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Furuviksparken | Lightning | Vekoma Family Coaster | 2023

Leon_K

Mega Poster
I've read somewhere that Kolmarden has a very specific vision on mainly keeping endangered species and helping the population grow, am I right? I am not all against zoos. But I do think that a big part of the zoos I have been keep animals in too tiny spaces and have a commercial balance that leans a bit too much towards animal-variety for the public instead of less animals with more space and better welfare. I also think there is an argument to make about not having rollercoasters nearby animal shelters. The noises can absolutely have a negative impact to their daily life and so, to their welfare.
Long story short, I wouldn't mind if there were less zoos with more care to their animals. Also I don't mind rollercoasters in zoos, but in a certain distance from the animal shelters. I hope zoos like Kolmarden and Fuvuriksparken have awareness on this.
 

Christian

Hyper Poster
I've read somewhere that Kolmarden has a very specific vision on mainly keeping endangered species and helping the population grow, am I right?

Kolmården used to have many upcharge "animal experiences" with many kinds of animals. These experiences even included wolfs that they had apparently domesticated to a level of dogs. They did this by physically beating up and overpowering the wolfs. Establishing the keepers as alfas of the pack. Essentially one day in 2012 a lone keeper went in to the wolf enclosure and got challenged for her alfa authority by another wolf. Obviously one lone human doesn't stand a chance against a pack of wolfs and she got killed. It's interesting how even the keepers seemed to regard these wolfs as dogs. Here is a video of a wolf encounter gone wrong and the keeper needing to use excessive force to put the wolf down. Warning for sensitive content! Watch it on reddit if you want sound.

https://www.reddit.com/r/sweden/comments/s7sjfl
This all turned into a huge scandal and it has pushed Kolmården into a different direction of having non animal thrills (such as Wildfire), while focusing the animal effort on conservation, research and breeding endangered species. That is why they are in the process of removing their dolphins, they aren't endangered.

While Kolmården always has been a proper zoo with large enclosure and fairly good animal welfare (except for the encounters), Furuviksparken is a totally different thing. Furuvik has for most of it's history been a funfair and circus park. Not really a park that is in the forefront of research and not really a proper large scale zoo. Therefore it's no surprise that either the staff or the facilities are of such a low standard that they enabled the chimpanzees to escape. Hopefully Parks and Resorts will bring their expertise from Kolmården and turn Furuvik around.
 

Leon_K

Mega Poster
It's good that Kolmarden took this direction, although it's sad they only realised the necessity after the death of the zoo keeper and a few animals. It's very sad to see videos like the one you shared. Dolphins are also not really the type of animals to keep in a basin so I don't think that's a bad development either. I hope more zoos will follow Kolmardens new direction and aim at animal conservation more than most of them do now.
 

rctneil

Roller Poster
I'm assuming all those photos were taken at different times over the last few months?

Going by the fact one photo has flags on a track piece, i'm guessing that's the final piece and the track must be complete. I therefore guess that the ride is starting to do test runs, or at least be close to starting testing.

Anyone know when the most recent of those photos was taken?
 

Niles

Giga Poster
Trains are on the track.
1.jpg
2.jpg
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Source

A commercial for the coaster is also out.

 
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