- Animals That Represent Good Luck
- Animals Associated With Wealth
- Animals Associated With Wealth Maximization
- A while back we held a contest for the new popular economics book written by Uri Gneezy and John List.The authors and their publishers picked some of their favorite title suggestions and then we ran a beauty contest to determine which title was most popular among blog readers.
- The spirit animals are archetypal energies that vibrate with the same energies and powers of the Chakras. The power animals featured on this page are a collection of animals traditionally associated with the Chakras, in addition while meditating on this, other spirit animals appeared to be of assistance.
- An interest in animals cracked the top 30 and, after diving deeper, Wealth-X found that the rich tend to be dog people rather than than cat people. One animal did beat out dogs as the favorite.
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Have you been to the zoo lately? If so, you may have found yourself wondering, “How do zoos make money?” Or maybe you’ve always been curious about how zoos get their hands on the animals their collections contain. Let’s take a closer look at the economics of zoos, how they make money and what the future has in store for the zoo.
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Animals That Represent Good Luck
More than Admission
Symbolizes the animal nature in man, untamed, and subservience to basic drives, their animal side.The Centaur in astrology is the ninth sign of the zodiac, shooting an arrow, a Fire sign. Those born under this sign are said to be resolute, aggressive, spirited, and seekers of light, energy, and power.
In some ways, a zoo functions like a botanical garden or a museum, making money from a combination of admission, merchandise, private donors, institutional donors and aid from city and state governments. Let’s take the San Diego Zoo, America’s most famous zoo, as an example.
A 1-day adult pass to the San Diego Zoo will set you back $50. A child’s ticket (ages 3-11) costs $46. That’s a lot of money in most American households’ budgets, but even those pricey tickets aren’t enough to keep the zoo going without other help.
The San Diego Zoo is a not-for-profit organization, which means donors can make tax-deductible contributions to the zoo’s budget. The zoo offers a range of giving opportunities, including employer matching, memorial and tribute gifts, exhibition sponsorship and wildlife adoptions (financial, not literal) via the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Conservancy. There’s also an annual Zoo Gala fundraiser, with regular tickets for $450 and “preferred seating” tickets for $900.
A Barter Economy
There’s one unusual feature of the zoo economy that makes zoos different from other businesses. Zoos don’t buy or sell animals, they only trade. It may seem odd to run a business – even a non-profit – with a collection that you can’t buy or sell. How do zoos get new animals to enhance their collections or get rid of animals they no longer need or want? No money changes hands.
The taboo around putting a price tag on animals has historical roots. Nineteenth-century zoos relied on explorers to go to foreign lands and get animals. Zoos paid explorers like the famous Carl Hagenbeck to get the kinds of exotic animals that drew crowds. Hagenbeck and his kind would go to brutal lengths to fulfill their commissions. Think: killing the animal’s parents and bringing back the baby to fill a zoo.
The animal trade became associated with brutality, racism and colonialism as white explorers would bring back animals – and sometimes people – to put on display in Western zoos. And it wasn’t just the people with the official zoo commissions who would trap wild animals. Because zoos were putting a price tag on animals, poachers and smugglers got in on the game.
Finally, in the 1970s, the zoo community decided it was time to take money out of the zoo business. For one thing, this would ensure that zoos weren’t participating in the commodification of animals and the trade that led to slaughter and smuggling.
But getting rid of prices for animals had a side benefit, too. After the passage of the 1973 Endangered Species Act, zoos and aquariums were required to file for permits before buying any endangered species. If no money changes hands, however, no permit is required. That makes the whole process faster and easier.
These days, zoos and aquariums barter or donate animals, and the system depends on the mutual good will of these institutions. The Association of Zoos and Aquariums runs the Animal Exchange, an online site that’s like a sharing economy platform for animals. A zoo can log on and post the animals it’s willing to give up and the animals it’s looking to acquire. Sorry – it’s not open to the public.
So how do zoos account for the ingress and egress of plants and animals when they’re doing their bookkeeping? This paragraph from the 2014 financial statement of the San Diego Zoo explains: “In according with customary practice among zoological organizations, animal and horticultural collections are recorded at the nominal amount of one dollar, as there is no objective basis for establishing value. Additionally, animal and horticultural collections have numerous attributions, including species, age, sex, relationship and value to other animals, endangered status, and breeding potential, whereby it is impracticable to assign value.”
Animals that are shared with other zoos are not expensed at all: “In an ongoing commitment to enhance the worldwide reproduction and preservation of animals, SDZ Global [San Diego Zoo] shares animals with other organizations. Consistent with industry practice, SDZ Global does not record any asset or liability for such sharing arrangements.”
So what do zoos spend money on if not the animals? Staff salaries, animal maintenance and facilities costs are the obvious expenses, but there are others. For example, in 2014 the San Diego Zoo spent $11,564 on advertising, according to the zoo’s financial statement. That same year, fundraising expenses totaled $7,553.
