hay jarkari looks like zoobeat has shown where u should build, nice and close to melb airport as well for special deliveries but there needs to be investigation to whether there is a large enough land parcel close to the city- no more than 30 minutes from the main centre, less if possible.
what about tasmania? jarkari seems pretty hell-bent on going big straight up with animals like elephants and giraffes. therefore the warrmer the climate obviously the better (giraffes in particular are pretty sensative to cold). however, i have to honestly say hobart is probably a great location for a small zoo. especially if you can hold a more temperate and or alpine theme. if i was to build a zoo in tassie this is how i would do it and i would actually embrace the prospect of snowfall and build it in the hills close to the city. red pandas, snow leopards, brown bears, bengal tigers, himalayan tahr, mongolian horses, american bison, deer sp, persian leopards, indian porcupines, puma, guanaco, dhole, japanese and rhesus macaques, golden cats.... all these species are cold-tolerant and available in our zoos and the temperate theme would instantly set the zoo apart. whilst the zoo may no be able to contibute to quite so many manged breeding programs of a zoo not restricted by this, it can still contribute to a few and manage its other species to just fill its own requirements.
...wildife in sri lanka.. jarkari, both you and zooboy have made numerous comments in earlier posts that alludes to the fact that you are planning on aquiring wildlife in sri lanka for your zoo. as you know, i've been to sri lanka, and am pretty familiar with the wildlife that lives there. what concerns me is that virtually none of the mammal species there have exitsting or planned breeding programs in any zoos in this country. though sri lanka has some impressive megafauna species, it has not quite the same degree of large mammal diversity that mainland india has (the only tigers in sri lanka are the tamil-type), and most of the sri lankan mammals represent unique subspecies. even elephants (the only native sri lankan species with a manged breeding program in australia) from there are not the same as the mainland subspecies found in our zoos. essentially you will probably not recieve any co-operation with other zoos on breeding any species you import from the island nation. how do you plan to manage this?
Releasing to the wild Jarkari, Zooboy mentions that you plan on releasing animals back to the wild, seemingly, all over the world - is this correct, or is this just wishful thinking on his behalf? For this to occur, you need to be working with the wildlife agencies in those respective countries, and will be required to fit in with their recovery programs. This of course means that your species lists will be driven by the individual needs of each country, and working with the range state wildlife agencies would be an absolute requirement of DEH's before they'd issue you with import permits. (This is the case with Mogo and their white lions, although we haven't seen any return to Africa yet.) One of the problems with this though as Patrick points out, is that if you aren't working with species that are in the other zoos in the region, you'll be entirely reliant on overseas import and export to sustain viable populations, and this is costly, and somewhat impractical. Alternatively, you'll need to work with ARAZPA taxon advisory groups and member zoos to try to get them to change their collection plans in favour of your prefered species, and this also, will be no easy task. Is zooboy off the beaten track here with this suggestion?
hay i am jst saying some small details i have discussed with jarkari, and there is more, but it's up to him to say.
i dont think he will say much more, but from me, it should be a great project if it come to fruition, and make a big difference.
A few things I have been talking to the head zoologist here for the Sri Lankan Governement's department of zoologicl gardens. I will say that I have expressed interest in only one species of animal in sri lanka and I bet you know what that is. I'm sure youv'e all heard of pannawala elephant orphanage. I went there with an elephant consultant a few times over the last month and saw loads of babies but only two of them were actually orphans. The Sri Lankan government openly states that it is used only as a tourist attraction and they have no plans as of yet to release any of thir elephanst back to the wild as that woud cost them money. I have expressed interest in "pbtaining elephants from them but wether that inolves attempting (and I stress the attempt) to bring them bak to Australia is another matter I have considered but i am considering purchasing them and working with the department of zoological gardens to release them to the wild eventually. This is still being discussed and is not my priority at the moment. I have seen loads of animals here that I think would be brilliant additions to zoos but as you have all said it just isn't worth it, all the hassle. I will be starting off like most zoos with a few surplus/circus/unwanted animals (but will not take any animal that is unwanted as many sanctuaries in america, which adds to the problem) and the collection will row from there. I do have intentions of importing som animals that are not on any programs locally but these are for educational purposes and I know it will be a very hard task.
I've been planning a virtual zoo on my website for some time. If you have a look it is my old site that is still up. I need to upload my new one.
