Greater Vancouver Zoo becoming ‘magical’ under new management
Visionary and conservationist Serge Lussier has big plans to bridge the gap between humans and nature
No one would have blamed Serge Lussier for retiring, but his work and message are not yet finished.
Over four decades working to protect and preserve wildlife around the world, he’d been elected five times to the board of the Canada’s Accredited Zoos and Aquariums. He’d worked in East Africa on behalf of the endangered mountain gorilla. He’d run Parc Oméga, a 2,200-acre safari park halfway between Ottawa and his native Montreal, and a lion safari park in Southern Ontario.
But he couldn’t turn down the opportunity presented by the Greater Vancouver Zoo.
“I convinced my wife that it was impossible for me to retire,” says Lussier, now general manager of GVZ, “and that if she would like to come with me, I would do one more important task in my career: to make this zoo the zoo of the future.”
The zoo now plans to spend $20 million over the next five years on Lussier’s vision to mark its 50th anniversary with an ambitious “evolution.”
Lussier’s vision and message are clear: “The world around us, is greater than we are. All too often we think we’re greater than nature, but nature always wins in the end. So, we need to learn to respect it, which
I have done for many years. We can get to know it, but we cannot control it. We must help it, live alongside it and protect it.
“I believe in three words,” Lussier continues. “Experience, discovery, and — for animals — natural habitat.
“But I also believe in magic. We need kids to feel magic in the zoo, so their attention goes to what they live, not what they see. To live these experiences, you need to be in a magical area.”
Lussier has many plans to make the zoo more “magical.” The new project that excites him the most might be the safari park, which will eventually take up half of the 120 acres the GVZ owns south of Highway 1 between Langley and Abbotsford.
He envisions a sprawling, wild area populated with animals like bison, elk, bears and wolves. Visitors will board safari trucks to tour the park with guides — being transported to another world entirely. “We’ll take you into the wilderness,” he says. “You’re going to live the B.C. experience. And you’ll come out of there enriched.”
As they build a new future for the zoo, Lussier and his team are guided by a famous saying from Baba Dioum, a forestry conservationist: “In the end, we will conserve only what we love. We will love only what we understand. We will understand only what we are taught.”
Connecting inspiration with conservation, in fact, has been a theme throughout Lussier’s continent-spanning career. “Everyone who comes to the zoo, they must realize the importance of nature and of species that we’re losing out there,” says Lussier. “It’s as simple as one word: awareness. It is so very important.”
All in all, Lussier is nothing if not ambitious. But zoos must be too, he says.
“I’ve been around the world. We’re losing the wild everywhere. Our animals need to be ambassadors for their species,” he says, “Let’s realize we need to protect the environment.
“The next people that will have their heart for protecting the environment, that will go into politics and have an influence — they need to come to our zoo and realize the importance. There’s more to it than animals, but animals are the centre of it. What we’re doing is not only something that will be great for families in B.C. It’s something that is important for the future of our society,” Lussier says.
While Lussier’s goals can be put in simple terms, his vision to turn the zoo into a magical experience for young and old is far-reaching.
“I often say I am a visionary. I don’t look at five years ago; I look at five years from now. This is how we can innovate: we need to look to the future. And we need to create what becomes exemplary so that I can interest all the children and their mothers and their fathers to come over and connect to nature.
“The goal is not only to say ‘wow’— it is to put a reason behind the ‘wow.’ We want you to say ‘I’ve learned something.’”
By mixing “wow” with education, Lussier and his team aim to enchant their guests and make the zoo into one of the most magical places in Canada — bridging the gap between humans and the wild.