The Panda Factor
A notable exception to the practice of not paying for animals is the Giant Panda. Because the Chinese government controls the bulk of the world’s pandas, zoos and city governments must negotiate with China if they want to add a panda to their zoo’s collection. And those pandas don’t come cheap. The Chinese government considers the panda to be of high symbolic and cultural value, and doesn’t want to part with pandas that won’t be well cared for.
So how much does a panda cost these days? Well, if you’re running a zoo and the Chinese government agrees to give you a panda at all you’ll pay a reported $1 million for a mating pair and $600,000 for a cub. Those are annual costs. If a panda you acquired from China dies on your watch, you’ll have to pay China $500,000. The D.C. zoo reportedly spends $2.6 million per year on its panda exhibit. Some zoos have reportedly found that the extra ticket sales pandas generate still aren’t enough to cover the added costs.
The Economic Impact of Zoos
As employers and as visitor attractions, zoos have a significant economic effect on the towns and cities they call home. A report by a professor at George Mason University found that in 2013 alone, Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA) accredited zoos drew 164,626,321 visitors to U.S. zoos. AZA-member zoos in the States employed 38,078 people.
And that’s not all. The money zoos spent on operations and construction had what’s called a “multiplier effect” in the wider economy. For every $1 million spent by zoos on operating outlays, 28.4 jobs were supported. 23.4 jobs were supported for every $1 million zoos spent on construction.
The report estimated the total economic output of AZA-accredited zoos and aquariums in 2013 to be $17.2 billion. On top of that, zoos contributed to an estimated $2.4 billion in before/after visit spending by the public and $5.4 billion in personal earnings. Off-site spending by visitors to U.S. zoos supported an estimated 62,126 jobs.
The Future of Zoos
Running a zoo is never easy, but in economic downturns the difficulties multiply. If a museum has certain pieces that are costly to maintain it can put those pieces in storage. Museums can also close entire wings to the public to cut back on maintenance costs. Zoos don’t have this luxury because their collection is alive. You can’t close the tiger exhibit without doing something with the tigers, and you can’t sell the tigers to raise money for the zoo.
Even if a zoo makes the difficult decision to unload some of its animals, it can take months or even years to place animals with other zoos. Cutting back on the animals in a zoo’s collection can have negative side effects, too. Admission revenue can drop if the public doesn’t want to visit the smaller collection or a zoo loses big attractions. If all this is making you want to donate some money to your favorite zoo, don’t forget to write that donation off if you itemize your taxes.
What about when economic times are good? Some conservationists argue that zoos should diversify their collections to represent more of the planet’s species and take a more active role in promoting conservation and biodiversity in the face of climate change.
Animals Associated With Wealth
In an interview with National Geographic, zoo historian and zoo park director David Hancocks argued: “If zoos gave serious attention to education we should surely see much greater variety in their collections, to help them better focus on biodiversity; if they were serious about conservation they would give much more attention to local species; and if they truly wanted their visitors to develop better understandings of the natural world they would be showing and interpreting the really small life forms.”
Most people think of zoos as places to see big-ticket animals like elephants and tigers, not encyclopedic repositories of the worlds’ species. Adding to the tension over what the mission of the zoo of the future should be is that zoo directors are often torn between their desire to promote animal welfare and their desire to increase profits.
Some zoos are remodeling themselves in the image of nature parks and going cage-free. This helps them promote the animals’ well-being while attracting visitors who might be put off by seeing the caged animals of a traditional zoo. In the future, visiting the zoo may feel much more like going on a safari. Proposals for future models include mirrored cable cars that allow visitors to pass undetected through animal habitats, and larger, multi-species ecosystems rather than the one-species-per-exhibit model. Stay tuned to see how the zoo evolves.
Update: If you have questions beyond the economics of zoos, SmartAsset can help. So many people reached out to us saying they wanted help with financial planning, that we built a tool to match you with a financial advisor who can meet your needs. First you answer a series of questions about your situation and your goals. Then the program narrows down thousands of advisors to three fiduciaries who meet your needs. You can read their profiles to learn more about them, interview them on the phone or in person and choose who to work with in the future. This allows you to find a good fit while doing much of the hard work for you.
Photo credit: ©iStock.com/DragonImages, ©iStock.com/zilli, ©iStock.com/Onfokus
Inside the form school they constantly make alusion to a series of symbolic animals that reflect certain favorable characteristics for a natural space.Tha animals that this school refers to are called black turtle, red phoenix, green dragon, white tiger and finally the yellow snake. Each one of them represents a special caracteristics. Let us see each one for separate:
THE YELLOW SNAKE
Associated direction: Centre.
Element: Earth.
Color: Yellow.
