I have a wildlife zoo

As for the outdoor activity area, the material selection is vital; of course, natural ground surfaces are required, including various types such as grass, sand, and soil. Otherwise, elephants may not get enough exercise in a single environment, leading to obesity.

Adult male elephants are extremely destructive and can also be more dangerous, so it's necessary to build a separate area for them. Depending on the species' behavioral traits, Asiatic elephants generally need to be kept separate from the herd, while African elephants can be mixed with the female herd.

Next, we have the common features of various exhibits, such as shade structures, either artificial shading devices or the shade of large trees.

Elephants like to scratch against trees, but a small tree might collapse after a few scratches, and even a large tree can't withstand too many. If trees are planted in the exhibition area, some protective measures are needed, usually electric fences.

Fang Ye, through researching papers and consulting animal keepers experienced in elephant care, learned of a special perch for the elephant exhibit. It involves burying several old tires underground and inserting thick tree trunks into them, which makes the heavy trunks flexible.

Elephants can comfortably scratch against these trunks, which are resilient and wobble pleasantly.

Of course, both the tree trunks and tires need to be properly secured to prevent elephants from pulling the trunks out.

Visual barriers like low walls and mounds allow less dominant individuals to avoid pressure from more dominant ones, and also let elephants avoid the gaze of visitors when they choose to.

High-hanging feed points are also crucial, placing food at a height, like a roll of hay stuffed inside a rubber wavy tube, which aligns with the elephants' feeding habits and also encourages them to exercise their head and neck muscles, helping to maintain their physique.

These feed points are, of course, placed where visitors can conveniently view them, perhaps hanging a bar between two shade structures.

This kind of facility can be remotely controlled, allowing animal keepers to replenish feed without entering the enclosure.

All sorts of environmental enrichment!

Water is very important for elephants; in the hot summer, they can comfortably bathe in pools and also enjoy the cooling effect of showers.

The minimum depth requirement for the elephant exhibit's water should be such that when an adult individual comfortably lies on its side, more than half of its body can be submerged. Fang Ye plans to build a large pool deep enough to submerge an elephant's head.

The area should be large enough to accommodate the entire herd bathing at once, as elephants are highly social animals, and bathing is a communal activity.

It's equivalent to soaking in a public bathhouse, satisfying both physiological and psychological needs while also strengthening familial bonds.

The bottom of the pool has to be concrete, and the entrance should be a gentle slope not exceeding 30 degrees, allowing elephants easy access in and out of the pool. There must be barriers on the vertical sides to prevent elephants from falling in.

The tiger exhibit's pool covers 300 square meters, so 2,000 square meters for the elephant pool doesn't seem excessive, does it?

...It might be a bit much; a bigger pool looks beautiful, but it reduces the land area available for activities.

But at least 1,000 square meters is definitely needed!

Behind the pool, some lotus leaves and similar plants could be added to enrich the landscape.

Coming out of the pool, there should be an area with thick fine sand where elephants can happily sprinkle and play with sand.

There should also be cliff and waterfall landscapes; waterfalls are nearly a standard feature of zoo exhibits these days.

Pools, sand baths, mud baths, all must be equipped, as these facilities are indispensable for elephants.

Animals like wild boars and rhinoceroses also enjoy rolling in mud pits, covering themselves with a layer of mud armor to avoid insect bites and protect against ultraviolet rays. Additionally, the moisture in the mud can help keep their body temperature regulated for a prolonged period.

Sometimes, when the mud pits in the wild are small and not everyone can fit, the elder elephants allow the young ones to monopolize them while they sprinkle mud on themselves with their trunks.

What, take turns? They have roads to travel and food to find.

Along the edges of these facilities, visitors can get a great view of the elephants' natural behavior and the interactions within their groups!

Happy elephants have various facilities to play and frolic in, and when they are in good spirits, their aggression decreases, making it safer for the animal keepers to interact with them. When visitors see the elephants happy and confident, conservation education becomes more persuasive.

Given the vast area of the elephant exhibition area, it is natural to have a plaza for people to rest in the middle.

Fang Ye thought of constructing a Mammoth Square.

Mammoths, symbols of the end of the Ice Age!

As one of the largest beasts that once roamed the land, they disappeared into the annals of time, just like many other animals.

Erecting statues of mammoths to scale in the square, visitors looking at the mammoths and then gazing far away at the elephants to compare their size and appearance, will surely evoke many exclamations.

This design contains a story mode, guiding people to look back to the past, observe the present, and contemplate the future, thereby realizing the global environmental issues we are facing.

Educational exhibit panels will introduce mammoths and the reasons for their extinction, which includes not only the reduction of food due to global warming but also human hunting and poaching.

After viewing the exhibit panels, visitors may start to reflect.

The events that happened in ancient times are still occurring today. Would elephants follow in the footsteps of the mammoths?

If animals like elephants continue to go extinct due to climate change, what will come of mankind in the end?

Environmental issues are becoming increasingly urgent. Each summer's temperatures are higher than the last, and various climate anomalies emerge one after another. The number of dangerous diseases is on the rise, rivers are revealing their dry beds, Sun Moon Lake, once famed for its waters, is now drying up.

With water resources already so strained, they are further polluted.

As species from ancient times have gone extinct, many animals face the same fate today. It's important to educate visitors on what they can do to protect these animals, at least to raise some awareness of the crisis.

Children do not need to understand these matters; they can touch and take photos with the statues of mammoths.

Because the mammoth statues are to scale, posing on them for photographs is definitely dangerous; what if someone falls off?

If we installed safety barriers, it would be too visually disruptive.

Therefore, Fang Ye planned to create a mammoth statue the size of a kindergarten slide, fit with a staircase on its back, so kids can climb up and play.

While the entire elephant care center can't be open to the public, a viewing area can be reserved in advance to show visitors how animal keepers trim the elephants' feet.

As for other content, the issue of elephants' ivory and poaching must be included in the educational materials, to inform visitors of the cruelty behind these seemingly beautiful and rare animal products and the disasters they cause.

Fang Ye planned to inquire with customs about whether they have any confiscated ivory that could be used for the exhibition.

Such items, which cannot be sold, must either be destroyed or stored. However, applying for their use in educational displays should be feasible.

If there's no real ivory, then an ivory model will have to do.

In the end, the total area for the elephant exhibit was designed to be 17,000 square meters! Another 2,000 green leaf coins were spent to have the system refine the blueprints.

Excluding the animal enclosures, care center, square, service areas, and other miscellaneous content, the outdoor activity area for the elephants spans 12,000 square meters, and the total construction will cost 650,000 green leaf coins.

Fang Ye felt a pang of distress, but decided to start building and think about how to earn more green leaf coins.