I have a wildlife zoo

Linhai Zoo currently generates approximately 5 to 6 million yuan in revenue each month.

In terms of expenditures, the foremost is naturally the salaries of the employees, including security, chefs, waitstaff, purchasers, etc.

The salaries of these employees are about 10 to 20 percent higher than the normal standard in Linhai, as after all, the zoo is located in the suburbs, making it inconvenient to reach the city, and the zoo's holidays are different from the normal ones, reducing opportunities to reunite with family. Naturally, salaries need to be higher to compensate.

Salaries for animal keepers and veterinarians are twice that of ordinary zoos!

Talking about the honorable mission of animal keepers, like protecting animals for humanity's future, is certainly accurate, but adequate salaries are necessary to motivate them.

Hence, the keepers are very meticulous in observing and caring for the animals and actively discuss enrichment. They take the initiative to research animals' information after work, thinking about how to better care for the animals they are responsible for.

The zoo currently employs 60 staff members in total, with a salary expenditure of 800 thousand yuan.

Another cost is the animals' feed; carnivores like lions, tigers, and wolves consume hundreds of pounds of meat daily. The cost of meat isn't a small number, and there's also the various high-standard vegetables and fruits purchased through contracts with specialized farms and agricultural trade companies. With hundreds of animals, the monthly feed expenses are around 3 million yuan.

It's relatively less now, but when large consumers like elephants arrive, the feed expenses will be even greater.

Then there's the cost of water and electricity; the zoo's exhibits mostly contain water, and it's all flowing water at that. Although water can be recycled through filtration systems, the electricity isn't cheap.

The wolf exhibit and the bird exhibit use pumps to cycle water daily, and then there's the bird exhibit's temperature control system, the cold storage for food, amounting to a monthly water and electricity bill of about 300 thousand yuan.
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And the expenses of procuring animals!

All in all, the introduction cost 3 million yuan altogether; at the internal prices of the zoo, a fierce animal like a lion isn't too expensive, around 50,000 yuan each. Although there are many macaques and ring-tailed lemurs, each only costs a few thousand. The main expenses are for rare birds like macaws, as these endangered species are not cheap.

The next animals to be introduced are elephants, which are super expensive; one can cost over a million yuan.

The most costly, however, are the giant pandas: even though they're rented and not permanently purchased, the annual rent is 500 thousand yuan. Including the costs of purchasing bamboo from other regions, the annual expenditure is at least 5 million yuan. Of course, Fang Ye does not have to pay for the bamboo.

For Fang Ye, the major cost of construction is paid in green leaf coins, making profit quite effortless; there is no need to haggle with visitors over a bit of entrance fee money.

Currently, there is a balance of 8 million yuan in the account!

Once the elephant exhibit is completed, purchasing about a dozen elephants will be about right, as there's always a place to spend money.

...

Fang Ye doodled in his notebook, envisioning the future of the zoo, pondering the order in which to build several exhibits, and the specific design details.

The zoo's bird exhibit has been open for business for several days, and it has received a wave of positive reviews from visitors.

While this place receives praise, other zoos get criticized.

At the moment, as he lurked in the Linhai Zoo enthusiasts group chat, Fang Ye saw members discussing Tianquan Zoo.

Tianquan Zoo had just opened!

Prior to the opening, Tianquan Zoo underwent relocation and reconstruction; media reports stated that the total renovation costs exceeded 3 billion yuan, which was a huge sum for a zoo.

Zoo enthusiasts nationwide were following the news, looking forward to visiting Tianquan Zoo once the reconstruction was finished. After two and a half years, the construction was nearly complete, and at last, the grand opening was within reach, greatly anticipated by everyone.

However, after visiting, one could say it was a huge letdown!

At that moment, "Monk Miaoshan," who had visited Tianquan Zoo, vented his frustrations: "I'm speechless! Do you know how ridiculous it was there? Their giant panda exhibit is an old-fashioned bear pit!"

"What?"

"No way, that's shocking!"

Linhai Zoo's Monkey Mountain used to be an antiquated pit-style exhibit!

As enthusiasts, the group members had listened to the explanations from animal keepers and naturally understood the drawbacks of this kind of display.

First, towering over and encircling the animals makes them feel the pressure of being watched!

Furthermore, looking down on them fosters an arrogant demeanor, which isn't conducive to conveying a zoo's attitude of animal respect and protection, and it can easily trigger the desire to feed the animals.

Even being in a cage would be better than a pit!

"Don't believe me, I'll send you a picture to have a look."

With that, a picture was sent—it truly was a pit, with dull yellow sand, and a very monotonous environment, just a perch, but no giant panda had moved in yet.

It looked like some things hadn't been set up yet, covered with a cloth.

The group members were left in a state of confusion after seeing it!

"Such a small space, are you sure this is the giant panda exhibit?"

"Even if it's not the giant panda exhibit, the Asian black bear exhibition area is outrageous too! There's not even a tree."

"Is this really the zoo that invested 300 million? Where did all the money go?"

Fang Ye was taken aback.

The giant panda exhibit he designed had a Yin-Yang Tai Chi layout, and although visitors could also look down into the exhibit from the upper level, he incorporated some design details to mitigate the negative effects.

Firstly, there was a barrier in the middle, so the gaze from all around wouldn't be relentless, allowing the pandas some respite from the visitors' eyes.

His Yin-Yang Tai Chi layout panda exhibit spanned 3000 square meters, with a head area of the Tai Chi fish being very expansive. Looking down from a distance of two or three meters versus twenty or thirty meters surely felt different.

Moreover, the terrain within the exhibit and the upper corridors were undulating, to allow visitors' eyes to meet the giant pandas at a more even level.

This panda exhibit looked no more than three or four hundred square meters, with no room to hide.

Monk Miaoshan said gloomily, "Besides, there's nothing much to see! It doesn't have any highlights, just those of a large area. Can't they allocate some of that space to the pandas? Everyone else's panda exhibits are getting bigger and more luxurious, while you are being stingy and going backward. In this day and age, to build a new exhibit that's a pit, especially a panda pit, is just unbelievable.

Hey, really, why did I specifically make a trip to Tianquan Zoo? I even missed the newly opened birdhouse at Linhai Zoo."

In the past few days, he had been drooling over the birdhouse photos shared by group members!

However, he had also been looking forward to visiting Tianquan Zoo for a long time and, after much hesitation, he decided to go there instead!

He had booked the hotel for two days, planning to have a good look around.

And this was what he found?

Daigo laughed heartily with a sense of schadenfreude, "You've lost out, man. I've been volunteering at the birdhouse these past two days, listening to birds chirping, smelling the fragrance of trees, watching birds fly in and out. This isn't work, it's pure enjoyment!"

Lili criticized, "Those 300 million, squandered like this, might as well have been given to the zoo director. We could've had a super beautiful, luxurious zoo!"

Chunyu Jiangshanglai: "@Linhai's Wu Yanzu, boss, what do you think of this exhibit area?"

Of course, at this time, Fang Ye pretended not to see it!

A bit of group member banter was one thing, but as a peer in the field, speaking ill could spread and stir up too much hatred. Who knows, someone might even report him for his non-standard practices with tigers and lions that no proper zoo director should engage in.

Moreover, they might need to collaborate on animal exchanges in the future.