I just thought that the good people on ZooChat might be interested to see, how the future looks for one of the best zoos in Denmark. The Tropical Zoo Randers Tropical Zoo is an indoor tropical zoo located in one of the big cities in Denmark, Randers. It consists of three large glass domes with animals from the tropical rainforests of Asia, Africa and South America. They have many rare animals and great exhibit. See the Randers Tropical Zoo gallery for pictures. Aside from being a tropical zoo, the zoo also owns a large piece of marshland where several endangered wild animals and plants thrive. Here they also breed rare domesticated animals. Last year, European bison also moved in. Planet Randers It is announced that Planet Randers will be the biggest zoological attraction on the planet. The zoo will consist of the current buildings, a huge oval building, aprox 63.000 m2, and an outdoor area of about 750 hectares. The building will be about 400 x 200 meters and 30 meters tall. The exhibitions will be divided to display different geographical areas of the planet and will be similar to the current Tropical Zoo. Apart from being a zoo, there will also be restaurants, hotels, shopping-area and conference facilities. It will also be possible to take a swim in pools from where you can observe animals such as dolphins and crocodiles through a glass window. The "naturepark" will be a HUGE outdoor area. For a grasp of it's size, I recommend downloading this movie to get a small idea of how the new Planet Randers will look like. According to the movie, the naturepark will be divided into these areas: Native species, national breeds, former wildlife (bison, bears, wolves, etc.) and vicariating exotics (any exotic animals that are too big for the dome, the example here is elephants). The plan is for the new Planet Randers to open in phases between 2017 and 2020. What I so far like about this idea, is that they seem to have grasped the concept of "conservation starts at home". These plans are, of course, not very detailed yet. The official website which so far eksists only in Danish. You can see a few concept sketches here and here. I recommend downloading the short video, as mentioned above, but you can also view it here. Comments anyone?
Randers in August last year became the first zoo outside of the Americas to breed the South American bushmaster (Lachesis muta muta), 8 young were hatched.
Direct link to the animation video but only outside so no new information about the interior of the planned building. Sounds very impressive but I'm not sure how big the animal areas in the building really will be when the building also has to have space for restaurants, hotel, shopping-area, conference facilities and indoor swimming pool. The video doesn't show anything like trains or safari busses but surely the naturepark is much to large to walk around? Very impressive.
A little more has been revealed about the new Planet Randers. It will be split into three parts. One of them will be the original Randers Tropical Zoo with the three glass domes of rainforest life. The huge new outdoor area is located in some of the most beatifull landscape in Denmark and will be called "Genetic Valley". Here the megafauna of the zoo will live and the emphazis will be on endangered species and plants, both foreign and domestic. The goal is to create a genetic bank, hence the name. The outdoor nature park will be around 750 hectare (1853 acres) in size. The huge World Dome will be the cornerstone of the exhibition. Like previously mentioned the building will be about 400 x 200 meters and 30 meters tall giving it a total size of 63.000 m2. It will be divided according to the Earth's geographical zones and feature not only the zoological elemement but also climate, nature and culture. The naturalistic principles will be the same as you can see in the Randers Tropical Zoo today. The World Dome will also house a hotel, shopping facilities, wellness, conference facilities and indoor swimming area where you can look a crocodile or a dolphin in the eye under water. The biggest zoo in the world will be built in stages between 2013 and 2020.
