It’s 44 degrees Celsius outside - 47 inside the car - but Dr Reza Khan, 76, is oblivious to the scorching heat. He is at the Al Marmoom Desert Conservation Reserve in Dubai engaged in what he does best: The waiting game.
Read the full story here: https://gulfnews.com/uae/people/watch-wildlife-expert-reza-khan-marks-40-years-in-the-uae-1.97081689
See more videos at https://gulfnews.com/videos
Read more Gulf News stories here: https://bit.ly/2HLJ2km
Subscribe to Gulf News on YouTube and watch more of our videos: https://www.youtube.com/user/GulfNewsTV
#UAEnews #wildlifeexpert #Dubai
Read the full story here: https://gulfnews.com/uae/people/watch-wildlife-expert-reza-khan-marks-40-years-in-the-uae-1.97081689
See more videos at https://gulfnews.com/videos
Read more Gulf News stories here: https://bit.ly/2HLJ2km
Subscribe to Gulf News on YouTube and watch more of our videos: https://www.youtube.com/user/GulfNewsTV
#UAEnews #wildlifeexpert #Dubai
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00The moment I entered into the zoo, I said, I must be changing it.
00:04I don't like animals like chimps, like tigers.
00:11They are living in concrete floor.
00:15I came to the UEE during December 1983.
00:20Exactly on 15th of December, I joined Allianz Zoo as a curator of birds.
00:25Later on, I became curator of birds and primates.
00:281989, 1st June, I joined Dubai Zoo as its head.
00:34When I joined here, the zoo, as one could imagine,
00:40is like the zoos of the Western world in the 1950s that they had.
00:45The basic structures for keeping animals were rods and cement.
00:52The moment I entered into the zoo, I said, I must be changing it.
00:56I don't like animals like chimps, like tigers.
01:03They are living in concrete floor, in three-side wall,
01:06and on top chinky roof, and one side steel barrier.
01:10So I started opening up Dubai Zoo animal enclosures.
01:14I tried to expand their enclosures as much as possible.
01:18The greatest problem was there was no disposing of excreta
01:24from the wild animals that were exhibited in Dubai Zoo.
01:28So we, myself, the foreman, and the Zubai Safari and Milk-Keeping teams,
01:33we joined together and we started the soak-away gutter.
01:37Moreover, because it was just five acres,
01:41and all sides walled up in Jumeirah, there was no free flow of air.
01:46So to bring the temperature down, both for the visitors and the animals,
01:51we started spraying water two times a day.
01:53And later on, we started putting up air conditioners for sensitive animals,
01:59like the gorilla chimps, and most of the reptile house we had this.
02:04With the help of Dubai Zoo keepers,
02:06and borrowing materials from different departments of the municipality,
02:11we could have good building for gorilla, for the chimp, and for the reptiles,
02:16especially snakes and some nocturnal animals like the bats.
02:20So those are the major changes we did in Dubai Zoo.
02:23Dubai Zoo was built by an Austrian gentleman
02:29through the advice of the then ruler, Sheikh Maktoum.
02:34And it was built in Jumeirah. It was all walled up.
02:37So we needed to go for a new state-of-the-art modern zoo.
02:41And from 1993 April, we started the process of having a new zoo master plan.
02:47We did it through the municipality horticulture and design department.
02:52We did three master plans. The last one was done in 2006.
02:58That could not be implemented because of the economic downturn.
03:01And later on, on the basis of all those information,
03:05and the advice of our ruler, Sheikh Mohammed,
03:09he told us to go ahead with the new Dubai Zoo project as Dubai Safari.
03:15And he allotted 150 million as seed money to start the process.
03:21That's how we started the process of the new Dubai Zoo
03:25that was named as Dubai Safari Park.
03:28Finally, in 2016, the Safari Park project took full shape.
03:33And we could open the door on 17th December.
03:36And 5th November, Dubai Zoo was shut forever for the visitors.
03:41Current Dubai Safari is a state-of-the-art modern facility
03:45for exhibiting wild animals, habitat-based wild animals
03:49from different parts of the world or different areas of the world.
03:54It's unique, like a botanical garden. It's an evergreen area.
03:59And moreover, the location of Dubai Safari is actually a rubbish dump.
04:05Solid waste dump of about 2 square kilometres of land
04:09has been converted into evergreen area
04:12with more than 3,000 trees have been planted there.
04:16And most trees are about 3 metres in height.
04:19And last 5 years, they have grown to 6, 7 metres.
04:23So if you see, if you have an aerial view, it will look like an evergreen place.
04:28So to change from a walled-up Dubai Zoo of 5 acres
04:32to nearly a 2 square kilometre Dubai Safari Park
04:37is a mammoth shift. It's a paradigm shift.
04:40And the ideas have changed.
04:42And it has become now a conservation centre in the Middle East.