Has anybody interested in starting a zoo thought of buying an old one and fixing it up? I have finished reading "We Bought a Zoo" the story of a man buying a zoo and fixing it up. It was inspiring and after hearing about the zoo in my area I'm more interested. About a half an hour's drive from me is the now closed Belle Isle Zoo. Back in 2002 the city of Detroit's Mayor purposely closed the zoo so he could give the 1 million going to the zoo to a contractor to build a new nature center. Yes this mayor is the notorius Kwame Kilpatrick if you have ever heard of him. Anyways I never went to the zoo but after reading a couple blogs about it and chating online I learned more about it. It was actually a children zoo when it closed but it had Lions, Sumatran tigers, camels, fallow deer, and I believe even an elephant. The funny thing is all of the fences, board walks, and buildings are mostly intact. Most of the building though have no locks so it is very vulnerable to vandalization. The land is owned by the city of Detroit and not privately owned. I am not sure how I would go about finding out whether it is for sale or not and whether it would be practical buisness.
re building disused and run down zoos I have spent my life doing this .One mans rubbish is anothers gold .The idea of a childrens zoo with Big Cats etc is very 1970 .Families now want a nice clean happy environment where kids can learn and be at peace with the world .Parents want peace and quiet and a break from the kids while they sit and chat or play mothers club etc .This also leads to birthday parties theme etc .Its a very good way to use a disused zoo ground .The main problems are repairing what is broken ,not so much above ground but whats under .Pipes etc .I am happy to chat or help this project you have in mind .I am in Jakarta just now at Ragunan zoo ,then back to Bali Zoo ,then back to Peel Zoo perth .Any pics ,prices of land or lease and lets get to .Words are cheap ,just do it .The town will back you .Lions and things are a past event .Go general petting zoo with reptiles etc .All people fear to touch and see birds etc .Check insurance though before you start as well zoning with shire ,is it tourism zone still .Good luck Tony Greenwoods .Peel Zoo Pinjarra Mandurah Western Australia - Natures Education Centre /www.bali-zoo.com
Well if I did open the zoo up as a children zoo it might not make as much money as a regular zoo would. The majority of the paths are around 8ft high boardwalks. So it might be a little harder to make a children zoo. I was planning on including more kid oriented areas like a hands on area, fallow deer feeding area, camel rides, etc. The pipes and plumbing might have problems. I might have to demo some buildings but others might be salvageable. With the hard economic times more and more visitors are going to the Detroit Zoo rather than on faraway vacations. I would prefer to chose different species for the zoo that the Detroit Zoo doesn't have. So visitors can experince something different when going to each. I am glad to hear that you have experince in these types of projects. It would be a major investment on my part and it would be risky. I am not really sure the thoughts the city would have on another zoo, and whether they want to sell it. If you interested in seeing pictures there aren't many. I have talked to people who have sneaked into the zoo because there aren't any locks preventing them. They say most of the structures are still intact and are still able to walk on some of the boardwalks. I would be interested in sneaking in there myself. But anyways here is a link to pics and a short story about it. Where the wild things aren't | sweet juniper!
zoo rebuild I will study your pics as well story .I have a saying ,Jump you will land somewhere.You will be most surprised how much children zoo does make .I hear you on other species,so does the rest of the world .Zoos with concrete and iron bars are a thing of the past .At Bali zoo we have torn down 80 % of the buildings that housed lions ,Gibbons etc ...Good luck with your project .My computer is always on if you need anything ' Tony Peel Zoo Pinjarra Mandurah Western Australia - Natures Education Centre
Well here's a couple questions I hope you can answer. If I were to go to the city council do you know if they would be planning on funding any of it or not? Would all of this be my own investment and or close friends that might be interested in starting the business with me? Would it be better to start with a clean slate or buy a zoo that is either already functioning or has been closed. How much do you think this type of land I described and you saw in the pictures would cost? It is around 13 acres. I will probably think of many more questions so if you would rather have me email or private message you that would be ok with me.
