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Exhibit Designing Competition

Discussion in 'General Zoo Discussion' started by Indlovu, 6 Jul 2010.

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  1. Sealife357

    Sealife357 Well-Known Member

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    By cold or hot desert you mean artic or sahara type of thing right? Or do you mean any area that is very dry with little or no vegitation?
     
  2. Sealife357

    Sealife357 Well-Known Member

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    Funny thing had everything done and was typing up the area and I hit a few wrong things and lost everything. Oh well what happens, happens. Ill be a bit more careful this time.
     
  3. Dibatag

    Dibatag Well-Known Member

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    By cold and hot I mean deserts like the tundra or the gobi for cold and hot I mean deserts like the sahara or kalahari. So you are right with the first one
     
  4. Indlovu

    Indlovu Well-Known Member 10+ year member

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    You're very welcome! I'm waiting to enter a challenge that better suits my range of knowledge :D
     
  5. Fossa dude

    Fossa dude Well-Known Member

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    Thank you very much. I saw the jellyfish exhibit at the Aquarium of The Pacific and saw the Monterey Bay Aquarium jellyfish exhibit on Zoolex. So I was inspired to do an exhibit that was larger and had the Lion's Mane Jellyfish.
     
  6. LizardInsanity

    LizardInsanity Well-Known Member

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    I have some good ideas,but I don't know if I will enter.
     
  7. Sealife357

    Sealife357 Well-Known Member

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    Can we have an oasis or small water feture? Can viariums have to be a insect or anphibian or can they be rodents?
     
    Last edited: 24 Jul 2010
  8. Dibatag

    Dibatag Well-Known Member

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    You may include an oasis but the inhabitants must be residents, no transients. Four of the vivariums must be invertebrates, retiles or amphibians, but feel free to include rodents or other small mammals in other additional ones.
     
  9. DesertRhino150

    DesertRhino150 Well-Known Member 10+ year member

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    Right then, I'll submit my idea.

    The Namib

    Visitors enter The Namib habitat through a tunnel made to resemble the caves found in the outcrops that dot the landscape, complete with representations of local bushman artwork. Upon leaving the tunnel, visitors get a view of the huge state-of-the-art indoor area, as well as several large surrounding habitats that are made to look like part of a large system of dry riverbeds known as wadis. As visitors head on towards the indoor house, where their journey begins, they pass the first enclosure, housing a small family group of bat-eared foxes, which have an underground den that can be viewed by the passing visitors in a small tunnel. Having passed this, the visitors then wander down a trail past native Namib flora and come across a second enclosure, made to resemble the Namibian karst, complete with low-growing shrubs and loose rocks to provide an excellent habitat for a growing family of black mongooses which are the only members of their species on display in captivity. These mongooses have a hollow acacia tree to retreat into, and a glass viewing window inside means that visitors can get amazingly close to these unique animals. Following on from this is the large indoor house. Off-display stalls and on-display paddocks for each large mammal and bird species can be found here, as well as smaller displays for other animals. The indoor stalls for the largest habitat comes first, a mixed-species hoofstock paddock that houses small but noticeable herds of gemsbok, Hartmanns mountain zebra, greater kudu, springbok and Southern African giraffes. These animals can all be viewed from a viewing balcony that overlooks their waterhole, and can be observed laying in the shade of camel thorn acacia trees.

    Following on from this are the three larger predator habitats, each one housing the animals in large suitable environments that are all visually linked to the hoofstock enclosure, so that the predators can observe their prey and make for a more interesting display. One enclosure is also a series of four rotation habitats. The first enclosure is a habitat for a pack of endangered African wild dogs, and displays nearby show visitors how the dogs used to range far and wide across Africa, and the conservation efforts protecting them in Namibia. Following on from this is a large rotation exhibit of four enclosures, all of which are on-show. At random intervals in the day, the honey badgers , caracals, black-backed jackalsand brown hyenas rotate between the four enclosures, so each predator gets to investigate new scents in each habitat, and make for an extremely active display. Viewing windows in rock faces enable the four predators to be observed as they explore and hunt in their enclosures, and displays show visitors how each of the four predators survives, and the relationships between each species in the wild. The final large enclosure is a red sandstone habitat with large acacia trees. This provides the perfect environment for a pair of African leopards, both of which are able to go on display together. A viewing area hidden inside a tree enables close-up viewing into the lives of these magnificent big cats. Opposite the predator viewing area, through the large indoor area, is a viewing area for a large aviary housing a pair of giant and majestic Verreaux's black eagles, while a large indoor open-top habitat houses rock monitor lizards.

