South Australia’s Adelaide Zoo is home to more than 1,800 animals and almost 300 species of exotic and native mammals, birds, reptiles and fish exhibited in over 8 hectares of magnificent botanic surroundings, the result of more than 125 years of care and attention.
The zoo is also now home to Wang Wang and Funi, two Giant Pandas, recently sent from the People’s Republic of China as part of an exchange program, whereby several zoos around the world have been selected to breed panda pairs. It is envisaged that any resulting offspring will eventually be returned to China and released back into the wild.
The arrival on 13 December 2009 of Wang Wang and Funi at Adelaide Zoo – officially welcomed by Australia’s Governor General Quentin Bryce – was the first time that pandas have been loaned to an Australian Zoo for any significant period of time.
Following a quarantine period during which they were seen behind plate-glass windows, the pandas were confined to day rooms and off-limit areas within the zoo before being introduced to their current home.
Today, Wang Wang and Funi enjoy naturally landscaped outdoor areas – each 600sqm – equipped with misting systems, mature and new trees, chilled rocks and waterfalls to ensure the pandas are content and cool over South Australia’s summer months.
In late 2007, the zoo launched an ambitious modernisation program, based around three major projects: a new panda enclosure, a new Entrance Precinct and a new perimeter security strategy.
In the same year, the Royal Zoological Society of South Australia appointed respected architectural group HASSELL to develop a series of comprehensive design solutions destined to service a long-term plan to establish Adelaide Zoo as a major centre of excellence for conservation and husbandry.
“The project was guided by collaboration with stakeholders and a study tour in the US to understand the specific requirements of the brief,” says HASSELL’S Senior Associate, Timothy Horton.
“It was important to create an immersive landscape experience for the pandas with a stimulating environment, including streams, trees, caves and rocks with built-in refrigeration that can be chilled to 12 degrees on hot days.
“We have placed the pandas in an Australian context, however, both the climate and enclosure reinterprets Chinese architecture and landscape design through a modern idiom,” he says.
According to a zoo spokesperson, the three projects, totalling a cost of AU$33m, represent, “a major opportunity to enhance a much-loved South Australian institution and to provide a new and significant civic space for Adelaide that both embodies the aspirations of the Royal Zoological Society of South Australia to engage with the community, and communicates the zoo’s objectives to visitors.
“The panda exhibit’s aims were to convey an understanding of both the natural habitat of the Giant Panda and the current context of research and conservation efforts, which are strongly associated with the Wolong sanctuary, a protected area located in Wenchuan County, Sichuan Province, People’s Republic of China,” he says.
Design for the Giant Panda bamboo forest incorporates best practice husbandry and a “unique visitor experience that is fully integrated with the existing exhibits and enclosures as well as the new Entrance Precinct.”
An 8-acre bamboo plantation based at a SA Water treatment plant at Bolivar provides an ongoing supply of bamboos for the Giant and Red Pandas. The plantation utilises the services of SA Water land and water as well as Work for the Dole / Volunteer groups.
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