The council would perhaps enjoy a management plan of the land .The land is zoned tourism by the sounds .Ask council these questions,what is the councils intentions for this land .ask if they would lease to you at a nominal rate and you will do the town proud .They may want to sell at a tender rate .The pics show a park that would be very easy to reopen .If leasing make sure its a 20 yr lease or more .You don't want to set up to find you have no extension of lease .Its all very simple really .Do find out public liability insurance ,this is a killer .I am happy to help with any questions or talks to council .You may well find they are happy to help .Its tourism for your town and its a positive move . Tony Peel Zoo Pinjarra Mandurah Western Australia - Natures Education Centre
From kbaker116: About a half an hour's drive from me is the now closed Belle Isle Zoo. Back in 2002 the city of Detroit's Mayor purposely closed the zoo so he could give the 1 million going to the zoo to a contractor to build a new nature center. Yes this mayor is the notorius Kwame Kilpatrick if you have ever heard of him. Anyways I never went to the zoo but after reading a couple blogs about it and chating online I learned more about it. It was actually a children zoo when it closed but it had Lions, Sumatran tigers, camels, fallow deer, and I believe even an elephant. The funny thing is all of the fences, board walks, and buildings are mostly intact. Most of the building though have no locks so it is very vulnerable to vandalization. The land is owned by the city of Detroit and not privately owned. I am not sure how I would go about finding out whether it is for sale or not and whether it would be practical buisness. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think the Detroit Zoo is planning to renovate the old Belle Isle Zoo into the Belle Island Nature Zoo with a special focus on Michigan wildlife. Here is some more infomation: The Detroit Zoo - Belle Isle Nature Zoo
I have two questions about starting up a zoo. What is the best way to approach a zoo owner on he or she started thier facility and how do you get them to answer your questions?
Well yes, they aren't acctually planning on renovating in that's one of the reasons I wanted to get the land to start the job. Although some think because the Belle Isle Nature Zoo has a similar name it may replace the old zoo but the old zoo was much different. It had Siamangs, Sumatran Tigers, Asian Elephants, Camels, and Lions. It closed in 2001, because the mayor wanted to quit giving funds to the zoo and give the money to his friend who's business would be in charge of making a new nature zoo. Why he decided to make the nature zoo, am not sure this mayor is now in big finical trouble and not our mayor anymore. Besides reading on the internet I have never heard of the Belle Isle Nature Zoo and I don't think many people of Detroit have. It is in a part of Belle Isle people hardly visit and I think the name is a little misleading because they only have fallow deer, and a few species of native amphibians and turtles. I was hoping to some how get in contact with the old director of the Belle Isle Zoo but haven't yet been successful. He would have quite a bit of good information that would help me.
I only have 15min to type this with one arm but I'll give it ago.... I'm only 12 and have plenty of time to grow my ideas but this is what I've thought of So far: I would start off by saving half of my pay while living at home for free. Then by a property on the outskirts on Bathurst, only a few hours from Australia's largest city and without Zoos within a 3h drive in any way. My zoo would be mainly Native animals (importing's a b**ch in Australia). I would start of by building a large avairy around the farm dam and keep some native waterfowl, Australasian Shoveler Magpie Goose Hardhead White-Faced Heron Black-Tailed Native-Hen I would then build a Walk-through Mulga Avairy, Red-chested Button-quail Sacred Kingfisher Apostlebird Red-Capped Robin Hooded Robin Rainbow Bee-eater White-Winged Fairy-Wren Mistletoebird Laughing Kookaburra Pheasant Coucal Bush Stone-Curlew White-Browed Woodswallow Spiny-Cheeked Honeyeater Double-barred Finch Peaceful Dove Common Bronzewing Diamond Dove Painted Button-Quail But I have to go now so I'll post again with more. But first I need to ask KCZooman what program he uses to design his exhibits?
I've always thought there should be a zoo in Kalamazoo, but there's a great small zoo less than 30 miles away in Battle Creek. Another great benefit to belonging to the AZA, in addition to the already mentioned magazine, is free admission to a large percentage of AZA accredited zoos. Even a lot of international zoos will give you free admission if you show your AZA card.
