A new master plan is on the cards to turn Sabah's fledging Lok Kawi Wildlife Park into a world class zoo.
The
113.3ha zoological and botanical park about 35km from the city, which
opened five years ago, is in need of a revamp to boost revenue and draw
in at least 500,000 visitors annually.
Sabah Wildlife Department
senior veterinarian Dr Sen Nathan said RM500,000 had been allocated to
work out a master plan for the zoo, which is costing about RM8mil a year
to maintain against returns averaging RM2mil annually.
“We have
to make our operations more profitable by improving our facilities and
services,” he said, adding that the number of visitors averaged about
140,000 annually over the past five years after they saw a peak in 2008
with 200,000 visitors.
He said the master plan would address the
streamlining of the park's management and staffing while looking at
animal procurement and also do away with old designs that were not in
accordance with world standards.
“The plan will also look at
marketing and promotional efforts,” he said, adding that they would
focus on Sabah's wildlife like primates, including orang utans and
proboscis monkeys, large animals like the pygmy elephants and tembadau
and the rare Sumatran rhino that is being bred in captivity.
Under the plan, the zoo is also looking at procuring other animals like giraffes, zebras and lions, he said.
He said Lok Kawi zoo had the capacity and potential to become a world class zoo.
Source: The Star
Perbanyakkan promosi di serata dunia bagi menarik lebih ramai pelancong.
ReplyDeleteMalaysia, represented by the Wildlife Department in Sabah, is leading a worldwide bid to save the Sumatran rhinoceros that are in serious danger of extinction
ReplyDeletethere are not more than 350 of this specie of rhinoceros left on earth and there are no more than 50 of them in Malaysia.
ReplyDeleteTo be exact, there are no more than 30 in fragmented areas, mainly in the Tabin and the Danum Valley in the Lahad Datu district of Sabah
ReplyDeleteThese are the two areas we surveyed that have a good number of rhinos left, the bulk of rhinos in Sabah
ReplyDeleteDatuk Masidi Manjun, the minister concerned, subsequently presented a Cabinet paper that was approved, thus giving a mandate for his department to undertake a captive breeding programme, known as the Borneo Rhino Sanctuary programme.
ReplyDeleteThe Sabah Wildlife Department, Danau Girang Field Centre (DGFC) and the NGO HUTAN recently launched the Bornean Banteng Programme with funding from Houston Zoo, the Malaysian Palm Oil Council, the Mohamed Bin Zayed Species Conservation Fund and Woodland Park Zoo.
ReplyDeleteThe project will collaborate with several partners such as the Sabah Forestry Department, New Forests Asia Sdn Bhd and the Malua Biobank Project, Cardiff University and the Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research.
DeleteThe Bornean Banteng Programme, initiated by our department, will intend to advance understanding and the conservation of one of the most charismatic and still unknown mammal species, the Bornean banteng
ReplyDeleteEcological information is crucial to the conservation of the banteng, however its elusive behaviour, the remote inhospitable forest habitat it lives in and its small population size preclude investigations
ReplyDelete