    After this, visitors enter the final part of the indoor house, which is home to several aviaries, a few other open-top habitats, vivariums and an indoor area for the most important captive-breeding programme in the complex. Five vivariums house, in order Peringuey's adder, Cape coral snakes, a mixed habitat for shovel-snouted lizards and Namibian web-footed geckos, white lady spiders and fog-basking beetles, and a nearby aviary is home to a pair of some extremely rare and valuable Monteiro's hornbills that are native to the region. A large viewing area into an aviary housing lappet-faced vultures and Cape vultures, both classified as vulnerable, can be seen hunched on boulders and cliffs, descending at feeding time when a large carcass is placed into the enclosure. There are both indoor and outdoor areas for a pair of rare blue cranes, that have a view out into the recreated Namib landscape and almost appear to be roaming freely in the vegetation.

    Finally, visitors head down a corridor towards the last section of the house. Along this corridor is a giant walk-through aviary, home to four species of birds, namely the Namaqua sandgrouse, sociable weaver bird, red-faced mousebird and peach-faced lovebird, which all, apart from the former, live in the giant haystack-like nests built by the weaver birds. In this corridor is a large solar-powered interactive display, where visitors can find out about the nest as a habitat, and watch films of species that inhabit these nests, such as slender mongooses, striped weasels, lovebirds, spotted-owlets, boomslangs, pygmy-falcons and Cape cobras. In the final area of the house, there are two large open-plan exhibits. The first is home to Namibian desert dune ants, and the second houses the rarely seen and nocturnal hairy-footed gerbils that emerge periodically to feed. Nearby are signs demonstrating what these two very different species do to survive in the desert. And then, opposite these two habitats is an indoor on-display area and a huge outdoor paddock for the world's only captive breeding group of South-Western black rhinoceroses. Two pairs live in the complex, and one pair rotates through an on-display and off-display pair of outdoor paddocks, while the other pair only lives off-show. The habitat has a waterhole, a mud-wallow, a dryriverbed, live vegetation and is seperated from the rest of the park by a small but deep ditch that makes it appear as if the rhinoceros are roaming freely. Before visitors leave the complex, there is a cafe that serves local Namib delicacies for the more daring visitors, and a gift shop selling merchandise and souveniers related to the complex, the animals on display there and their conservation. Also, the exit lobby to the indoor area contains animal ambassadors that are always happy to talk about their charges, who otherwise live off-display, such as small-spotted genets, Southern white-faced scops owls, Meyer's parrots, African rock pythons, Namaqua chameleons, an aardvark, slender-tailed meerkats and even a ground pangolin.

    Hope this fits the criteria, and I hope you enjoy reading about it as much as I did creating it.
     
  10. Sealife357

    Sealife357 Well-Known Member

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    Does the mixed enclosures count agansit the max 8 enclosures?
     
  11. Dibatag

    Dibatag Well-Known Member

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    each mixed exhibit counts as one no matter how many species are on display
     
  12. NAIB Volunteer

    NAIB Volunteer Well-Known Member 10+ year member

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    Oh no! I'm so sorry that happened Sealife357. If you don't mind me asking, what was your idea?
     
  13. Indlovu

    Indlovu Well-Known Member 10+ year member

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    My Gobi Desert idea was a complete failure lol
     
  14. Sealife357

    Sealife357 Well-Known Member

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    NAIB Volunteer
    It was a South america theme with two buildings. One retangular buliding started with posion frogs and the went into a tropical rain forest with free flying birds and a few reptiles. It main was a Amazon River Dolphin+Capybara. The other building was along the same lines as the other but looked like two domes stuck together and it focus was West Indian Manatees.

    haz_cat
    So sorry, I thought about the Gobi but started the Shahara and then sitched to..... (see below)
     
  15. Sealife357

    Sealife357 Well-Known Member

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    The Great Kalahari

    The Great Kalahari

    You enter The Great Kalahari through an arch made of branches. You enter to a small village of small huts made of branches, grasses an mud. A souvenir shop and a small food stall reside within the huts. As you look out of the village you see a dessert with dessert grasses and a few trees scattered about. You also see a large building close by a two other large buildings in the distance, you think you see two small bodies of water but dismiss it to the haze created by the hot day.

    You walk out the village and towards a large building. Right before you walk in you see an enclosure with a high glass viewing window surrounded with fake rocks from the Kalahari off to your right. You go to look in and see a two signs, one describes the animal in the enclosure-a family of Rock Hyraxes- the other describes the evolution of the Hyraxes saying their more closely related to Elephants and Manatees then rodents. You look in a watch the family run about, hiding behind logs and rocks and climbing into crevices in the rock wall of their enclosure.