Hello zoochat! Dear kbaker116 Let me start off by introducing myself, my name is Fernando Flores and I am an animal lover. I have always wante to start a zoo since I was a little kid. In my opinion I think I can susceed in starting up, and developing a zoo because I am hard working,an opportunist, an experienced animal keeper, very knowledgeable about wildlife, creative, optimistic, I also have strong problem solving skills, I am very resilient, and confident. However I am a teen in high school. But I like challenges and have overcome many.If I were to start a zoo it would be unique. Since I am a teen I will need to get a good paying job, I alredy have several small sources of income, and I will apply for a grant from the government pay for th start up cost of the zoo. I want to do it right. I envsion an ecofriendly zoo which is all green and energy effecient. The majoraty of the zoo will be powered be renewable recouces. All the roofs will have solar panels on them since I live i Arizona and there it is sunny out most of the tme. All the construction materials will be recycled. The asfault in the parking lot will be made of recycled tires, and all glass will be made by recycled glass.The animal waste will be composted and sold to local stores. And zoo visitor's waste will be recycled. The sidewalks will be made of material that allows rain water to flow through them and as a precaution of flooding I want to have rain flow underground to a storage tank where I can reuse the water to water trees, plants, and grass on the proerty. The trees wil provide shade for visitor on a hot, sunny day, and some can provide food for animals. The plants and grass can provide a beautiful scenery for visitors and provide food for animals. I want t have a lane down the middle of the sidewalk where vistors can view the animals by train. The path for vistors will zig zag in a circle so they can view all the exibits and not not retrace thier steps. At the enterence/ exit there will be a gift shop. Outside there will be a locked container where vistors can donate money to the zoo the help out with preserving endangered ecosytems worldwide, provide funding for the zoo, help make the animals habitat better, educate the public, and to help setup a beeding progrm for animals to help their numbers increase in the wild. The animals I will house in the zoo will have a perfect background. They will not be captured in the wild but instead captive bred and hopefully will be donated to the zooby another zoo now for a trade in for something else later on when the zoo is in better shape and fully developed. They will also be cared for caring, loving, and devoted zookeepers, housed in enclousers as similar to thier natural enviormet as possible, and feed regulary. My zoo will be as close to metrophoenix as it possibly can so itcan be closer to possible customers, but while being as cheap as it can so I dont have to waste alot of money on land. My zoo shall also help out the surrounding community as much as it can by providing education about conservation, prevention of animal abuse, responsible pet owership, animal cruelty prevention, being ecofriendly, working with local buissness and people. I will start by having a few common animals like lions, tigers, polar bears, crcodiles and alligators. Then later on I can add more animals like zebrs, rhinoceros, Galapagos tortoise, and mabey even some elephants. But if I don't slowley but surley the zoo will expand and create more and more animal attractions. Later on I want to start an aquarium as well in the zoo. In the aquarum I will have many exotic fish, sealife, sharks,and orcas. However I don't want to be like SeaWorld. My orcas will not preform that stresses them out and they will not be housed in a small arena. Instead my orcas will be housed in a large body of water, with lots of fish so they hunt like they do naturaly in the wild and the same goes for my dolphins, elephants, and anyother animals in my care, they will not preform tricks for food or at all.This is my idea of a zoo and how one day it will be owned and runned by me. I would like to here what other fellow zoochat members think of my idea and how they woluld start thier own zoo. -Fernando Flores-
Hello zoochat again ! I checked my old post and found a lot of mistakes so I did some editing and here is the correctly spelled post. I was not paying attention to my spelling. First of all let me start off by introducing myself again, my name is Fernando Flores I am an animal lover and have always wanted to start a zoo since I was a little kid. In my opinion I think I can succeed in starting up, and developing a zoo because I am hard working, an opportunist, an experienced animal keeper, very knowledgeable about wildlife, creative, optimistic, I also have strong problem solving skills, I am very resilient, and confident. However I am a teen in high school. But I like challenges and have overcome many. If I were to start a zoo it would be unique. Since I am a teen I will need to get a good paying job, I already have several small sources of income, and I will apply for a grant from the government pay for the start up cost of the zoo. I want to do it right. I envision an eco friendly zoo which is all green and energy efficient. The majority of the zoo will be powered be renewable resources. All the roofs will have solar panels on them since I live I Arizona and there it is sunny out most of the time. All the construction materials will be recycled. The assault in the parking lot will be made of recycled tires, and all glass will be made by recycled glass. The animal waste will be composted and sold to local stores. And zoo visitor's waste will be recycled. The sidewalks will be made of material that allows rain water to flow through them and as a precaution of flooding I want to have rain flow underground to a storage tank where I can reuse the water to water trees, plants, and grass on the property. The trees will provide shade for visitor on a hot, sunny day, and some can provide food for animals. The plants and grass can provide beautiful scenery for visitors and provide food for animals. I want t have a lane down the middle of the sidewalk where visitors can view the animals by train. The path for visitors will zig-zag in a circle so they can view all the exhibits and not retrace their steps. At the entrance/ exit there will be a gift shop. Outside there will be a locked container where visitors can donate money to the zoo the help out with preserving endangered ecosystems worldwide, provide funding for the zoo, help make the animals habitat better, educate the public, and to help setup a breeding program for animals to help their numbers increase in the wild. The animals I will house in the zoo will have a perfect background. They will not be captured in the wild but instead captive bred and hopefully will be donated to the zoo by another zoo now for a trade in for something else later on when the zoo is in better shape and fully developed. They will also be cared for caring, loving, and devoted zookeepers, housed in enclosures as similar to their natural environment as possible, and feed regularly. My zoo will be as close to metro Phoenix as it possibly can so it can be closer to possible customers, but while being as cheap as it can so I don’t have to waste a lot of money on land. My zoo shall also help out the surrounding community as much as it can by providing education about conservation, prevention of animal abuse, responsible pet ownership, animal cruelty prevention, being eco friendly, working with local business and people. I will start by having a few common animals like lions, tigers, polar bears, crocodiles and alligators. Then later on I can add more animals like zebras, rhinoceros, Galapagos tortoise, and maybe even some elephants. But if I don't slowly but surely the zoo will expand and create more and more animal attractions. Later on I want to start an aquarium as well in the zoo. In the aquarium I will have many exotic fish, sea life, sharks, and orcas. However I don't want to be like SeaWorld. My orcas will not perform that stresses them out and they will not be housed in a small arena. Instead my orcas will be housed in a large body of water, with lots of fish so they hunt like they do naturally in the wild and the same goes for my dolphins, elephants, and any other animals in my care, they will not perform tricks for food or at all. This is my idea of a zoo and how one day it will be owned and runned by me. I would like to hear what other fellow zoo chat members think of my idea and how they would start their own zoo.
