Chapter 110: Chapter 110 Purchase of Animals
The reptile area mainly consisted of a crocodile pool; for smaller lizards and snakes, display boxes sufficed, and larger snakes only required exhibit spaces of a few dozen square meters.
After including the roads and rest areas and all, green leaf coins were spent down to the last penny.
It had taken him several days just to draw up these exhibit designs.
Once the design was finished, although Fang Ye was exhausted, a glance at the beautiful sketches of the exhibits immediately filled him with a sense of accomplishment.
All that was left was for the system construction team to put in the effort and finish building these areas as soon as possible.
Next, of course, was to contact other zoos to purchase animals.
Fang Ye picked up a notebook from the bookshelf in his office, left behind by the previous zoo director, and began flipping through to find the phone numbers of other zoos.
When zoos purchase animals, they generally contact each other directly like this.
He first made a call to Lanhe Zoo in Lanhe City next to Linhai, and after a short wait, the call connected: "Hello?"
"Lanhe Zoo Director, hello, I\'m Fang Ye, the director of Linhai Zoo!"
"Zoo Director Fang, hello, hello. Old Zhang sold the zoo to you?"
The person on the other end obviously knew the previous director but wasn\'t very familiar with him. He sounded surprised as if this was the first he\'d heard of the change in leadership at Linhai Zoo. Find more to read at mvl
"Yes, I\'ve been managing Linhai Zoo for several months now."
The Lanhe Zoo Director remarked, "Director Fang, you\'re quite brave to take on such a mess."
"I just quite like animals, wanted to run a zoo for fun." After exchanging pleasantries, Fang Ye got down to business, "Director, I\'d like to buy some animals from you!"
"Oh, what exactly are you looking for, Director Fang?"
Fang Ye rattled off a long list of names: "Gray wolves, lions, bears, bharal, sika deer, red pandas, ring-tailed lemurs, crocodiles, tortoises..."
The Lanhe Zoo Director was taken aback: "Director Fang, you\'re buying so many animals at once? Let me see, gray wolves aren\'t very popular with visitors; our zoo transferred out the ones we had a few years ago—Boulders Safari in our province should have a few dozens, you could contact them. We have five lions here and could transfer one to you.
As for bears, our zoo doesn\'t have any; Boulders Safari has more. I know Lingmu Zoo has a herd of bharal..."
Lanhe Zoo was also a mid-sized zoo! Unfortunately, most of the animals Fang Ye wanted to buy were not available, and for those that were, only a limited number could be transferred.
However, the Lanhe Zoo Director also pointed him toward several other zoos within the province, suggesting that Fang Ye could reach out to them.
"By the way, Director Fang, are you interested in tigers? Our zoo happens to have over a dozen of them."
Fang Ye shook his head: "Thanks, but no tigers!"
Mainly because there was already Ice Cake, a tiger cub, who he planned to place in the tiger exhibit area. Jiaojiao was quite fond of Ice Cake, who was gentle and sensible; he felt more at ease with Ice Cake. If he brought in a different tiger and it ended up killing Ice Cake, what would he do then?
Cubs are actually best kept in a separate exhibit until they grow up, preferably with other cubs, sort of like a tiger kindergarten.
But with only Ice Cake, and no other cubs for company, it\'s better to leave her with Jiaojiao.
Moreover, tigers are solitary animals by nature; you wouldn\'t find many tigers together in the wild.
After the phone call, Fang Ye added the Lanhe Zoo Director on WeChat, who then had him add a staff member and invited him to a zoo information-sharing group, where occasionally posts about animal transfers and breeding information are made.
Zoos plan their breeding programs! They can\'t let animals breed unrestricted. First off, the daily feed alone would consume a lot of funds, and then there\'s the matter of the animals\' exhibit space shrinking, which could lead to increased incidents of conflict and fighting.
Plus, more animals means more feces, which makes it more troublesome for the keepers to clean up, and makes the exhibits dirty and smelly. If the animals inside are all fighting in disorder, how could visitors feel good watching that, let alone receive conservation education?
So, typically, before breeding, there is a plan in place. This involves communication with other zoos. For instance, if we\'re preparing to breed lions, and other zoos see that there may be an abundance of lions that year, they might separate males and females during breeding season, or administer contraception.
Otherwise, without communication, if all zoos bred lions, there would be too many, and they\'d be hard to transfer, which would be troublesome.
The Lanhe Zoo Director sent over the files of lions and crocodiles available for transfer. Fang Ye thanked him and said he would take another look and continue contacting other zoos.
It\'s like shopping for vegetables; you have to compare options from different sellers.
He dialed Boulders Safari and chatted with their director to discuss his needs.
The wolf exhibit is almost ready, and wolves, unlike tigers, are social animals that require a certain number of the pack to exhibit richer behaviors, so a few wolves are indeed needed to be purchased.
The Boulders Safari Director said, "Gray wolves are no problem. Our zoo should have the most in the province, more than forty. Do you want male or female wolves, the stronger ones or the weaker ones? How about cubs? I\'ll send you the files to take a look in a while!"
"Mm, not the strong ones. Three to five young wolves are enough, and just two old ones! Our zoo already has two Big Wolves."
If strong wolves were introduced, they might fight fiercely for the position of alpha. Younger wolves have a much greater power discrepancy with the Big Wolves, making it easier for Charcoal and Mizzle to accept them and integrate them into the pack. Wolves respect their elders, and old wolves can enrich the pack\'s social behavior.
"Old wolves, too?" The Boulders Safari Director was puzzled and tried to persuade him to reconsider, but he couldn\'t change Fang Ye\'s mind.
Boulders Safari also had plenty of lions—fifteen adults and five cubs—and they were planning to transfer a few. It seems they keep more predatory animals.
Prime animals of breeding age are the most expensive. Unusual variations, like black panthers, White Tigers, and white giraffes, are also pricier. Older animals and cubs, on the other hand, are relatively cheaper.
"Director, do you have snakes, lizards, and such? Our zoo recently built a new reptile house and we need to diversify our animal collection!"
"Hmm, our reptile house is outsourced. I\'ll ask them and see if they\'ve got anything to transfer. Or, Director Fang, you might want to check with Sanjiao Zoo; they have a rich variety of reptiles!"
A while later, the Boulders Safari Director sent the files of the wolves and lions. Fang Ye thanked him and continued to call Lingmu Zoo. The Lingmu Zoo Director sent him some files on bharals and sika deer.
After contacting about ten zoos and talking until he was parched, Fang Ye had received many files.
He grabbed a cup of hot water and slowly reviewed the files while drinking, paying close attention to the animals\' ages and any diseases.
Some animals like wolves, red pandas, and land turtles were already in their enclosures, and transferring them was just a matter of paperwork.
Some animals didn\'t have exhibits ready yet, but could be reserved in advance.