Weakest or Worst Zoo in the UK?

TortoisesAreTerrific

TortoisesAreTerrific

Member
I like going to many zoos in my home country, however, I would like to avoid the crappy ones. However, I can only do this if I am aware of what they are. I’m new here, so I may have bungled and asked a question that has been answered elsewhere.
 
Everyone's opinions are different, everyone's interests are different, but fundamentally just because someone doesn't enjoy a collection, doesn't mean no one will. I don't think it would be fair on anyone to label somewhere the worse zoo or weakest zoo, and I think it is very unfair on the zoo as well.

I think I can speak for most of us, that we all love animals and love zoos, so its naturally very hard to put one down and speak poorly of it. Personally even if a zoo doesn't totally appeal to me, it wont put me off going.

There is no worst or weakest zoo in my opinion, every zoo caters for different people. If we all had the same interests it would be boring.

Rather than asking for the worst or weakest, why not ask for everyone's favourites and why? That way you could find zoos which may appeal to your interests and needs, and not just try and have people single out collections for negativity?
 
Alwaysevergreen said:
Everyone's opinions are different, everyone's interests are different, but fundamentally just because someone doesn't enjoy a collection, doesn't mean no one will. I don't think it would be fair on anyone to label somewhere the worse zoo or weakest zoo, and I think it is very unfair on the zoo as well.

I think I can speak for most of us, that we all love animals and love zoos, so its naturally very hard to put one down and speak poorly of it. Personally even if a zoo doesn't totally appeal to me, it wont put me off going.

There is no worst or weakest zoo in my opinion, every zoo caters for different people. If we all had the same interests it would be boring.

Rather than asking for the worst or weakest, why not ask for everyone's favourites and why? That way you could find zoos which may appeal to your interests and needs, and not just try and have people single out collections for negativity?
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You make very compelling points. I mainly wish to avoid the ones where the animals seem miserable or poorly-treated, rather than the least interesting, but yes, it would probably be more effective to learn about the most popular rather than the least.
 
The only one I have seen almost exclusively negative opinions of on the forum is Hemsley...
 
I dislike Noah's Ark Zoo Farm (as many on the site do) for ideological reasons, but if one can push that aside, it's a decent zoo. A lot of wasted space, but with Europe's largest African Elephant enclosure and a solid collection of venomous snakes, it certainly isn't bad. Similar things can be said about the Aspinall collections. I am strongly against Damian Aspinall, but I have to admit that his zoos are quite good, as long as you like primates and are willing to put functionality before aesthetics!

But you are right, @TortoisesAreTerrific , the only truly bad zoos are the ones where the animals seem miserable or poorly-treated. I don't think any zoo that I have been to matches that description. There are bad enclosures, but that doesn't translate to a bad zoo. For example, I really dislike the Red River Hog enclosure at Chester, which is small, unimaginative and does absolutely nothing to represent the forest habitats in which these creatures naturally dwell. But I would ever call Chester a bad zoo. In fact, I would probably state that it is the best zoo in the country.

If you want my least favourite zoo, then it is Noah's Ark or the Aspinall collections. If you want the worst zoo in the country, then it is certainly *not* Noah's Ark or the Aspinall collections. I don't think that any UK zoo matches that description perfectly, but I would love to hear what zoo-goers who are better-travelled and informed than myself think on the matter.
 
Kalaw said:
I dislike Noah's Ark Zoo Farm (as many on the site do) for ideological reasons, but if one can push that aside, it's a decent zoo. A lot of wasted space, but with Europe's largest African Elephant enclosure and a solid collection of venomous snakes, it certainly isn't bad. Similar things can be said about the Aspinall collections. I am strongly against Damian Aspinall, but I have to admit that his zoos are quite good, as long as you like primates and are willing to put functionality before aesthetics!

But you are right, @TortoisesAreTerrific , the only truly bad zoos are the ones where the animals seem miserable or poorly-treated. I don't think any zoo that I have been to matches that description. There are bad enclosures, but that doesn't translate to a bad zoo. For example, I really dislike the Red River Hog enclosure at Chester, which is small, unimaginative and does absolutely nothing to represent the forest habitats in which these creatures naturally dwell. But I would ever call Chester a bad zoo. In fact, I would probably state that it is the best zoo in the country.

If you want my least favourite zoo, then it is Noah's Ark or the Aspinall collections. If you want the worst zoo in the country, then it is certainly *not* Noah's Ark or the Aspinall collections. I don't think that any UK zoo matches that description perfectly, but I would love to hear what zoo-goers who are better-travelled and informed than myself think on the matter.
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I'm under the impression that the running of Noah's Ark has been largely taken over by the next generation of the Bush family, Anthony Bush is 84 after all. It remains to be seen if the evangelistic undercurrent will continue but it does seem to have been reduced a lot recently and maybe this is an indication as the future direction of the place.
 
I have been to 184 UK collections. None of them would I label as ‘the worst’, or for that matter, having been to some shocking facilities outside of the UK, I wouldn’t even label any of the ones over here as ‘bad’.

