Press Release Paradise Country’s Animal Nursery Is Going Wild These School Holidays

[Parkz News]

Paradise Country’s Animal Nursery Is Going Wild These School Holidays

Paradise Country will welcome two adorable tiger cubs to the park these school holidays to the newly designed Global Conservation Centre for a limited time only.

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[themagician]

Well VRTP’s have just shit all over DW

[Flynn_Smith]

20 minutes ago, Parkz News said:

Paradise Country’s Animal Nursery Is Going Wild These School Holidays

Paradise Country will welcome two adorable tiger cubs to the park these school holidays to the newly designed Global Conservation Centre for a limited time only.

Click here to continue reading

They're adorable, but wouldn't the environment for them be.. not sufficient? Correct me if i'm wrong but Paradise Country is basically a glorified farm - is that really fit for tigers? 

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

Game, Set & Match.

Ok, so PC won't have them every day, but it is a boon for VRTP that they can include PC in their annual passes - meaning there is now one less reason to buy a pass to Dreamworld.

The Bullen family have worked with Village for many years. Craig and Zelie do stunts, animal training, and the occasional acting role in movies and TV, as well as supplying animals to the productions.

Their credits include stunts in local productions like Ocean Girl, and Hollywood features such as Crocodile Hunter: Collision Course. In addition, they've served many films as animal trainers, including Red Dog:True Blue, War Horse, Charlotte's Web and Crocodile Dundee 3.

They market their animal training services as Animals All Around

The release suggests that animals will rotate through PC, and i'd suggest that the Bullen's are likely going to be supplying many of them.

2 minutes ago, Flynn_Smith said:

They're adorable, but wouldn't the environment for them be.. not sufficient? Correct me if i'm wrong but Paradise Country is basically a glorified farm - is that really fit for tigers? 

Dreamworld houses tiger cubs in a demountable building, and later in a glass-pool-fence styled exhibit with astroturf. How hard do you think either of those things would be to build for an animal exhibit on a farm. If the plan is to continue rotating animals through the 'global conservation centre' then they can invest in a certain level of quality, reusable exhibit suited to anything. I'm not sure what you mean by 'not sufficient', and while PC has always been a 'farm', you can't label it a 'farm' when it also has wild animals like Kangaroos, Emus, Koalas etc... so this could just be the start of a PC transformation that sees them tackle the 'wildlife' monopoly that Dreamworld has held for some time.

[New display name]

@AlexBTigers prefer listening to the TOT all day.

[joz]

Between this, Vortex, Dome (admittedly  canceled), Lego Movie 3D, I can see that VRTP's strategy seems to include large amounts of 'Sticking it to DW' rather than just 'Make our parks as good as they can be'. That mentality has left a generic thrill ride built right over dolphin pools at SW, and exotic animals at a park which is meant to be an Aussie farm. It's not about conservation, it's a really transparent business decision. So what you end up with are two of VRTP's 'Sticking it to DW' decisions being potential massive own goals in the bigger PR battle they're having surrounding the issues of animals in captivity. Also Tiger Island is incredibly well done, inviting comparisons to one of the best things DW has ever done seems like a poor move.

 

Advice from your mother VRTP, don't worry about what the other kids are doing, you just focus on being the best you can be, otherwise you'll lose sight of what makes you special in the first place.

[New display name]

VRTP having "circus" tigers is a strange move.

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

1 hour ago, joz said:

Advice from your mother VRTP, don't worry about what the other kids are doing, you just focus on being the best you can be, otherwise you'll lose sight of what makes you special in the first place.

It's already been discussed here that Dreamworld's two 'offerings' that would drive visitation were the tiger cubs, and the winter skate thing.

We've often criticised one park or the other for not offering \ responding to something the other park has offered.

I agree there's definitely a risk associated with bringing the cubs in, but I don't think we can write-off the conservation message from an organisation that does such great conservation work through the Sea World R&RFI without first seeing what they actually build. Tiger Island may be world class, but the cub kindy elements cannot be regarded at the same level (for the simple fact that nobody will invest in such an elaborate habitat for animals that will only use it for a few short months).

i'll reserve my final judgment for when I see it, but i'm happy to give the benefit of the doubt, whilst acknowledging it is clearly in response to Dreamworld's current attractions.