    You leave the enclosure and enter the main building, the indoor enclosures of the area. You walk along a see a number of desert plants you didn’t see outside, signs near by explain that the plants are too sensitive to the North American climate. As you walk along you see another enclosure and a sign says it’s the Hyraxes indoor enclosure. On the opposite side of the path there is a large viarium for two small African bullfrogs. A near by sign explains why frogs are so important to the planet. Continuing along the path you come across a netted aviary. You look inside but see nothing. You see a sign at the back of the aviary saying that the inhabitants of the aviary is outside due to good weather. You look to the other side of the path and see a viarium containing Giant Girdled Lizard, a vulnerable lizard of Africa. You follow the bend in the path passing three more aviaries all with the same sign in the back you see the exit and begin to exit but you turn and see a viarium that you missed. Inside are two African Tent Tortoises. A sign near by describes why some turtles can flip themselves if they, for some reason, end up on their back, their shell. You admire the tortoises and then exit the building.

    Outside you relies you walked in a “U” shape and ended up not to far from where you entered. You walk along the path and you see a long netted area up against the building you walk up to the net and see that it is actually three large outdoor aviaries divide by the same fake rock that made up the Hyrax enclosure. You look inside the first and see a pair of Bateleur, a bird of prey from Africa. You continue along to the next two aviaries. The first contains a pair of vulnerable Egyptian Vulture. At the last and largest aviary seems to be empty but just as you are about to leave a large bird flies down, passes over the pool dipping its talons in for a second before flying back to a high perch. You quickly look back and see an African Fish Eagle eating a fish it caught from the pool. You admire the bird and then leave the eagle and continue along the path.




    You walk down the path and stop at a fake rock wall and look beyond it and see three, critical endangered Black Rhinos in an enclosure created with fake rock. The enclosure has a few logs and rocks lying about. Behind the enclosure you see a large building with a large sliding door facing the enclosure. You notice a small door in the side of the rock. You dismiss it and continue on to the next enclosure. In the enclosure next to the rhinos there is a body of water between the fake rock wall, which you are standing behind, and the bank. In the enclosure you see a pair of Cheetahs napping in the shadow of a tree. A sign near by says this is one of the two rotational enclosures for the area, it continues to explain how the enclosures work and how it affects the animals. You continue to the last enclosure of the rotation and see a small group of Impalas, Sable Antelopes, and Steenbok.

    You see another netted aviary and go to see what’s inside and you see a pair of vulnerable Blue Crane and a pair Gray Crowned Crane. You continue to a large open area and in the center are four rotating solar panels. Signs around the panels explain that the panels provide energy to the areas doors and hotwire. You continue to a rock enclosure much like the Hyrax enclosure and look inside to see a pair of Black-footed Cats; a sign describes the conservation initiatives being done to help the cat. On the other side of the path there is another enclosure like the Hyraxes. Inside is a single Nile monitor. It lies basking in the afternoon sun.

    You continue on and stop abruptly at the sight of a Giraffe drinking from a pool of water and small Oribi running beneath its feet. You admire the odd pair. You relies that you are at the last of the two rotational enclosures. You go to the second enclosure and see a pack of endangered African Hunting Dogs. The sign next to the enclosure announces that the pack is the biggest breeding group in North America. You watch the group interact with each other and then watch some run into the house behind them. You then follow the path out of the area and……

    I hope you enjoyed reading The Great Kalahari.
    Just a few notes for the map:
    Green circles of ovals are vegitation of many types
    The darker the blue the deeper
    The light orange are the viariums, I didnt have space to lable them
    I usaly do the Holdings but didnt have time
    And here are the rotaionals

    Rotation One
    Mixed One
    Black Rhino-CE-
    Cheetah-V-

    Rotation Two
    Mixed Two
    African Wild Dog-E-

    And the Mixes

    Mixed One
    Impala-LC-
    Sable Antelope-LC-
    Steenbok-LC-

    Mixed Two
    Giraffe-LC-
    Oribi-LC-

    Constructive critisism is gladly apperciated
     

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    Last edited: 26 Jul 2010
  16. Fossa dude