Element: Earth.
Color: Yellow.
At first we will explain the snake, more than anything because it speaks of the centre, the place of reference to explain the rest of the symbolic animals. In the theory of the 5 elements the color yellow is associated with the element earth, in the centre. The snake has affinity with this concept being an extremely receptive, sensible animal that stays alert perceiving what surrounds it. Casinos in the us.
Where is the snake? Well, if you are analyzing for example your home, it will be the snake, if you are analyzing a building en reference with other locations, it will be the snake, if you observe yourself surrounded of other buildings, you will be the snake. Summarizing this animal is the virtual centre that can be surrounded by the 4 resting animals.
THE RED PHOENIX
Associated direction: South.
Element: Fire.
Color: Red.
Element: Fire.
Color: Red.
This mythological bird corresponds to the inverse side of the turtle, in other words the facing, the facade, the views that most buildings own. If inmovility and protection are clear caracteristics for the black turtle, the phoenix needs a certain space, an open area to receive energy. An illustrative case of not having a phoenix is a building that once constructed shows its principle facade orientaded to a mountain, or other similar buidings or structures that block the correct reception of energy or Qi.
When you read a book that recommends you to avoid putting a tree in front of your door, this reminds you to conserve the phoenix. If you feel uncomfortable with your desk looking to the wall it is exactly because of the same reason, the human eyes have not been designed to live in captivity or underground, but to enjoy the necessary extend that symbolizes this principle.
A phoenix keeps certain principles and still reflecting the broad view, it should attract the flow of Chi in a controlable way. That is why a entirely free facade open to all influences would not be very secure. The phoenix remains in front of the yellow snake similar to a couch table in front of the sofa or a gentle hill in the front.
THE WHITE TIGER
Associated direction: West.
Element: Metal.
Color: White.
Element: Metal.
Color: White.
The tiger is an animal that represents the force,the energy, the daring. In relation with the green dragon, this animal appears on the right of the yellow snake. It is a mountain,building, closet or structure that keeps a less predominant relationship than the green dragon.
Some authors explain this fact saying that the force has to be accompanied by the proper reflection and wise activity of the dragon. Generally a tiger that is less strong that the green dragon means to give preference to reflection and correct thinking before visceral decisions based on force.
We can find some divergence in between which of the animal has to be more predominant, the tiger or the dragon. In Eva Wong's texts the before exposed considerations are turned around, relating them more concretly to the Yin feng shui of the burials, in contraposition to the yang feng shui used for the dwelling of the living.
In any case it is in common accepted the protective existence of both animals on each side ot he yellow snake, something like to count with a good sofa or a comfortable armchair. In the old comments a configuration respecting the animals, similar in some form to a horseshoe, favours the the settlement of the Qi or Chi in a particular area.
THE BLACK TURTLE
Animals Associated With Wealth Maximization
Associated direction: North
Element: Water.
Color: Black.
Element: Water.
Color: Black.
This animal reflects a fundamental aspect for good feng shui that is the protection, the solidity, the stability. The turtle by its shell and apparentl stillness designates correctly this needs.If a building wants to benefit from a turtle it has to count with something solid on its back This could be a hill, a group of trees, nearby buildings or another structure that can wrap it up.A turtle has to protect the back from unexpected currents like unfavorable winds, an uncontrolable torrent of water or other types of aggressions.
A turtle has to keep a harmonic configuration since an inmense mountain behind the housing with the risk of a landslide, avalanche of snow or earth would turn the 'animal' in a dangerous one. Feng Shui recommends a gentle hill that wraps up and fulfills its objectives.
If we speak of a person we look for similar elements that reflect these aspects. Therefore a situation where our back points to a door, a hallway or a window through which currents flow is not the most solid aspect. A bodyguard reflects the turtle any important politician uses. There are a lot of more examples, as this is the animal that is the most easy to understand and also the most important. The turtle remains behind the yellow snake.
THE GREEN DRAGON
Associated direction: East.
Element: Wood.
Color: Green.
Element: Wood.
Color: Green.
This animal is maybe one of the most representative symbols of the chinese art, as it is rare to see any celebration without its presence. The term a part from being part of the 5 celestial animals is also used to describe the energetic currents, we speak of water dragons to describe courses of this element, or of mountain dragons to symbolize the channels where the energy flows in the mountain chane.
Where appears the green dragon? It is generally situated on the left of the snake in the form of a hill, building, porch, tree, closet or any other structure that wraps.
The left side is associated with the West, in many cases with intuition or what me might call tact and feminine wisdom. In the works of Carlos Castaneda the left side was, as described by the ancient clairvoyants, the magical side and not the strictly rational side of man.
To continue speaking about the green dragon we have to relate it to its partner the white tiger, as both sides, left and right, bear a relationship that is often provided as appropiate between the two.