I already can map my own zoo after a plan, on a particular location that I own

Finaly, I managed to purchase my own private land, not a big one - almost 3,200 m2 - with almost equal four sides. It was a difficult task, since there is not a lot of land on sale at the location that I prefered. Here we call plats or platz , a marked land that is a land on which you can construct something like building or whatever. In contrast, agriculture land from category I, can be used only for agriculture purposes. The location is on semi-arid area, with soil with red-brown color mixed with sandy soil and beautifull sorroundings. It is located at 2.5 km from the periphery of my living town of Prilep, R. Macedonia.

I can already start making plan what enclosures to build and map on the map of the land. Species involved in the plan, are lemurs, leopards, snakes, parrots, vultures, among others. Why not, even a giraffes or tapirs/.

Yet, a lot of money and time is needed for a initial micro, humble, zoo. But I must start from somewhere for my dream, though the economy of the country is poor/slowly developing. But the Skopje zoo had around 370,000 visitors last year. Why I would not be able to attract, let say, 20,000 visitors anualy/.

What can you suggest me, in regards to enclosure location and species chosed. For example, I want all indoor enclosures to be at the periphery, and the outdoor enclosures oriented toward the center of the location, and connected with a tunnel system for animals walks. I also plan, basic heating with underground heat-exchanging pipes.

The land is on the following picture;

https://www.zoochat.com/community/media/land-plats-for-a-zoo-eventualy.373452/full
I give up from planing a trip to the Netherlands/Belgium, since I spent money for purchasing of the land and I am not in a liquid financial state.

 

Do you actually own this land now and do you actually intend to build a zoo on it?

 

Yes I own this land now, and intend to build a zoo, but I don't know when the building will start, probably in the next 2-5 years, hopefully.
It is a small location, but it can be something creative and eye-catching.

 

Congrats on the purchase, Nikola.

Giraffes and even leopards might just be a bit ambitious on such a small site. I'd be looking at a few small mammals, an aviary or two and a reptile house.

Good luck.

 

Does it cost you anything to just own an empty plot of land where you are? (I'm thinking council tax or something like that)

 

Yes, a tax for property of this kind of land - neglectable amount of around 12 euros/1,000 m2/anualy/. For a building, it is around 0.5 euros /per square metre/anualy. But I can use the land for agricultural purposes - e.g., paulownia tree, tobacco or grain, until I start with building, that of course, will be in a slow and gradual process.

 

3200 meters square is only about 100'x100'. Our snow leopard enclosure at our facility consumes almost that entire footprint. A giraffe enclosure would like likewise consume almost the entire property as well.

Also, do you have running water on site?

Also what about your parking lot?? That will consume a sizeable portion of your property lest you want to accommodate more than 2-3 cars at a time.

 

Yes it is roughly, around 50 x 60 m.
The site don't have running water, it have just a ground pot for water, and a well can be digged.
I think, two enclosures, 20 x 20 m - so each around 400 m2 - so one quarter or more of the entire surface, plus a fenced tunnel for more distant walk, will be acceptable for several giraffes, for example non-breeding males. But yet, the giraffes are too ambitious species for this site. Yet, there is a probability for future expansion of this site in the neighboring platzs - parcels.

 

The parking lot, probably will consume around 400.0 m2 of the site, located on the west and south side of the site, with vehicles parking directly from the road, onto the parking lot at the periphery of the park. For example a parking lot with sizes 70.0 x 2.5 m for around 25 cars and another parking lot with a size of let say, 40.0 x 6.0 m for 2 buses.

 

It is more important now than ever to ground your dreams in reality. As others said, giraffes and big cats are not going to be doable on this site unless you buy more land adjacent (if you can). Have a look at what can be acquired privately in your country (reptiles, small mammals, aviary birds, invertebrates, etc) and start making plans from there. Also, make sure you have experience in taking care of a species before displaying it publicly.

 

Congratulations on your land purchase! At this stage, I think you should focus on the infrastructure associated with your future zoo. Start building the parking lot, dig for water and make sure you have all those things in order before planning what animals to house. Then start thinking about what animals you can display in a spectacular way, and not which animals you might be able to squeeze in. Try to be the best zoo you can be. Be very careful where you source your animals. Captive bred is a must and I strongly suggest you establish a report with zoos within a reasonable distance and try to work together with them in breeding programs. There are no short cuts to success. No matter how small, your goal should be to be the best zoo in Macedonia.

 

3200m2 equals about 34000 sq ft,, or more than 3 times as large an area as you suggest. Still, a small area about 0.8 acres.

