Building a zoo among the pines: the work behind ZooDoo

Visitors to ZooDoo usually remember the wallabies, the alpacas or feeding the capybaras. Few see the work behind it: building an Australian-standard zoo across 16 hectares of pine forest while keeping the forest intact.

The founder behind the wheel

Neil is Australian and the founder of ZooDoo. Since 2016, when the first wallabies, alpacas and ponies were flown from Australia to Da Lat, he has worked on site himself: driving the backhoe, clearing undergrowth and building fences and enclosures with the team.

Two jobs that pull in opposite directions

Keeping the pines. The pine forest gives ZooDoo its cool air, shade and landscape. Enclosures and paths follow the lines of the trees instead of clearing them for flat ground.

Building strong for the animals. Each species needs a different kind of enclosure, strong and spacious enough for how it behaves. Doing this on sloping ground full of roots and rock takes far more work than building on flat land.

Controlled burns

In the dry season, pine needles and dry grass build up under the canopy and become fuel. The ZooDoo team carries out controlled burns to reduce the risk of a large fire reaching the forest and the animal areas.

Slow and solid

Building this way is slower and harder. But it is how ZooDoo stays a pine forest, where animals have safe homes and visitors walk in the shade.

Next time you follow a zookeeper through ZooDoo, look for the fences that curve around the pine trunks. They are the result of many working days like the one in these photos.

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