Auckland Zoo is pushing the boundaries: growing into a park, creating a jungle for an elephant herd. John Landrigan's investigation finds local and international opposition, and a zoo determined to show it is a world leader in protecting animals.
From her sunny balcony she can hear the roar of a tiger and the bark of a sea lion not too far away. Today, there's a squawk from an exotic bird and the constant chatter of gibbons - mixed with the ripping growl of chainsaws and the resounding thump of hammers.
The boundary of Auckland Zoo is metres from Annette Isbey's Westmere home. The renowned artist has worked from her studio since the 1970s and lived in the house above it since 1999.
From here she's watched zookeepers walk wildcats, pigs and even elephants past her garden.
To prove her point, the 82-year-old shows photographs of Burma and Kashin pushing their heads through her back fence. They seem to be reaching for the lemon tree.
Not your normal neighbour, a zoo. Not your normal neighbourly concerns, either.
Frail but determined, Ms Isbey is one of hundreds of residents fighting the zoo's planned expansion into Western Springs Park.
The proposed 22,000sq m land grab is to cater for their new neighbours - a herd of 10 Asian elephants.
Mrs Isbey does not know yet but the international zoo community and renowned scientists are about to back the neighbours' stance. They, too, are banding together to fight the plans, says independent zoological consultant Peter Stroud, of Melbourne. Scientists and former curators are watching Auckland developments from sanctuaries as far away as Norway, Kenya, the United Kingdom and Australia.
Mr Stroud says Auckland's much-loved elephant, Kashin, was put down in August last year because of painful problems caused by her confinement. That, he says, is reason enough not to allow the herd to be introduced.
The elaborate plans have also reignited debate about the very existence of zoos and just where the future of Auckland Zoo lies.
Mr Stroud says western zoos are becoming greener places as they modernise, but they are often conflicted organisations, trying to balance higher purposes with a need for commercial success.
"For the bigger, older urban zoos, though, development is always, in effect, piecemeal and hugely expensive."
While portrayed as the jewel in Auckland's crown; an ark for endangered species; and a safety net from extinction, zoos are called "prisons" by animal welfare activists who decry Auckland Zoo's use of conservation as "merely marketing".
The zoo's answer is its biggest expansion in its 88-year history. The chainsaws heard from Mrs Isbey's balcony are clearing 70-year-old pine trees. Not part of the expansion, according to zoo officials, the trees are just beyond their healthy years.
The hammering is the building of a $16 million native flora and fauna area called Te Wao Nui.
Its recreation of a New Zealand habitat is billed as huge progress for education and conservation.
Recent additions to the zoo are a new kids' zone, wetlands and tropic zones, larger penguin and sea lion enclosures. The ambitious elephant park is expected to cost $13 million, including sourcing and transporting the elephants.
The zoo has occupied the 16.35ha Western Springs site, owned and operated by Auckland City Council, since 1922.
It's home to the largest collection of native and exotic wildlife species in the country (more than 720 animals and 117 species) and attracts more than 600,000 visitors every year, over 80 per cent from Auckland.
While it has become better-known overseas through the television series, The Zoo, this has not translated to more tourists through the turnstiles.
Between 2004 and March last year, Aucklanders paid close to $26.2 million through their rates to underwrite zoo-related costs. The zoo also raised $8.69 million from gate takings, retail, membership, venue hirage, sponsorship and donations in the 2009/20010 financial year.
Just how much of that is spent on conservation efforts cannot be disclosed. That information, we're told, is commercially sensitive.
That response does not appease people asking whether conservation efforts are better spent on existing sanctuaries and reintegrating animals into the wild than elaborate, expensive enclosures.
Mr Stroud points to global efforts to save whales, saying you don't have to see an animal to care for an animal. He reckons millions spent at Auckland would be better spent on keeping the Kenyan wildlife service going.
The council has been receptive to zoo projects over the last 80 years. But signing off permits for the expansion into the park is now in the hands of another boss.
In 10 days, the zoo is made over to the new, amalgamated Auckland Council and under a new Council-Controlled Organisation.
One of the fears Aucklanders have about these powerful non-elected bodies is lack of transparency. It's not a good start when Sir Don McKinnon, the former National Prime Minister and central government-appointed chairman of Regional Facilities Auckland, does not respond to The Aucklander's questions about the zoo and its future.
Arguments against zoo are well documented. It's claimed the animals are regarded as commodities - bought, sold, borrowed, and traded without regard for established relationships.
And confinement restricts natural behaviour, such as flying, swimming, running, hunting, climbing, scavenging, foraging, digging, exploring, and selecting a partner.
The physical and mental frustrations of captivity often lead to abnormal, neurotic, and even self-destructive behaviour, such as incessant pacing, swaying, head-bobbing, bar-biting, and self-mutilation.
Those concerns do not inhibit the thousands of people who turn out every year - just like the bug-eyed kids pointing in awe at the tigers when we visit.
