I came across an interesting article in the Spirit Magazine by Southwest Airlines on my way home from Memorial Weekend travel last night. Apparently there is no real estate slump in existence for the elephant demographic according to many of the large Zoo’s across the country.
The San Diego Zoo has just opened the “Elephant Odyssey Exhibit”.This $45 Million piece of land must include some hefty TI’s since it spans a little over 7 acres. $50 Million has been set aside for the Denver Zoo to create a 10 acre park called “Asian Tropics”. This park is geared towards creating an environment partial to elephants & other species found only in Asia. “Elephant Trails” , a 3 acre plot in Washington DC at the National Zoo, cost a whopping $50 Million to create. On January 28th 2009, the LA City Council voted yes on continuing the $42 Million 6 acre expansion to house 5 Asian Elephants.
This poses the question of funding? These elephant sanctuaries aren’t cheap. There’s a variety of ways that Zoo’s are funded; mainly by public funds from the town, city, or state that the Zoo resides in. Some Zoo’s are supported by subscriptions of members, admission charges, and gifts or donations. The public funding concerns me especially since some of these expansions and improvements came from a general fund which couldn’t find funding for homeless woman & children shelters. I’m not sure Darwin’s Theory of Evolution could explain this phenomenon. As far as Real Estate Sales go, the Elephants seem to be paving their way to the top of the food chain.
Could Reno be a possible candidate for an Elephant Sanctuary? Maybe not a publicly funded one, but we do have enough land available. The climate isn’t as harsh as it was years ago during the “Ice Age” when the Woolly Mammoth frequented the Sierra’s. Any thoughts?
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