Repy to 700 Hey whats up zoo chat members HAPPY NW YEARS !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Dear 700, I am only a 14 year old teenager and freshmen in high school and by my understanding the definition of wildlife management is as follows. Wildlife management by definition attempts to balance the needs of wildlife with the needs of people using the best available science. Wildlife management can include game keeping, wildlife conservation and pest control. Wildlife management has become an integrated science using disciplines such as mathematics, chemistry, biology, ecology, climatology and geography to gain the best results. In my opinion cosidering my young age I feel that I am not highly experienced in wildlife management, however I have had alot of experience and am very knowledgeable compared to some people with experience in wildlife management. I also have excelent grades in school especialy mathematics and science. At my school Carl Hayden High School I have alot of oppportunities to develope experience in wildlife management since I am taking Marine Biology. Here is a link to my marine science homepage. Check it out an decide fo yourself. Home
Fernando, Welcome to Zoochat! Since I made my owning a zoo posts I have changed my ideas completely. I began volunteering at nonprofit in my area. From this experience I have realized for myself that it is possible for me to start a zoo. But I now know.... You can’t do this on your own. Unpaid volunteers and other people with your similar ideas to help fund them are the only way it is going to happen. I have accepted my big dreams that I have for bigger and rarer species just may never happen. Ex. Okapis, Elephants, Giant Pandas, Sumatran Rhino Zoning required to start a zoo can be incredibly hard to get (well at least in my area). Zoos require money tons and tons of it. They sometimes breakeven but they don’t usually make a profit. Ok now some questions for you…. What type of experience have you had being a zookeeper? I would be careful in calling yourself “experienced zookeeper” I’d say 30 years under your belt then you are classified as experienced. In my opinion considering my young age I feel that I am not highly experienced in wildlife management, however I have had a lot of experience and am very knowledgeable compared to some people with experience in wildlife management This statement is a little contradictory don’t you think? If I were you I would just say I know more about animals than your average 14 year old. What are your methods right now for your small income? In response to your ideas…. Do not depend on the government to give you anything. You will be a lucky man if you can get them to at least approve of your ideas and let you do them on your property. As far as raising funds I would recommend listening to Dave Ramsey look him up on itunes he has a radio show. His show basically talks about how to become a millionaire. I have found him to be an excellent source for learning more about debt and loans. Basically if you are thinking about starting a zoo with loans definitely do not go that route. Right now our technology as far as alternative energy goes it would multiply your start up costs incredibly. It is a nice idea and concept just it is not yet practical. Animal waste may be composted I know Busch Gardens does this. But as far as human waste goes I don’t think you will have much getting around the sanitation laws. Nice concept of the edible garden. We are planning on implementing these ourselves however our largest animals are emus. Any zoo with larger animals than that it would just be inefficient. Zig Zag concept is another good idea of yours. It is especially good so people don’t back track I can see this being used more in future zoos. Your idea of perfect animals isn’t practical. Many zoos have rescued animals from bad situations. When you are starting a zoo beggars can’t be choosers and you will find yourself eventually taking in animals not captive bred or from the rescue situations. Also getting free animals is only through rescue situations loans are also cheaper than buying an animal but it takes a lot of time to develop relationships with other zoos to receive loans. There aren’t many zoos just waiting to give up their Sun Bears, Orangutans, Hippos, etc. I would recommend a different place rather than Phoenix. With the Phoenix Zoo nearby I think it would be best to choose another place to prevent competition. Any land near a city will not be cheap. If you want cheap you are going to have to go to the desert. I’m not sure if you have looked into the exotic animal trade and ISIS, but Polar Bears aren’t exactly common. You are very correct about the Lions, Tigers, and alligators being common though. Zebras and Galapagos Tortoises are also quite readily available for zoos. I’m not sure of any Orcas being contained in a lake, do you know of any places that have used this type of exhibit? Hopefully I didn’t deter you too much. You do have some neat ideas. Just make sure you always keep an open mind and remain positive and you will do great!