    Fossa dude Well-Known Member

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    Patagonia in Peril


    Guests will enter the exhibit through a Desert Mountain Arch. The arch way is connected to a larger mountain. This is where you can spot The Southern Viscacha, Pygmy Armadillo, Patagonian Weasel, and Culpeo in a rocky desert exhibit. The exhibit is made up of several different levels for different animal families. The Viscacha and Armadillo live together but share the exhibit with the Patagonian Weasel and Culpeo on a time rotation. For most of the exhibit you would look down a couple feet to see the animals but since the wall may be a little too tall for some children there will be indoor exhibits with glass fences inside the reptile house. Nearby the first exhibit is a large netted aviary for the main predator of the first exhibit animals. This is the Black Chested Buzzard Eagle. The netted exhibit has a desert look to it but with a tall rock mountain on one side. This is so the Raptor can watch the prey animals from the first exhibit but the prey animals can not see the Raptor. This will serve as enrichment for the Black Chested Buzzard Eagle and an amazing sight for guests when they see the raptor in predator mode. The mountain also is a great sun bathing spot and has little caves for nesting. Then the path will take you up a steep hill to the indoor reptile exhibit. When you walk up to the reptile house you see that it is made into the mountain from the first exhibit. This is where the most of the rotating goes on for the four animals. Right when you enter the reptile house you are face to fang with the Jumping Cow Spider. The spider is distributed through most of the Patagonian Desert so the exhibit was made so it would look like a rouged thorny desert bush. The exhibit was made around a large bush and many Cacti. The back and top of the exhibit have many thorns and stems poking out of the glass exhibit. The foliage that comes out is trimmed regularly if need be and are sealed tight so the spider doesn't crawl out. The next exhibit is for Dwarf Tegu, Shining Tree Iguana, Zapallar Lizard, and Argentine Black and White Tegu. The exhibit has two rocky desert sides joined together with a tunnel above you and beneath you at the entrance and exit to the first reptile house room. The two tunnels on each side have rock glazed on them with many little glass windows so you can see them go through these tunnels. The exhibits have a rock fence with wooden railing inwards so the lizards can't come out and guest can't come in. This exhibit makes a circle around the first room and surrounds the Spider exhibit. The last thing you would look at in this room is a scheduled bug toss. At this bug toss you can see a keeper through bugs in the air for lizard to jump up and catch for a little snake. The next room you enter is quite small in size but the exhibit takes up most of the rooms size. The Venomous Urutu Pit Viper and South American Hog-nosed Snake live in a large sandy dune with a rocky bushy desert towards the back of the exhibit. The glassed off exhibit is protected with reinforced fence so the glass will go all the way up to the top of the room. There is also an unnoticable barrier of rock, heavy cacti and other patagonian flora to keep the snakes in one exhibit but keep them apart from each other so nothing gets injured or worse. The next room's walls are lined with glass exhibits. The first two are for the Southern Viscacha and Pygmy Armadillo. The second will be only for one species at a time so one will be in the first big outdoor exhibit and the second will be in here. This is how the Patagonian Weasel and Culpeo rotation works. The third is a underground exhibit for the Endangered Southern Tuco Tuco and Pink Fairy Armadillo. The underground exhibit is specially designed so you can watch them in their tunnels and also see them make tunnels in soft sandy dirt. The third exhibit is very large because there are tunnels under you which connect to a smaller horse shoe shaped part beside the underground part. The tunnels were made so that it could be one large exhibit with many parts so these animals didn't have to go on a rotation system so they could have both underground and an entrance into there burrows. The horse shoe part is where you can see them come in and out of there burrows. Once guest come out of the Reptile House the sandy path will lead to a large pond with a bridge overhead. The bridge connects to the other side of the pond and will lead down to a underwater view of the Velvet Catfish, Naked Characin, and Argentinean Mega Trout such as Brown, Steelhead, and Rainbow. The path then takes you to a jeep safari exhibit. The jeep is powered by waste of the animals in the zoo. The wast is turned into fuel by gasification which converts solid fuel into energy. The large desert exhibit is based around a desert oasis for Lesser Rhea, Guanaco, Patagonian Mara, Pichi, Patagonian Tortoise, and the Endangered Patagonian Huemul. The exhibit takes a while to get through as the driver stops at largely populated spots for certain animals. When you get off of the jeep the next exhibit you see is a large netted desert walk through an aviary for families of Patagonian Tinamou, Patagonian Negrito, Martineta, Patagonian Conures, the Vulnerable Pampas Meadowlark, and the vulnerable Rothchild's Swift. The last exhibit in Patagonia in Peril is called Patagonian Predators. This exhibit is made up of three animals. The first is a netted aviary for White Throated Caracara, the second is a round sinkhole with many hills for the Chilla, and the third and last exhibit at Patagonia in Peril is very dense with thorn bush and cacti for the Argentinean Puma. When you exit the exhibit there is a large area for an aphathieart where you can see animals from the exhibits teach you about their changing desert and an information building where you can learn how the poo powers the jeeps and many of the lights in the reptile house.
     
  17. Fossa dude

    Fossa dude Well-Known Member

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    @Sealife357
    How did you make that map? Is it drawn or from a computer program?
     
  18. Sealife357

    Sealife357 Well-Known Member

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    The wonder of the paint program. Ive been using it to create enclosures for two years now but never for an area. Must admit it was really fun.
     
  19. Fossa dude

    Fossa dude Well-Known Member

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    Where could you find the paint program.
     
  20. Sealife357

    Sealife357 Well-Known Member

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    It comes with most microsoft operating systems under accsesories. If you dont have it there check paint.net, I only skimmed through the site but Its the program.
     
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