Since Alma Park zoo closed, there aren't many 'typical' zoos nearby. The thought of rotating some different animals from Bullen's through PC will give the park (and the GC) something new for repeat visitors too.

[joz]

It's a cynical business move. By pretending a very obvious business decision is about conservation they weaken their own message. What they're doing isn't cruel or anything dumb like that, these Tigers will get amazing care: it's just not in sync with their narrative, and it's also not in keeping with what the rest of the park is. 

 

If VRTP want to turn PC into a proper zoo, I think that'd be great. The 'Aussie Farm' being one of the themed lands of a fully fledged zoo with a coherent message and quality exhibits would work well. Bringing in Tiger cubs exclusively because DW have them is not sending out a coherent quality message.

Edited June 20, 2019 by joz

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

2 hours ago, AlexB said:

so this could just be the start of a PC transformation that sees them tackle the 'wildlife' monopoly that Dreamworld has held for some time.

 

[joz]

3 hours ago, Parkz News said:

 limited time only

 

50 minutes ago, joz said:

It's a cynical business move

 

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

Quote

The tiger cubs will be the first of an array of visiting baby animals

Of course its a limited time. Cubs get bigger.

That doesn't rule out the first step in a 'test the waters' plan to expand the park's horizons.

I'm sure many regarded the Sky Flyer similarly - as a test prior to pushing ahead with the grand atlantis plan. Is it that big a stretch to think they might be trialling this in a similar way?

History says i'm probably wrong, and you're quite likely right. I'm just saying don't rule it out - Atlantis was certainly unexpected for Sea World after years of neglect. They could surprise us. That's all i'm saying.

[pushbutton]

I'm wondering if it could effectively be a potential new venue for the 'Wild' area that was supposed to be built at Sea World several years ago, but wasn't. 

[Brad2912]

Tbh I don’t think you’d want (or need) something that major for PC. It’s major focus is the international tourism market. It’s not designed to cater for the amount of visitors you would need to get an ROI on the astronomical costs associated with creating an area suitable for gorillas, hippos etc. 

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

9 hours ago, Brad2912 said:

Tbh I don’t think you’d want (or need) something that major for PC. It’s major focus is the international tourism market. It’s not designed to cater for the amount of visitors you would need to get an ROI on the astronomical costs associated with creating an area suitable for gorillas, hippos etc. 

The space between PC and AOS was once earmarked for a 'wild' experience, with a hotel at the top of the hill. I can't remember if this was before or after the Sea World Wild announcement, but it was definitely put out to focus groups... so not entirely unrealistic if these thoughts are still on their radar, trying to find the right fit.

[Grad3s]

The main problem I see here is that this is a 3 day a week attraction which runs only for the holidays. So people are going to visit PC and 4 times out of 7, walk in, realise how boring the place still is (especially without the tiger cubs) and walk back out again. Personally I believe going to see Dreamworld's Tiger Cubs is much more enjoyable, then you can walk around to Tiger Island and watch the show, spend alot longer there.

Also did the bullen family not run circuses with animals (against what VRTP believe?)

[Brad2912]

Well that’s up to personal choice @Grad3s

I quite like spending a few hours every couple of months at Paradise Country, as do my family and apparently many more by what I see on my visits.

its low key, relaxed and easy to get around. 

As for the Bullen family, does it really matter what they used to do? Isn’t what they do now more important? 

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

On 21/06/2019 at 12:46 PM, Grad3s said:

The main problem I see here is that this is a 3 day a week attraction which runs only for the holidays. So people are going to visit PC and 4 times out of 7, walk in, realise how boring the place still is (especially without the tiger cubs) and walk back out again. Personally I believe going to see Dreamworld's Tiger Cubs is much more enjoyable, then you can walk around to Tiger Island and watch the show, spend alot longer there.

Also did the bullen family not run circuses with animals (against what VRTP believe?)

The thing about Paradise Country is that its one wedge in a complete offering by VRTP. It's not going to suit everybody. But it fills a gap for 'cityfolk' - especially those with kids who get no other opportunity to experience aspects of 'farming' life.

Much the same as @Brad2912 - i find it's great for family, and it obviously gets decent patronage based on my observations too (plus, i'm sure the park wouldn't continue to operate if it was making a loss).

Sea World used to capture wild animals for their exhibits and make them 'perform' too - much like a circus... As Brad says - it matters more what they're doing now.