goat pens and a pheasant aviary" and adding species and space year after year.

Will it not affect its future attendance negatively if they now open a brand new zoo and then for many years (decades?) it will stay the same?

But a new zoo in Australia with large exotic species must be a boon for regional species programs, with more holding space making these programs more viable. So far so good.

 

I have conflicting opinions about the new Sydney Zoo; although it could potentially open up space for a few exotics (chimpanzees and elephants come to mind), it would be a true shame to lose Featherdale Wildlife Park (just a few minutes away), which has an unprecedented bird collection and a solid native collection.
It will be very interesting to see the attendance rates and short/long-term impacts of the three main zoos involved (Taronga, Sydney and Featherdale), after the new Sydney Zoo opens.

 

I dont know the local situation to form myself informed opinion on Featherdale´s financial viability in this new situation. But generally speaking, small collections oriented on children or natives or reptiles can thrive even in close proximity to large zoos.

 

The size is my biggest fear actually. I believe it is only 40 acres in size including the car park and maintenance areas. So from estimating from the map at max the zoo portion is 30 acres. They seem to want to hold every single popular exotic animal they can, which means I ain’t expecting much from a lot of the exhibits. The elephant exhibit will be pretty small, as will a lot of the ape exhibits.

 

I agree far to small for a new zoo that wants some many large species

 

Especially on the primate front this zoo seems to want to hold as many as possible. Despite it likely being better to have say 2 exhibits for gorilla, rather than seperate exhibits for chimp & gorilla from a management/spaxe perspective. The elephant exhibit for example is going to be about the size of Melbournes exhibit, although in a single yard. Which Melbourne is planning to vacate in the short term due to space issues

Another thing I am concerned with is the openness of the site, especially for more forest dwelling species. It will interesting to see how shade is added, as its gonna take a while to get any from seedlings I hope they plant.

 

It does appear they do want to many species for a small land area, another species which I believe is wanted are Hippos which are in very short supply in the region. While I hope this zoo turns out to be a big success I get the feeling they are wanting to many species to start with some which are going to be difficult to obtain in this region, as for tree cover some mature trees can be obtained and planted which is likely to happened, my main concern is the zoos lack of size

 

I hope the zoo does have plans on attaining it animals, yet I imagine many of the big zoos will want to see how the finished site is/how animal welfare is, before transferring animals. Likely at first it will be older animals or spare males for a lot of the species, which other zoos want to get rid of. Hippos have been dropped as of now, yet the exhibit that was designed for them is still appearing on the plans, so likely they want them in the future (although considering the Australian population, that will be hard).

I hope the zoo will do extensive planting, yet given the zoos budget I doubt it. Planting that site will cost a ton, even for seedlings and most concept art shows it to be a pretty barren finished project. As of right now I am imagining a very barren finished product, with easily visible buildings and bad sight-lines. Although I am fully basing that of pictures and plans I have seen online. Also given that space is tight, the zoos focus on moats is less than desirable. Plus for the primates they can be very dangerous. To be completely honest given the focus on large species and pretty comprehensive species list, this zoos plans remind me of a zoo that a child would plan.

 

I believe they own a number of animals now which will be transfered in when completed

 

How does animal ownership work in Australia for major zoos? Because in the US generally the ownership is insignificant as many of the larger zoos own animals at other zoos, yet the animals are managed through the ssp, as long as the zoo is accredited? Does a zoo in Australia actually have to buy the animals for its zoo, rather than meeting standards and then taking part in cooperative breeding programs.

(Talking more about large exotics, like gorilla, elephant and white rhino. Not easily attainable species such as Ostrich)

 

The USA is somewhat a different ballgame with many species in private hands (many would put the Aussie collections to shame) in oz in order to have many exotics zoo species the zoos need to belong to the ZAA. Animals are sent to other collections within the region for breeding or holding. Even with reptiles no member of the public can keep any species of exotic reptile only native species are allowed