ManamaL Kuwait is planning to build a new, more humane safari park-style facility, a local daily reported.
The new safari zoo, to the west of Jahra City, will be more modern in design, with the animals allowed to roam freely while human visitors will only be able to travel through it by car or in specially designed trains.
The Public Authority for Agriculture and Fish Resources (PAAFR) is launching the project following widespread public dissatisfaction at the state and conditions of Kuwait's one existing zoo, Kuwait Times reported on Sunday.
"It will be located on a 16,000 square meter site, sixteen times the size of the current zoo," Yousuf Al Najem, the director of Kuwait Zoo, said. "The zoo will be established under the BOT [Build Operate Transfer] system, and will add to the existing entertainment facilities in the country," he said, quoted by the daily.
PAAFR is currently conducting a number of studies on the best layout for the new zoo, he said.
"The research will not take long to carry out, but the problem lies in the execution. The research is carried out by the investor, then sent to the Municipal Council for approval. The good thing is that the new safari zoo will not cost the government more money," he said.
The animals at the present zoo will be transferred to the new facility that will house animals from different environments.
"The new zoo will also bring more animals from other zoos that we have an agreement with. For instance, Kuwait Zoo has an animal exchange program with the Korean Zoo, from which we brought the leopard and we exchanged it with deer that were bred here," Yousuf said.
According to the official, the old zoo will be turned into some other useful facility. "We are not sure yet, but the PAAFR is planning to change it to an aquarium or an insect zoo. Kuwait signed the CITES [Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species] Treaty on wild fauna and flora to protect plants and animals. And for this purpose the current zoo will serve this goal. At the present zoo we have succeeded to breed many of the animals who are in danger of extinction such as the European wolf," he said.