These worries are a thing of the past, says the zoo's life sciences manager, Kevin Buley. Formerly at Chester Zoo and the Durrell Wildlife Park, the burly, convivial Englishman was brought to Auckland six months ago for his conservation experience.
"It doesn't matter how many documentaries you see on TV. Here you can smell the cat piss and get a sense of the size of the tigers," he says with unbridled passion.
Auckland Zoo, he says, has a great international reputation for animal husbandry and the dedicated team deliver great conservation projects. This, he admits, is not the case at all zoos.
"I didn't travel 12,000 miles to work at a shit zoo. This is one of the best in the world. Working with native species is truly a unique position."
He shows us through the kiwi recovery section, which has reintroduced around 200 kiwi into the wild in the past year, and talks passionately of the species they are sourcing for Te Wao Nui's opening in September 2011. We're introduced to Burma, foraging in a wooded area with two minders. Mr Buley stresses this is similar to where the herd could wander as it is built up over two decades.
Since Kashin was put down in August last year, finding playmates for Burma has become a zoo mantra.
But what of Kashin?
On the zoo website she was known as "Queen Mum", "Matriarch of the Zoo", or "one of Auckland Zoo's oldest and most recognisable residents". But, at just 40 - considered middle-aged for an elephant - she suffered painful arthritis, foot abscesses and skin infections.
Mr Stroud says her premature death is replicated in zoos around the world because of captivity-induced ailments. Perhaps that will come as a surprise to the 18,000 people who attended the free-entry memorial to the celebrity elephant.
Mr Buley concedes Burma and Kashin could have been inappropriately managed 15 years ago and their physical and mental needs may not have been taken care of. He genuinely believes the tide has turned and the zoo's future lies in conservation. It is, he says, capable of breeding and caring for a herd.
"Detractors still see the menagerie, the outdated Victorian view of zoos. They should come and see what we're doing now."
Back on Mrs Isbey's balcony, she complains of hearing loss but still hears noise from public events at the zoo and has concerns for the animals' welfare.
She says having a speedway, concert venue and community events such as the Pasifika festival on her suburb's doorstep is bad enough. She is also opposed to the Western Springs Speedway and cheekily suggest the elephants be moved there to "kill two birds with one stone".
One of the stated objectives for the zoo this year is to deliver a 12-month events calendar to "maximise sponsor and audience participation". As well as becoming a popular wedding venue it offers events such as Christmas at the Zoo, Safari Night, Halloween's Boo at the Zoo, New Year's Eve Jungle Rock Party, and a well-attended
summer music series.
Then there are various package "Zoom tours": you and a friend can wash Burma for $550 or go behind the scenes with a lion or giraffe for $150.
Punters can have a few drinks and dine in animal shelters next to hippos or tigers, cheetahs or among spider monkeys, after normal zoo hours. Which raises the question: when do these animals get any time to sleep?
Dr Jeffrey Masson says events of this sort are animal exploitation and should stop. The Auckland-based American's book, When Elephants Weep, sold over a million copies and was on the New York Times bestseller list.
Dr Masson is buoyed by Te Wao Nui but suggests Auckland's future lies in virtual zoos: televised screenings of animals in their natural habitat mixed with native species fostered and prepared for release.
Conservation, he says, is just a marketing device to get people through the gate. "The purpose of zoos is to exhibit animals. Education is nonsense. The material on offer in zoos is minimal. Half an hour on the net and you learn more about an animal than at a zoo."
But animals on display are no longer enough to get people through the gates ($20 adult, $10 4-10 year-olds, under-4 free, family pass for 2 adults, 2 children $54).
A zoo business plan boasts there were 1412 direct media reports in 2009, up 7.5 per cent from 2008. Around 60 per cent of coverage contained a strong conservation angle.
Some charismatic crowd-pulling species like pandas, chimpanzees and snow leopards are in danger of extinction, but most species in most zoos are not endangered.
The arrival of three rare Sumatran tiger cubs initiated a wide-reaching marketing campaign with an estimated value of $500,000 but costing only $65,000. Cute animal + conservation = publicity.
Zoo parks have been getting bad press. They're turning it around, but habits, especially when it comes to core duties of putting exotic animals on display, will always cause friction with their new conservation ideals. As Mr Buley so bluntly points out at the tiger enclosure: "This species is screwed in the wild."
With international drums of disapproval beating, the new guardians of Auckland Zoo face an even bigger challenge than ever to sell it to the public.
Law of the jungle
Minimum standards for the confinement of animals in New Zealand are set out in the Animal Welfare Act 2004. Basically, the operator must not allow individual animals, which are unable to adapt to being kept or exhibited in zoos, to be held or shown.
The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora is an international agreement between governments. Its intended to ensure global trade in specimens of wild animals and plants does not threaten their survival. Included are whole groups, such as primates, whales, dolphins and porpoises, sea turtles and parrots. It restricts the types of animals that may be displayed in zoos.
An elephant in my garden
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