I’ll be honest in saying that off the top of my head, I don’t even have a least favourite. Each one has positives and negatives, nowhere is perfect, but I’m just grateful to live in a country where the infamous ‘roadside zoos’ are nonexistent

With that said, welcome to zoochat! ;)
 
TortoisesAreTerrific said:
I like going to many zoos in my home country, however, I would like to avoid the crappy ones. However, I can only do this if I am aware of what they are. I’m new here, so I may have bungled and asked a question that has been answered elsewhere.
Click to expand...

I have zoos I visit regularly and some I’ve just been to once for various reasons myself but I’d recommend you visit a collection and make your mind up when you go.

You might find a particular animal you love watching who has a super exhibit in an otherwise unremarkable place, or there might be a fantastic new arrival, unusual animal or new youngster to see. There might be a great spot to sit and watch the world go by in a collection or a feeding time that makes the day. All zoos have something different and as people like different things I’d go and see for yourself.

If you like a particular animal you could ask here for the best place to see if or if rare the best collection to get a glimpse (I visited Dudley for the first time after people mentioned it’s arctic fox and I’m off there again this weekend). I’m sure people would be happy to share where the best tortoise exhibits are for example.

I think it’s great to see a variety of zoos. You could also have a look at Lintworm’s thread on some of Europes best exhibits as that sets some standards for what amazing can look like if you want some context.
 
Alwaysevergreen said:
Everyone's opinions are different, everyone's interests are different, but fundamentally just because someone doesn't enjoy a collection, doesn't mean no one will. I don't think it would be fair on anyone to label somewhere the worse zoo or weakest zoo, and I think it is very unfair on the zoo as well.

I think I can speak for most of us, that we all love animals and love zoos, so its naturally very hard to put one down and speak poorly of it. Personally even if a zoo doesn't totally appeal to me, it wont put me off going.

There is no worst or weakest zoo in my opinion, every zoo caters for different people. If we all had the same interests it would be boring.

Rather than asking for the worst or weakest, why not ask for everyone's favourites and why? That way you could find zoos which may appeal to your interests and needs, and not just try and have people single out collections for negativity?
Click to expand...
I would only speak poorly of a zoo if it mistreated its animals, which probably isn’t an unpopular opinion
 
Speaking of threads, I don’t think this one is necessary anymore. Choosing to ask it makes me seem like a sourpuss and overall it doesn’t seem like the UK has a bad zoo If someone could close this thread, it would be appreciated.
 
Kalaw said:
I dislike Noah's Ark Zoo Farm (as many on the site do) for ideological reasons, but if one can push that aside, it's a decent zoo. A lot of wasted space, but with Europe's largest African Elephant enclosure and a solid collection of venomous snakes, it certainly isn't bad. Similar things can be said about the Aspinall collections. I am strongly against Damian Aspinall, but I have to admit that his zoos are quite good, as long as you like primates and are willing to put functionality before aesthetics!

But you are right, @TortoisesAreTerrific , the only truly bad zoos are the ones where the animals seem miserable or poorly-treated. I don't think any zoo that I have been to matches that description. There are bad enclosures, but that doesn't translate to a bad zoo. For example, I really dislike the Red River Hog enclosure at Chester, which is small, unimaginative and does absolutely nothing to represent the forest habitats in which these creatures naturally dwell. But I would ever call Chester a bad zoo. In fact, I would probably state that it is the best zoo in the country.

If you want my least favourite zoo, then it is Noah's Ark or the Aspinall collections. If you want the worst zoo in the country, then it is certainly *not* Noah's Ark or the Aspinall collections. I don't think that any UK zoo matches that description perfectly, but I would love to hear what zoo-goers who are better-travelled and informed than myself think on the matter.
Click to expand...
I think Noah’s ark has potential but they need to restore the habitats and make them more natural as most of them are just in fields, but I think it has potential and their animal care I had improved so much from a decade ago
 
Daubentoniidae said:
I personally really like Hemsley, because of all the rare species and layout of the place but then I could be unaware of why other people might think it's isn't good.
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I suspect I'd be coming at this from a different angle than most, but Hemsley was an absolute nightmare for me as a disabled visitor. It's a shame as there are some brilliant animals there, but I found the very poor visibility of the exhibits coupled with just how bad the gravel/bumps/unexpected death angles of the paths made it possibly the least accessible zoo I've ever been to.

It's incredibly frustrating as the interesting collection means that I would love to go back even though I live very far away, but it was so, so bad. I was almost in tears of frustration (and pain) of being in and out of my wheelchair, getting stuck, feeling like I would fall, even the very few actual ramps they'd put in were at highly unsafe angles. It felt like the whole place was actively trying to kill me.
 
I can think of a few closed collections I visited which, in my opinion, could compete for a title of "worst zoo in the UK" - Tenby, Rhyl, Bridgemere. Happily standards at the bottom end have been dragged up over the years.
 
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