Dublin Zoo claws its way to health

Mr Peter Wilson has a unique back garden for Dublin city. Whereas land banks are shrinking all over the State, last July his doubled in size from 35 to 70 acres with the development of an African plain featuring giraffes, rhinos, cheetahs and lions.

Mr Wilson, his wife, son and daughter have lived in the zoo grounds since he was appointed director in 1984. "The zoo takes you over. It's not just an eight-hour day or a 12-hour day. It's day and night, weekends, evenings. It just goes on," he says. Mr Wilson is to retire as director of Dublin Zoo in April. Apart from wanting to take it a bit easier, his decision is due to something more important.

"I think if you are around too long you damage an institution. I think it's important to let somebody else come in with a whole host of fresh ideas, and take the zoo on," he said.

A graduate of the Trinity Veterinary School in 1968, Mr Wilson did some of the veterinary work in the zoo, was elected to the council and was honorary secretary before taking up the position of director. "I've been involved in the zoo for 30 years - that's an awful long time. So I've seen a lot of change."

He says his role changed significantly with his appointment as director, a post that is really like a chief executive in a company. "But tradition in the zoo world is all chief executives of zoos are known as directors." The council, or board of the zoo, sets the policies and he has to make sure that the zoo is run according to those policies. However, many of the decisions that he takes as director - including designing animal enclosures - are taken using veterinary science as a background.

Dublin Zoo has never been in a stronger position since its foundation in 1830. It will receive 600,000 visitors this year. It has doubled in size and is financially sound due to the support of the Government, the politicians and the 1994 development plan, Mr Wilson explains.

It is also very much a business. "Each year, whilst the Government was responsible for the development plan for the zoo and they produce the capital for development, what the zoo has to ensure each year is that the income that we generate from the various sources meets the running expenses of the zoo. And they are over £3 million [€3.8 million] now, so you've got to very much make sure that it is a business, that it is run as a business."

Though the zoo does not have to make a return on the capital given by the Government, Mr Wilson insists income balance expenditure. "We have to make sure we can maintain the zoo, maintain the animals, pay the staff, pay all the running costs."

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, before the development plan, there were huge financial problems because the zoo was trying to develop the husbandry of the animals. Twice Mr Wilson sat at his desk on a Monday with no money to pay the staff on the following Thursday and no money to feed the animals. Each time, they just managed to scrape through.

"We were in dire straits financially. We were trying to spend money on capital developments. We were making a loss and every year we were going to the Government and asking them to bail us out. They would bail us out at Christmas - that was the usual thing. But we'd be struggling and fighting the next year to make ends meet. "Eventually, to be fair to the politicians, they said: `Look, the zoo is important to Dublin. It has an important role to play in conservation and education. It's an important part of the cultural life of the city and has been for 170 years. We want the zoo to survive.' "

A plan was produced to develop the zoo so income could balance expenditure from a running costs point of view. It took the £15 million received in phase one of the plan to make the necessary changes. The Government has given the zoo a further £10 million to continue the development over the next five years. When the zoo had financial difficulties there were 385,000 visitors a year. Now that there are 600,000, the zoo has been able to save surpluses that can be spent on smaller developments.

Having seen how successful and profitable the zoo's unique merchandise shop at the front gate has been since it opened two years ago, a retail outlet named Zoo2 was opened on Mary Street in the heart of Dublin's shopping district last August. Ultimately there may be a chain of zoo shops, perhaps in shopping centres around Dublin. But that is a decision for Mr Wilson's successor.

"Other zoos in Europe and America have taken their unique zoo stores downtown, because how many people are in the zoo today? How many people are going to be here between now and Christmas? It's going to be very quiet . . . They're not going to come up here on cold, wet, rainy days, they're going to go shopping." Mr Wilson is more sanguine about the fair-weather months, pointing to rising zoo attendance's throughout Europe and North America.

In August alone, 125,000 people came to visit the African plains. The time visitors spend at the zoo has also increased, as has spend per head, which all adds to income that is spent on further development, which in turn increases numbers. Will Dublin Zoo ever be self-sufficient? "Very few zoos are self-sufficient in the sense that very few produce a return on capital investment. Zoos are more heritage attractions." Most zoos are helped by their city or by their national governments, or have large land banks, which can be sold off to fund development. However, Dublin Zoo doesn't own anything: "Under the terms of our licence, which we operate, the Government owns the land and all the buildings. So if you look at our balance sheet from a business point of view, we've no assets at all," he says.

Despite this, Mr Wilson believes the zoo has never been in such a strong financial position. "The zoo has gone from an organisation which was bankrupt and people wondered if it had a future at all, to now the largest fee-paying attraction in Ireland." At the end of the day the zoo is probably benefiting from the most endangered species of all - the Celtic Tiger.