Adelaide Zoo Pandas Wang Wang and Funi soon to be Adelaide Zoo stars

The Feds pay for the Pandas, the State pays for the new entrance, fences etc?!?!?

Wow! I wish that the Darling Downs Zoo was in South Australia!

 

I love the giant panda debate, as every non-Chinese zoo that has pandas must assess the pros and cons to having the burly bears in their collection. Adelaide has increased visitors by 70% in the first year, and those hundreds of thousands of extra people venturing through the gates must have spent a lot of cash at the restaurant, cafe or gift shop. On the other hand, no matter how many folks swarm the zoo in the future the rent/loan for the pandas is always astronomical and usually about one million dollars a year.

In the summer of 2008 on our 30-zoo road trip my wife and I visited all four American zoos that had giant pandas (San Diego, Atlanta, Memphis and National) and 3 out of those 4 zoos have actually bred the animals in the past decade. Memphis is the only zoo without a birth, but a panda baby is worth a tremendous amount of cash. Adelaide really needs a baby panda in the future to maintain excitement in South Australia, and if that amazing event does occur then it will be worth it for the zoo. Also, one must not forget that Adelaide has been attracting many tourists to the zoo rather than the usual local crowd, and I even know that some ZooChatters have made the trek from Melbourne and Sydney just to see the black-and-white critters!

 

I'm doing it in April, hopefully.

 

I saw the article in the paper this morning, an interesting read.

 

Going to Adelaide next Friday for the weekend with a mate. Hopefully i will get to see the pandas.

 

'She's still quite young but in the future she might be a good mother'

You don't need to be much of a Panda expert to make a statement like that!

 

I think there would be a better guarantee of success if China were to release e.g. two adult male Pandas to another Zoo (e.g. Taronga Park) in Australia. When the Adelaide female is nearig her oestrus period, the two extra males are temporarily sent there to stimulate the natural system where several males congregate around an oestrus female and vie for mating rights. They could be given access to her at different times to prevent actual fighting. Afterwards the other males simply return to their 'host' zoo.

Wishful thinking maybe but I am sure more Giant Pandas in zoos would breed successfully if such a system was adopted.

 

I can't believe that the peak attendance when the pandas were new and exciting only reached just below 500,00. Adelaide is a city with a population over 1 million and I assume there were quite a few interstate and even international visitors to boost those numbers. Perhaps more needs to be done to increase local visitation amongst Adelaidians. I doesn't help that the journey from Australia's other large cities will take quite a few hours and there aren't any other major population centres in the whole state.

 

No sign of oestrus/mating in the Pandas yet this year?

 

I totally agree, and the poor attendance is downright shocking. Of the 4 American zoos with giant pandas, San Diego receives 3.3 million visitors per year, National Zoo 2.3 million annually, Memphis 1.1 million and Atlanta about 850,000. All of those zoos received pandas and had a boost in attendance that has been maintained for years. The fact that Adelaide received a boost and then the numbers dropped back down again definitely shows that there is a lack of zoo fans in the area.

There are some cities in the United States where the population of the city equals the annual visitation numbers at the local zoo, and examples that are close would be Omaha, Oregon, Reid Park and many others. The city of Adelaide has a million people and so in theory the zoo (if it was actually popular) would equal that number but the truth is not even close. Even in Calgary there are 1.2 million people and also 1.2 million folks who visit the zoo each year, and there are some incredibly cold winters in that region that feature extremely chilly temperatures. Why can't Adelaide entice locals to visit the zoo? Is the zoo regarded as being too small? Is the weather too hot? Too dry in the summer?

I visited in 2007 and toured Adelaide Zoo, Monarto Zoo, Cleland Wildlife Park and Warrawong Sanctuary in the area, and does having 4 places to visit (plus a couple of others) dilute the visitor numbers for the zoo? Do most tourists venture forth to Kangaroo Island rather than stay in the city? I'm quite puzzled as to why Adelaide Zoo has gotten itself into a financial mess with its pandas when most people were predicting a roaring success.

 

Adelaide badly need a Panda cub- that would stimulate visitor numbers.

 

Many people comment that the admission prices are too high and that's why they're not visiting. I think that is probably the main reason, as I do think it is quite expensive for a relatively small zoo. I think if they had free entry for children on weekends and during holidays like Melbourne Zoo or a similar scheme, more people would visit.

Adelaide Zoo is certainly in a good spot, I'd say it's much easier to get to for most people than other zoos/wildlife parks in SA.

A panda cub (or even another 'high profile' baby) would be great for visitor numbers I think. It seems Monarto's been having more breeding success with the larger animals these days.

 

I believe there is no way you should compare North American zoo attendance, or other Australian big city zoo attendance, with Adelaide without considering surrounding cities and the broader population within "reasonable" driving distance and the total number of tourists received to each city as a whole each year (domestic and international) (PAT also implies this). I have been to Adelaide several times on business in the last few years but unfortunately I've never had time to go to the zoo. Anyway, the point i wanted to make was that although I found Adelaide to be a beautiful city well worth visiting, it is an extremely isolated city that people almost never pass through (by plane or car) - even Perth is more likely to be used for people coming to and from Africa, Asia and Europe. Further, (as Snowleopard notes) Monarto zoo is also in the Adelaide "catchment" so you would really need to include those visit numbers. Finally, the number of tourists that visit Adelaide each year would be a very small proportion of all the North American cities mentioned. Take San Diego for instance which is right near other big cities like Los Angeles and a major international tourist destination. Even some of the smaller American cities mentioned have a much larger population "catchment" from surrounding cities and towns. Now, perhaps it is true that the people of Adelaide aren't embracing their zoo as much as other cities, but I'm just saying you can't match overall visit numbers with other places without considering Adelaide's isolation and that they get comparatively very few visitors to Adelaide for any reason!

 

Yes, I believe that the higher prices in admission and membership have contributed to many fewer people visiting the zoo, and gaining memberships. Even I haven't visited the zoo or bought a membership in over a year now, where I had had a membership for 5 years.
I also think that with the introduction of the pandas, the new facilities and the loss of many species from the zoo due to the space required for these facilities and pandas have made people wish they had 'the little old adelaide zoo' back.

 

Adelaide Zoo isn't even expensive - $30-odd for an adult - about 1/2 the price of places like Australia Zoo.

I think they might be getting less $$ as people who are visiting are those with the yearly memberships from other states, of which South Australia has a reciprocal agreement with: The 3 in Vic, two in NSW, and 1 in WA.