Join our zoo community

Dharawal, Kazaringa and Virunga Nation Parks Fantasy Zoo region challenge

Discussion in 'Speculative Zoo Design and Planning' started by steveroberts, 7 Nov 2018.

Tags:
  1. steveroberts

    steveroberts Well-Known Member 5+ year member

    Joined:
    7 Oct 2016
    Posts:
    1,021
    Location:
    Sydney, NSW, Australia
    Hi all, I have a challenge i wanted to see if anyone might be interested in doing.

    A Zoo that has three zones. The only rules are they are the only places from which animals in the zoo
    can come from. Like the 'African Savannas' 'Asian Rainforests' and 'Australian Outbacks' regions that many zoos have except this time its Virunga National park from DR of Congo, Kazaringa National Park in Assam, India and Dharawal National Park just south of Sydney, Australia (where i live). So from within the known species of animals that live within these places you can set up zones for your fantasy zoo if you are interested.
     
  2. Mbwamwitu

    Mbwamwitu Well-Known Member 5+ year member

    Joined:
    6 Sep 2018
    Posts:
    163
    Location:
    D.C. (by way of India)
    I'll give Kaziranga a brief shot since I've been thinking along these lines for how National Zoo could add a conservation theme to its Asia Trail & Elephant exhibits. I don't have most of the exact details worked out (for that revamp OR for this no-limits fantasy exhibit) in terms of size, numbers, etc, but here's the rough idea:

    NOTE: I'm taking a little bit of liberty here and including species found a little further afield within Northeast India than Kaziranga, in order to not use too many that you wouldn't find in a European or US zoo (as this hypothetical tri-zone park would presumably be). I'm also adding some themes from India's overall conservation situation outside of Kaziranga.


    SAFARI KAZIRANGA:

    Enter through a small village and research area dedicated to promoting an improvement in the human-wildlife conflicts of India. Guests can read and interact with staffers and signage that tells the story of India's peaceful history of coexistence with wildlife, the current crisis of habitat fragmentation, and strategies Indians are using to live alongside the world's biggest megafauna.

    The "research center" is also a real area for zoo scientists to observe the pygmy hogs. Guests can view the resident herd from a small blind. This would be an experimental ex-situ population, the first in many years outside their native India.

    Proceed through "degraded forest" that has been cleared for logging at the edge of this village and research area, with rotating exhibits for striped hyenas and leopards, both species who've actually seen range increases rather than decreases in India, as the country becomes drier and more human-impacted. Peafowl range freely throughout the exhibit area.

    Next are two exhibits for hoolock gibbons, with a series of lines connecting the two for passage like the National Zoo's Orangutan O-Line. The area below is designed to resemble the logged forests that these gibbons have to traverse when their habitats are fragmented.

    Now, visitors come upon the centerpiece of the exhibit: the Brahmaputra Floodplains. This is a series of interconnected yards and houses, through which are rotated the zoo's female Asian elephants, a male elephant, Indian rhinos, barasingha, eld's deer, water buffalo and water birds including sarus crane, woolly-necked stork, Eurasian spoonbill, ruddy shelduck and others (I've to come up with a full species list). This is a vast, multi-acre series of yards that are best viewed from bridge-like boardwalks that are themed to replicate the highway and railway overpasses being advocated in India to allow the passage of migrating hoofstock in Kaziranga's outskirts, especially during the flooding season.

    At the end of one of these walkways is an Elephant House, where the elephants can access a range of enrichment and be seen in close quarters. It also includes a pool where the elephants can be seen underwater through glass windows. The House is themed as an Indian railway station, with information directed at educating visitors about human-elephant conflict in India, which is a specific crisis that takes several human and elephant lives annually.

    Another way to view the species on the Floodplains is from the Ranger Towers, which replicate the real-life outposts used by Kaziranga's rangers to sight poachers. One of these towers has a view over the predator exhibits on the Karbi Anglong Trail, described below.

    The Karbi Anglong Trail takes visitors out of the plains and into Kaziranga's dense rainforests, which are still intact and cover parts of the Karbi Anglong Plateau. Here, there are three large sets of exhibits for tiger, sloth bear and dhole. In addition, there are smaller exhibits for Asian palm civet, binturong and mainland clouded leopard, as well as a mixed-species glade for gaur and Indian muntjac with birds like the red junglefowl.

    I want to have one large walkthrough aviary on the trail, perhaps also with red giant flying squirrels, but there will also be smaller aviaries for great Indian hornbill and raptors like the Amur falcon. Terrariums for herps and invertebrates are cut into the rocks here, I still need to figure out a species list. This trail will end with a special exhibit for Chinese pangolin.

    Finally, the last offshoot from the Floodplains is the Brahmaputra River Trek, which takes visitors down past a series of underwater viewing panels for various denizens of the Brahmaputra River. These include fishing cats, smooth-coated otters, gharial, Asian water monitor, goonch catfish and narrow-headed softshell turtle, amongst others (species list TBD). Maybe also a waterfowl lake, and Bengal/lesser floricans, but that might be too unrealistic.


    Like I said, a very rough idea, but a quick shot at a concept!
     
    steveroberts and Brum like this.
  3. steveroberts

    steveroberts Well-Known Member 5+ year member

    Joined:
    7 Oct 2016
    Posts:
    1,021
    Location:
    Sydney, NSW, Australia
    Absolutely fantastic Mbwamwitu sooo wish your concept could be made a reality, can re-read and imagine this over and over again
     
  4. steveroberts

    steveroberts Well-Known Member 5+ year member

    Joined:
    7 Oct 2016
    Posts:
    1,021
    Location:
    Sydney, NSW, Australia
    Sorry Kaziranga NP not Kazaringa like i wrote