A fine question.

I'd have to say that activities show his willingness to adapt, to think independently, and to try to do what is best for all involved. Both his intelligence and his compassion are at play in both endeavors.

Alas, in both cases, he essentially fails. That is to say, he succeeds in keeping both safe and helping each prosper for a while, but his choices take both aboard ship…where they die, and/or end up fighting one another.

At the same time, Mr. Patel understand the relationship between the animal and human world, and he teaches it to his children. These insights, and the things Pi derives from them, allow him to survive. He has done the best he can, and better than most. In that, I'd say he is not good at mundane parenting, or zoo keeping, but he is good at laying the foundation for greatness.

What is Mr. Patel's zoo keeping ability?

Mr. Patel's enormous success as a zookeeper is due largely to his ability to understand the needs of animals. He operates a kind of tough love policy toward them, generally treating them with kindness and respect, but not being afraid to use discipline as and when he deems it necessary.

Mr. Patel is under no illusions about the danger and ferocity of wild animals, and he passes on this crucial lesson to his son, who will find it most valuable advice throughout the course of his epic journey. He's also at pains to point out that all animals, no matter how small or seemingly harmless, will defend themselves to the death if they're attacked. Mr. Patel illustrates the point by introducing an unfortunate goat to a half-starved tiger.

What is Mr. Patel's zoo keeping ability?

Before becoming a zookeeper, Mr Patel ran a hotel. In Chapter 4, we learn, "An abiding interest in animals led him to the zoo business." So we can infer from this that Mr Patel was not trained as a zookeeper. However, he ran a zoo well and took care of the needs of the animals.

Mr Patel also knew two important concepts or misperceptions common to people visiting the animals in the zoo. The first one being how dangerous it is to give the animals human qualities (anthropomorphism) and second one being that he knew the potentially most dangerous animal in the zoo is man not the lions or the tigers.

His decision to give up the zoo and move to Canada was based not any failure of the zoo itself but on the political situation at the time India.