MANAGERS at Edinburgh Zoo plan to totally redesign the 82-acre site to create a £58m tourist attraction to rival the best in Europe.
The plan would be part-financed by selling off surrounding land in the highly sought-after Corstorphine area of the city, for housing.
Attendances this year are expected to climb above the 600,000 mark for the first time since the 1970s as a resu
lt of a range of major innovations. But zoo managers estimate the numbers of paying customers can be increased by up to 50% if the plan is allowed to go ahead.
David Windmill, the zoo’s chief executive, said: "I want the outcome of this masterplan to be that when in Edinburgh, people say they must go to the zoo because it has four or five fantastic world-class animal exhibits which you will see nowhere else.
"Not only will they have a great time but also understand that there is a connection between the animals they see and the destruction of habitats and species throughout the world."
The plan has been drawn up over the past 14 months with the help of consultants and has been influenced by the success of modern zoos in the US and the Far East, where animals are housed in much bigger enclosures.
It will represent the final move away from the cramped cages that typified Edwardian zoos and drew criticism from animal rights campaigners.
Habitats will be designed to recreate the natural world in which the animals and other species live.
The tropical forest will be home to animals such as gorillas, monkeys, crocodiles and pygmy hippos, as well as insects and birdlife. Part of the plan is to provide covered domes in which the heat and humidity of the tropics can be recreated.
The woodland zone will house the zoo’s tigers, lions, wolves and bears. The grasslands, near the top of Corstorphine Hill, will feature roaming herds of giraffe, antelope and zebra, as well as rhino and cheetah.
The ocean and wetland zone will house species such as penguins, sea lions and sea otters. All of the zones will be linked by a passenger railway that runs through the centre, with stations at set points.
Windmill intends to approach Scottish companies to provide major sponsorship as a means of meeting environmental obligations. Zoo chiefs also want the Scottish Executive to treat it as a national scientific and conservation organisation, making it more eligible for government and lottery grants.
One example of the way in which the zoo is changing is that it will no longer take lions from Africa - only Asia. Asiatic lions are highly endangered with only 300 estimated to remain in the wild. The zoo believes keeping them in captivity can be justified on the grounds of helping the species survive.
It will take delivery of a three-year-old male from London Zoo in the hope that it will mate with the lionesses already living in a £300,000, half-acre wooded enclosure.
The zoo, owned by Edinburgh City Council, has also announced it will no longer be accepting polar bears following criticism of the size of its remaining enclosure. Mercedes is one of only two polar bears left in captivity in Britain.
The full article contains 565 words and appears in Scotland On Sunday newspaper.
