The Ankh-Morpork City Zoo

The Ankh-Morpork City Zoo does not appear in Terry Pratchett's Discworld canon. It evolved in my fanfiction as a place for animal-related stories to happen, and was born out of a disastrous Dibbler attempt to set up a Longleat-style safari park - in Ankh-Morpork. After the inevitable disaster and the round-up of escaped animals, who either posed danger to others or - more likely - were in danger themselves from the citizens of Ankh-Morpork - the recaptured wildlife had to go somewhere. I posited a situation where a "Rimwards Howondalandian", from a country suspiciously like South Africa, made the city an offer it could not, in the circumstances, refuse. She got the zoo up from bare ground a couple of miles outside the City and "today", two years on, it is a thriving profitable business. While almost by accident the Assassins' Guild ended up providing most of the set-up costs (Lady Sybil Ramkin paid the rest) other City Guilds were not slow to assist. the chimpanzees, natures thieves, are sponsored by the Thieves' Guild; the bonobos, nature's real, er, swingers, are sponsored by the Seamstresses; the Beggars sponsor the aye-ayes and the Scalbies, nature's panhandlers; the University hasmoved its SAchool of Cryptrozoology out here; theCollege of Heralds and its collection have finally founds a permanent home here; and Vetinari has used it as a reason to get shot of the inherited Palace Menagerie.

In layout and design I have tried to model it on real Zoo principles, keeping related animals together as far as is practicable, and not putting animals in adjoining cages and enclosures that will declare war on each other over the fence. I have built in a few deliberate weak spots and possible flash-points to provide material for future fics.

Now read the fanfic:-

[link] - the Zoo is founded.

[link] -the ongoing story.