Speculative Burger's zoo project

What are the chances of getting Abert's squirrels, Western gray squirrels and Blue jays to the Netherlands? Thinking of adding them to the Desert expansion

 

I'm redesigning the New Guinea house and I want to add some free-roamers. So far I've got:

Orange-fronted fruit-dove, Victoria crowned pigeon, Radjah shelduck, Papuan mountain-pigeon, Wompoo fruit-dove, Zebra dove, White-eared catbird

Any others we could add?

 

I've made an update to the New Guinea house, now a full greenhouse and a bunch of new free-roamers.

The Southern Cassowary exhibit is heavily foliaged, with a boardwalk over the water and a small beach on the other side, as well as a waterfall and a shallow stream. There's also a ground-level viewing platform next to the echidnas, with three-meter tall glass walls and stripped logs in between.

The Tree kangaroo / Dorcopsis / Ground cuscus outside enclosure is a full walkthrough and has netting over it, so the free-roamers in the hall can also go in there, as well as the cassowary enclosure

There are three wall terrariums embedded in rocks, there's still foliage on top of the rocks, so the birds can go there too

There's now also an outside aviary with Pesquet's parrots and Palm cockatoo

 

Little update: Added Smew (Mergellus albellus) to the European aviary

I'm also planning on replacing the Cuban crocodile in the Caribbean islands house with a saltflat, and adding roseate spoonbill and American flamingo as free-roamers

 

Why don’t you just make half of the current parking area into a parking structure?

If you were to do this I suggest you make it a building, having a standalone area on the other side of the road is very awkward.

I believe the only zoo with Aberts squirrel now is Navajo Nation zoo and it’s VERY difficult to get anything out of the Navajo nation because of how much paperwork and rules you have to go through.
Western Grey Squirrels you would have to get from the wild because nobody carries them (that I’ve heard of). People in America see squirrels as pests and not species they want to see in zoos so acquiring one of them directly from a zoo is very difficult.
Blue jays should be easier to get.

 

Well, Burgers' is very much against wild-caught animals, even if they are very common, I thought they'd be better for the outside enclosure instead of the Virginia opossums (Having them in the nocturnal caves instead).

Are there any Arizona grey squirrels or Mexican fox squirrels? Perhaps even cliff chipmunks?

 

Well it is easy: No permits and it ruins the landscape.

 

Very much ruins the landscape indeed. The parking lot is in the middle of the forest so I'm definitely not filling that with concrete

 

Sorry I didn’t reply sooner. Would an underground garage mess with the land to much? Also you could build a separate lot on the other side of the Deelenseweg and bridge over or go under to the other side from the parking lot. As to answer your squirrel question your not going to find squirrels at any major or minor zoos, you have to go into some extremely small zoos to find squirrels. Some odd wildlife centers might have some.

 

I think you don't understand what the parking grounds look like for Burgers' zoo


(Satellite image because I can't find anything better)

It is quite litterally a forest, with huge scots pines providing shade.

Burgers' zoo isn't on an industrial terrain like Blijdorp, or in town square like Wildlands. So there's really no opportunity for a multi-floor garage

 

But why can’t you just build the parking lot on the other side of the deeelense weg and then build bridges or tunnels to the other side? Here’s an example:

You just have people walk over or under to get to the zoo. You wouldn’t have to move the actual highway like was mentioned earlier.

 

it doesn't work.

Besides, why even should you remove the parking lot as is?

 

Found one!

Eastern Gray Squirrel - Snowball - ZooChat

I'm going to use this to assume more mini-zoos have them in their collection

 

Help! I've been recognized!

For those of you who don't know, I made some guides for the free-roamers of Bush, Desert and Mangrove (in the same style as the Burgers' zoo project) to try and find all the free-roamers

On my last visit, I showed a zookeeper to ask about the Speckled mousebirds, and he RECOGNISED THE STYLE?! He asked if I made it myself and I said yes, then he asked if I also made "the masterplan with the Australia part" and I went mad

We talked for a bit and he completely agreed that there should be and Australian part and apparently it had been going around a zookeeper group chat

 

Lmao what were the odds of that happening

 

So, I've been inactive for a little while and most of you probably don't care, but I'm working in the background, redesigning a whole bunch of stuff.
I'm thinking of making a second version of Congo and Woods, where the spaces are swapped. I'm sorting out free-roamers everywhere and taking out some more obscure halls. I'm also redesigning arctic because, to be fair, I was being stupid (It's still going to be over-the-top though)

 

I’m interested - looking forward to what comes next

 

It should be possible to get Eastern grays via institutions like stichting AAP or NHC opglabbeek, since they are an invasive species in Europe. That's how De Zonnegloed in Vleteren also got theirs.

 

I'm incredibly happy with my new version of Burger's Congo. And though it's not finished, I want to show you what I have so far


Burgers Congo version 2 has four main features, as well as a few scattered exhibits in between.
A small greenhouse with outside enclosures for Bongos and Drills
A large ape island separated to a chimpanzee side and a gorilla side
A large mixed aviary with Congo buffaloes and Sitatungas, Okapis and Mantled guerezas
A large greenhouse with Outside enclosures for Okapis and Pygmy hippos, and indoor enclosures for Crocodiles, Hyraxes, Aardvarks and Pangolins

So far I only have the Small greenhouse completely finished


The enclosures are larger than they seem at first. The drill enclosure is as large as the sun bear enclosure. And the combined area of the indoor and outdoor Bongo enclosure is as large as the outside tiger enclosure, the dwarf croc enclosure is slightly larger than the caiman enclosure, etc.

Pretty straight-forward in design.
You enter at the bridge area and you can go either to the left or to the right. To the left is an enclosure for dwarf crocs, with a small underwater viewing area (straight to the left from the bridge is a staircase down, the path behind that is a slope)

There's an aviary-separated area with Grey parrots and Bearded barbets. As well as an enclosure for common cusimanses and Forest hingeback tortoises

All enclosures have a lot of lower foliage in it, the bongo enclosure also has some trees

All areas with no enclosures have a lot of foliage, similar to the bush

Fish, swimming in the whole river, including the crocodile enclosure, include:
Gabon tilapia (Oreochromis schwebischi)
Reticulated knifefish (Papyrocranus afer)
African arowana (Heterotis niloticus)
Congo tetra (Phenacogrammus interruptus)
Calvus cichlid (Altolamprologus calvus)
True big-scale tetra (Brycinus macrolepidotus)
Purple cichlid (Pelvicachromis pulcher)
Blackmouth Cameroon tilapia (Coptodon camerunensis)
African moony (Monodactylus sebae)
Senegal bichir (Polypterus senegalus)

Free-roamers:
Red-headed quelea (A larger group in comparison to the rest of the birds, similar to the Blue-backed grassquits in Mangrove)
Snowy-crowned robin-chat
Western plantain-eater
Guinea turaco
Violet-backed starling
Collared sunbird
Olive pigeon
Tambourine dove
Blue-headed wood dove
African golden oriole
Aubrey’s flapshell turtle (though I expect these to stay near the empty corner underneath the Drill enclosure)

 

This is wonderful, I was waiting for you to continue with this thread