 

Congratulations on your purchase, and all the best for your project. As others have observed it is a very small area for a zoo. Here are my thoughts about how I would approach it, of course free advice is worth only what you pay for it! My own feeling is that you would be best to pitch your project towards young families, which in any case are the biggest markets for most zoos. Think of animals that would appeal to younger children, smaller primates, snakes and lizards, colourful parrots etc. Rather than leopards maybe servals? You could train them to do a presentation of natural behaviours such as leaping and foraging.Try and keep sociable species so you can have a number of animals in a larger enclosure rather than pairs in a series of smaller enclosures. I would have a pets corner where children can pet domestic animals. Lots of presentations so people can spend time listening to keepers and watching the animals - this extends their stay so the small size of the property won't matter so much to them. Likewise lots of sight barriers so it is a bit of a "maze" to get around. You don't want people walking in, glancing round, thinking they have seen everything, and walking out. Check out if you can obtain unreleasable birds of prey, so a keeper or volunteer can walk around with on their arm. The behind the scenes mews can be smaller than a display aviary. Good luck..

 

Oh man how embarrassing you are totally right on that one. My quick mental math failed my yet again, lol.

Regardless though, that still puts your total land area at only ~160' x ~200', which although better, is still tight, like MRJ said.

Another BIG issue I see here is the fact that you'll have to be using well water. Along with the infrastructure needed to set up plumbing throughout the facility (and on that note, if there is no plumbing into to a sewage line for the property, you are going to have to factor in an area on site for your waste water to drain in/on to), but at least in my province in Canada, well water smells BAD and does not feel good on the skin. This is something you may want to avoid with the paying public in a zoo.

 

Thank you all for congrats., advices, suggestions.
- This will be a slow and lenghty process because I will continuosly invest money in real time, that I will earn on several grounds, because I don't have a cash now to invest at once. The first things with this site will be cutting/clearing that belt of wild-grown trees across the site, and using the land for agricultural process for making extra profit, for example even planting paulownia trees and then, after 2-3 years, using them in the construction of the enclosures.
- I was in big dilema whether to purchase more expensive smaller site near the town, like this, or to purchase chipper, bigger site in a more distant location like in a lost village - but that is even more difficult, since rarely will someone ever sell his land in a village, and not all nearby villages were appropriate, and you can't find the people who will sell the land. If I not succeed with a zoo, I can use this site for a weekend house, and even a small farm with chickens, fish or sheeps/deers, and it is near the town of Prilep with around 70,000 citizens. The location was very important for me, since I prefered the area south or south-west of the town of Prilep, since this area is more subtropical - drier and with more remarkable scenery.
- The nearest zoo would be Bitola zoo, a 22,000 m2 zoo, at 50 km from this site. The Bitola zoo keeps its leopard in an enclosure of 8 x 8 m. If I ever manage to keep a leopard, I plan multi-part outdoor enclosure of at least 3 x 150 m2, plus smaller indoor quarters, for two leopards.
- Extended species list would include, if possible, gibbons, siamangs, practicaly all monkeys, small cats, civets, flamingos, penguins, crocodiles, kangaroos/wallabies, tamanduas, monitor lizards, dart frogs, spiders... But the way of exhibiting is very important for me, it can be spectacular like nicholas wrote, and not to be just regular square enclosures. I would also plan bigger enclosures for snakes, a more spacious exhibition of snakes like you are spotting a snake on a tropical forest floor in an enclosure with room-size.

 

Nikola, I have a suggested exercise for you.

Write down the number '3200' at the top right of a piece of paper, and grab a calculator.

Then list your hoped-for exhibits in order of how much of a priority they are, *and* the required space in square meters. Then use the calculator to subtract that number from 3200. Write it down underneath where you wrote 3200. So if it's 'giraffes' and '400', you need to write 2800.

Then do the same thing with your second most important exhibit, and subtract that number from 2800. And then again with a third exhibit.

See how far you get before your 3200 runs out, *but* don't forget to include your car park, maintenance building, visitor paths and so on too.

 

This is great idea CGSwans thank you, I will do this.

 

Several of the species you note aren't good choices for a beginning zoo. Penguins for example are probably too expensive to acquire (unless you are very rich), so are tamanduas and they are very costly to maintain too.

 

The only thing I can recommend you is patience and to keep both feet on the ground (of reality). As for limited ground area: why not think UP?

 

Am surprised that even the Humbolt's penguin is very expensive, Mr. Zootycoon. Or this species is not very expensive, otherwise four penguins of this species would fit well into the begining concept, because I cared for this species, and they are more heat-resistant, but very prone to pulmonary aspergilosis and Plasmodium infections.

What is UP, Batto/.

I will now do the calculations after the CGSwans suggestion. I have done something simmilar in the past, but now I already have a real land onto which I can make the calculations for space/enclosure sizes. Lets start.