July 10 2009

A menagerie of exotic wildlife could materialise on the banks of the Clyde if the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland’s plans for transplanting a slice of the Amazon to the urban jungle of Glasgow’s east end are realised.

The plan follows closure of Glasgow Zoo in 2003, which had struggled to manage declining visitor numbers and debt.

Primates, Manatees, Sloths, birds and lizards would roam, swoop and slither amidst the futuristic surroundings of a £35m biosphere by the Cunningar Loop, a tree top swing away from the 2014 Commonwealth Games Athletes Village.

Full enclosure will allow the Society to customise every parameter of life within from daylight levels, humidity and temperature allowing the charity to further their aims of education, conservation and research.

Originally announced three years ago the scheme has risen to prominence once more after Scottish Government reporters failed to back redevelopment of Edinburgh Zoo, imperiling a planned £72m, 20 year redevelopment programme. That project could now be switched to Edinburgh’s west coast neighbour which could mean Giant Pandas settling down in Glasgow.

Finance for the project has still to be arranged and no planning application has yet been made.

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