Zoo/Aquarium Hot Takes

pachyderm pro

pachyderm pro

Well-Known Member
5+ year member
Whats a hot take or unpopular opinion you have in regards to a certain zoo or zoos in general? This is the thread to post them. Post your own or make a rebuttal to get a discussion going. To get the ball rolling here is a hot take from yours truly.

Hot take - Zoo Miami is a top 5 American zoo. Zoo Miami is often considered one of the strongest zoos in Florida for good reason, yet I rarely see it brought up when the discussion comes along for what zoo is the overall strongest in the nation. The collection is phenomenal in every category, the zoo is massive, all of the exhibits range from good to fantastic without any downright bad areas, it has one of the only functioning monorails left in the nation and is situated in a tropical climate. Perhaps the only complaint is that the zoo is huge and that means theres a lot of walking to do, and the lack of any real history because of the how new the zoo is by comparison to others. Regardless, those are minor issues in the grand scheme of things and I think Miami is deserving of being talked about more. I think it rivals zoological giants like Bronx and Saint Louis.
 
- It is inevitable that both Bronx Zoo and San Diego Zoo will no longer be in the top ten US Zoos by the year 2050.
- The USDA should adopt AZA standards as the minimum welfare requirements for ALL facilities (only welfare and care- not requirements for education, SSP participation, etc.)
- The AZA should dictate what species member zoos are able to hold and put caps on the number of facilities participating in SSPs (especially the red Panda SSP)
 
-zoos that use either the “ swedish approach” or large howletts style cages are better then zoos that waste money on fake rocks and fake trees that don’t add to the animals experience.
- zoos should do keeper talks for animals other than abc animal
- zoos in northern climates should be required my aza/ usda to have larger indoor areas
 
Scutes Family Gallery at Cheyenne Mountain Zoo and Animal Encounters Village at Columbus Zoo while not the best exhibits are perfectly fine and don't deserve all the hate they get.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯
 
Here are a few of mine:

- Congo Gorilla Forest is not Bronx's best exhibit
- Columbus is not a top 15 US zoo
- Dallas's reptile house is one of the best in North America
- Georgia Aquarium is better than Shedd

pachyderm pro said:
Hot take - Zoo Miami is a top 5 American zoo.
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I'd agree this is a pretty hot take, I often see Miami listed as a top 10 US zoo but rarely in the top 5. I haven't visited in a very long time but I do remember really liking the place.
 
Neil chace said:
- It is inevitable that both Bronx Zoo and San Diego Zoo will no longer be in the top ten US Zoos by the year 2050.
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I would be curious if you could elaborate on this. I have never visited Bronx so I can't make a completely accurate evaluation, but I can understand that it as been quite a few years since the last major addition and recent visitors have cited the places deterioration in some areas. However I disagree with San Diegos position. They have constantly added a new multi million dollar complex every few years for the past several decades - mostly of very good quality. They will soon have a massive new children's zoo to replace the old outdated one, and rumor has it the outdated bear canyon and monkey crib cages will be next to have a date with a bulldozer. Visitation hit an all time high back in 2019 and I don't see a scenario where the zoo will stall progress.

Posting this praying that this thread doesn't turn into to another "Is San Diego overrated?" debate.
TZDugong said:
I'd agree this is a pretty hot take, I often see Miami listed as a top 10 US zoo but rarely in the top 5. I haven't visited in a very long time but I do remember really liking the place.
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I actually want to play devils advocate to my own argument here. I said Miami had no bad exhibits, but there was in fact one I forgot about it. The cassowary pen is tiny and all concrete, hidden away so well that most guests probably don't even realize its there. That is Miamis one skeleton in the closet.
 
Batto said:
You really want to dive into this again? ;)
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I feel the two of us have gotten into that well enough. People can go and find those previous threads if they want as there’s really nothing more to say. Let others have some fun.
 
My hot take:

NaturZoo Rheine is actually one of the best zoos in western Europe and can comfortably stand it's ground against many of the big name collections in the region.

The enclosures are very good and often picture perfect. They are naturalistic not because of the quality of fake rocks, but because of the use of actual natural elements: water, trees, grass, sand and stones. Furthermore, the lack of excessive cultural theming, the high-quality educational material and a very good collection (despite it's lack of some of the major ABCs or extreme rarities) make this zoo a gem. Admittedly, the zoo is not very large, but what is there is absolutely fantastic. I could easily write paragraph after paragraph about some of the highlights, such as the delightful bird house or the large and complex bear enclosure, but I think the video below gives a much better idea than I could ever hope to convey.

 
pachyderm pro said:
I would be curious if you could elaborate on this. I have never visited Bronx so I can't make a completely accurate evaluation, but I can understand that it as been quite a few years since the last major addition and recent visitors have cited the places deterioration in some areas. However I disagree with San Diegos position. They have constantly added a new multi million dollar complex every few years for the past several decades - mostly of very good quality. They will soon have a massive new children's zoo to replace the old outdated one, and rumor has it the outdated bear canyon and monkey crib cages will be next to have a date with a bulldozer. Visitation hit an all time high back in 2019 and I don't see a scenario where the zoo will stall progress.
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You got it right on with Bronx- the amount of historical structures that can't be messed with and the inability to construct a new Exhibit in a decade make me believe Bronx will soon be a relic of the past- still a good zoo but by no means a great one (kind of like Franklin Park Zoo- once one of America's greatest, now just a decent zoo with a lot of empty space). San Diego, while it has had more progress in recent years, has also had a lot more controversial choices. Look at Elephant Odysssey, what could have been a very unique theme ended up with a strange mix of animals from around the world that doesn't mesh well as a complex. The zoo also has more exhibits in need of work than they have time to fix, with many historic exhibits still in use that should have been torn down years ago. Ultimately, I don't see progress stalling at San Diego and I do think that some of the general public will still regard it as the best zoo, however I do think the only reason San Diego is considered the top zoo by many is its large collection of rarities, and as the trend in AZA Zoos has been homogenization and less rare species, I can easily see San Diego phasing out some of its rare-in-zoo species and losing that edge it has over what are now considered second-tier zoos (North Carolina, Columbus, Miami, etc.)
 
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