Hot and humid and crawling with exotic wildlife.

The heat is now on to create an exciting 21st-century wildlife visitor attraction on the banks of the Clyde, which at its heart will have a spectacular take on the Amazonian rainforest.

Yesterday, those looking to build the exciting zoo experience on the outskirts of Glasgow revealed new details of their plans and the inspiration behind them - a revolutionary Dutch wildlife park.

Experts at the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland, the charity which runs Edinburgh Zoo, have visited Burgers' Zoo in Arnhem, which has created a series of habitats to allow visitors to immerse themselves in the natural surroundings of creatures.

It will be a model for the proposed £35m biosphere-style animal park on the banks of the River Clyde, which is expected to have a humid Amazon jungle at its centre complete with primates, manatees and sloths.

Burgers' Zoo was the first safari park in Europe and 1988 opened the world's first covered jungle.

It went on to create eight different temperature-controlled habitats for its animals.

They include Burgers Bush, a tropical rainforest with roaming lizards, frogs, manatees, aardvarks and birds; Burgers Mangrove, which is home to turtles; and Burgers Ocean, complete with sharks.

Glasgow's version of the park, of which details have not been finalised, will be in the Cunningar Loop, a derelict site between Dalmarnock and Rutherglen, close to the planned Athletes Village for the 2014 Commonwealth Games. The land is owned by South Lanarkshire Council.

Zoo bosses are now trying to gain financial backing for the scheme, which was first revealed three years ago.

It is in talks with regeneration agency the Clyde Gateway Project as well as Glasgow and South Lanarkshire Councils.

David Windmill, chief executive of the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland, said: "This is all about Commonwealth Games legacy and east end regeneration, and having something people are going to come to.

"It will be all enclosed so that you could shift the light so that if you came in at nine o'clock in the morning it could still be dark and you could see animals that were active at night.

"We are a charity so we would want to continue to educate children, and do wildlife research and conservation.

"We have had very positive discussions and it is just a case of us doing a next stage feasibility study to maybe look at exactly how much we can bring to the party and how much others can."

Mr Windmill also revealed Giant Pandas could come to Glasgow as part of the new attraction.

The decision by Scottish Government reporters not to back Edinburgh Zoo's plans for redevelopment could mean it may not be able to go ahead with a planned 20-year, £72m revamp.

Mr Windmill said: "If we are unable to develop infrastructure of sufficient quality in Edinburgh Zoo we may have to look elsewhere as to where we take the Giant Pandas.

"If we have facilities in Glasgow then it has got to be an option.

"We want to do something in Glasgow and therefore you start to say how do we invest the money we do have in those areas which are showing support and enthusiasm for what we want to do?'"

Mr Windmill thinks the idea of a new animal-focused attraction will be welcomed in Glasgow - despite the lingering public memories of Glasgow Zoo which closed in August 2003 amid claims of animal neglect and with debts of more than £5m.

He said: "Glasgow Zoo unfortunately got into a cycle of lack of investment and decline of visitor numbers and it was difficult to get out of.

"There is a bit of negative publicity attached to that, but if something is done which is fundamentally different and is doing a lot of good conservation, education and research then I think people will understand."

A spokesperson for South Lanarkshire Council said: "We are in continuing dialogue with the Royal Zoological Society about proposals for an animal-based visitor attraction at Cunningar Loop.

"We would hope that it would become a national and international attraction.

"We are excited by the proposals but obviously discussions are at an early stage and there are many obstacles still to be overcome."

A spokesman for Clyde Gateway Project said: "It's a very exciting proposal and one that fits in well with our aims and aspirations for the next 20 years."