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Safari Park Plan Raises Concerns About Possible Conflict With Zoo

Tribune photo by MICHAEL SPOONEYBARGER

Lex Salisbury, co-owner of Safari Wild, talks about the 12 patas monkeys that escaped from their island habitat in Lakeland.

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By BAIRD HELGESON

The Tampa Tribune

Published: April 24, 2008

TAMPA - Lex Salisbury's little-known side business gained nationwide attention this week as he spent the last few days chasing a dozen patas monkeys that escaped from his exotic animal park in Polk County.

Salisbury is mostly known for his job as president and CEO of the nonprofit Lowry Park Zoo in Tampa, a position that pays more than $271,000 a year, according to the zoo's most recent tax filings.

But about a year ago he and St. Petersburg veterinarian Stephen Wehrmann bought about 260 acres of land north of Lakeland to create Safari Wild. The for-profit venture will feature safari tours on which visitors will see roughly 400 exotic and endangered animals, including animals from the zoo that needed a break from life on display.

Salisbury sees the park as a way to satiate his passion for exotic animals and provide the zoo with something it doesn't have - a close, cheap place for animals to roam freely. He expects collection highlights to include zebras, giraffes and cheetahs.

Safari Wild will be an interim step until the land-strapped urban zoo can find about 2,000 acres of land it wants for a separate animal park for exotic and endangered animals to live and breed, Salisbury said.

A Conflict Of Interest?

Critics say Salisbury's animal park poses a conflict of interest for the zoo president, and at the very least is an exploitation of exotic animals for profit.

"Lex informs every business decision at the zoo, so this crosses all boundaries," said Jeff Kremer, a former zoo employee who helped form a group called Tampa's Zoo Advocates, which is critical of Salisbury's businesslike approach to zoo management.

"There is a very fine line between educating the public, preserving exotic animals, and making money," Kremer said. "Safari Wild is clearly making a buck by exploiting exotic animals."

A week ago, the yet-to-open animal park made headlines when the troop of monkeys Salisbury rescued from Puerto Rico arrived at the park only to escape a few days later from an island he thought would contain them. By Wednesday evening, none had been captured.

The animal park is hardly a stretch for Salisbury. He lives on a 50-acre ranch in Dade City with an array of domestic and exotic pets, including bongo antelope, which are native to African forests.

Polk County officials will allow Safari Wild to give daily tours for up to 500 people. Salisbury expects only 1,500 visitors the first year, at a cost of $49 a head for adults. By contrast, about 1.2 million people visit the zoo each year.

Salisbury said he paid for the animal park with savings, loans and with help from Wehrmann.

Salisbury and Wehrmann signed a memorandum of understanding with the executive committee of the Lowry Park Zoological Society Board, which runs the attraction, to ensure the two entities won't compete and will work together.

Salisbury would not allow The Tampa Tribune to review the agreement. Wehrmann could not be reached for comment.

To protect against any conflict, Salisbury won't have any say over which zoo animals are sent to Safari Wild, said Fassil Gabremariam, chairman of the zoo board.

Instead, the zoo's director of collections, Larry Killmar, must get approval from the board chairman as to which animals will go to the animal park.

The zoo must transport the animals to and from Safari Wild and pay what Gabremariam called a nominal fee to care for the animals. "Lex is giving this to us as a gift," he said.

Salisbury isn't the only connection between Safari Wild and the zoo. Gabremariam is on the board of the Safari Wild Conservation Foundation, which will be a nonprofit arm of the company that gives the tours. The role of the foundation is still being worked out. He joins Salisbury and Wehrmann to make up the three-member board.

Gabremariam was added to "break any ties," Salisbury said.

An independent audit found no conflict in a review of the agreement between the zoo's executive committee and Safari Wild, Gabremariam and Salisbury said.

Gabremariam wants the entire zoo board to approve the terms of the arrangement before the park's scheduled opening in March 2009.

"This is a very arm's-length relationship," he said. "The board feels this is a necessity."

The problem is that Lowry Park Zoo has outgrown the 56-acre property, Gabremariam and others said.

When Salisbury came aboard as general curator in 1986, the zoo was widely considered among the worst in the nation. Since then the annual budget has swelled to $18 million, up from $200,000, and the collection has grown to 1,600 animals.

It would be ideal if someone gave the zoo 2,000 acres of land in the Tampa Bay area for the park, but so far no one has, Gabremariam said. That makes Safari Wild the zoo's best option.

The proposed 2,000-acre satellite animal park would allow ample space for elephants and other large animals to roam so they wouldn't be confined to their zoo exhibits all year, Salisbury said.

The large-animal exhibits that are often the biggest draws at zoos likely will go away without separate parks to rotate animals, Salisbury said. Elephant exhibits that now encompass 5 acres might require 50 acres in the future.

San Diego Seen As The Ideal Model

Salisbury and Gabremariam point to the San Diego Zoo as the model for the animal park they envision. Killmar, now Lowry Park's director of collections, is widely credited with starting the San Diego Zoo's wild animal park in 1972.

The 1,800-acre preserve is generally cut into 100-acre parcels in which various species of exotic and endangered animals can roam with similar breeds, said Christina Simmons, a San Diego Zoo spokeswoman.

"I want to make Lowry Park Zoo on par with San Diego," Salisbury said. "Safari Wild is agricultural tourism, it's not a zoo. The zoo will always be my first love."

Reporter Baird Helgeson can be reached at (813) 259-7668 or bhelgeson@tampatrib.com.

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