Zoo Tampa at Lowry Park Zoo Looses AZA accreditation

Safari Wild was supposed to open next year...the website is now gone. Since a professional zoo director was putting it together, I feel that it is safe to assume that he can hire the right people to properly care for the animals.

All of the controversy between the Lowry Park Zoo and Safari Wild had everything to do about business ethics and not really much about animal care. I would like to assume that the animals are well taken care of at Safari Wild, since it never came into question.
 
What is going on in this website?

If there are people runing a zoo, that are truly not worthy of the position, they should be investigated and removed, i believe this happened already, but to judge a whole zoo based on this is insane, and i question the motives of those who pick this opportunity to find flaws in a gorgeous zoological park like Lowry Park Zoo, tell me what is your idea of a zoo?, your ideal zoo in North America, and i bet there is a hundred things wrong with it.

I love this zoo, and i wish they would remove it and send it to miami for me, they could have metrozoo instead........once u see an enclosure you have seen them all, but i'm sure that the animal rights lovers, love this plain enclosures, as long as they are big enough. I'm in Tampa right now for a week, already went to Lowry Park, and planning on going there on friday again, it is an enchanting the place, and even though i really don't care about the rides, it serves a purpose with the crowds. I think is time for all this plain nonsense to stop, this is about ZOOS, not grassland farms, safari open plains preserves, National Parks, or the back of your house local forests. There are other places for that, and i would go there for that, i love animals, plants, and everything related to the Natural planet as much as any of you, but Zoos are also my passion, and the animals here serve a purpose to introduce the rest of the world that is not like us to nature itself, and by god that Lowry Park Zoo does an incredible job when it comes to this, just google info on it, and find out for yourself.


A Zoo is supposed to look complex, have lots of different items in the enclosures, the rocks, the temples, the plants, the old history, the signs, the artificial vines, the buildings, the benches, the lamps, the fountains, the fences, all this are important aspects for the average visitor, not just a big empty grassland enclosure, with nothing but the animal looking at you, go in a safari for that.
 
I live an hour from Lowry Park and I would trade you for Metrozoo any day of the week. I love Miami Metrozoo, and I am suprised you like Lowry Park better.
 
Well in my opinion Miami Metrozoo is a great zoo, however it lacks a lot of the basics of a great zoo, you remember the post you wrote about a particular zoo that had a great climate but it was not living to its full potential, well this is how i feel about my local zoo, it is actually less than 10 minutes from my house, and i go there quite often, usually by myself. The funny thing of it is, that what makes it great is what ends up taking from it.

It is sitting on a massive lot of land, the zoo itself is very large, yet the layout is so simple it, up until Amazon and beyond, you could go around it in less than 2 hours, its best exihbits are a tease of what it could have been, maybe still could, but i really dought it. Being very familiar with the Construction of Amazon and beyond, i can tell you that the amount of change because of budgets reasons that took place was a massacre.

At the end you allways end up with things half way, the new exhibit is quite large yet it lacks fundamentals, is reminds you every minute you are in miami not in the Amazon, or tropical america, or any country in Central america, i have visited Brasil, Costa Rica, Nicaragua (where my girlfriend is from), and Venezuela, there is nothing in this large exhibit outside of the animals that reminds me of the tropical forests of this countries.

The animal collection is really taking shape, and already is impressive, but they way that it is display makes all the difference, once you visit as many zoos as the average forum fan has, you have to realise that the design is a very important part, Metrozoo lacks detail, is so streched out that there are very little lush areas.

I can see why most visitors from outside Miami, especially Zoo fans from this forum like this Zoo, the exhibits have tremendous space, the ungulate collection rivals any in the states, and the way it is display makes it a Heaven for antelope lovers, can u believe that i'm an antelope lover? at least i think i'm, after visiting Metrozoo so many times, and walking by exhibits that look like an identical replica of eachother, even the great apes enclosure looks like a replica of the antelope's, aside from the aviary, and the asian river life, there is nothing that stands out, well that is up until now anyways, before the new one had open.

Almost from every angle in the park, you can see the horrible backgrounds of pretty much empty land, or native plants that lack any type of foliage, see when you visit a zoo, is a little different that when it becomes part of your monthly schedule. Anyways it is still a Good zoo, i just like Tampa's better.
 
What is so great about Lowry Park?

and about Amazon & Beyond, it is one of my favorite exhibits, and if you give it some time the plant life will mature and make it look more like a forest. I am not an antelope lover, but I certainly am a pachyderm lover, and Miami Metrozoo has the most pachyderms of any zoo. Plus, they are all displayed in spacious, pachyderm equipped yards.


To me absolutely nothing stands out as good at Lowry Park aside from their elephant paddock.
 
Well, it is a little difficult to respond, when you really don't provide much info about why you feel a particular exihbit is better in MMZ than in Lowry Park, but i will give a try:


First off, what makes Lowry Park Zoo a ton of fun, is all the different areas that the zoo offers, from the moment you first enter the Zoo, you have so many options, and all so different from eachother, the mature landscape and choice of plants species makes the Zoo look extremely lush, their pathways are smaller than MMZ so it takes the visitor closer to full inmersion in both sides of the track.

The aviaries, the extensive bird collection in Lowry park zoo is a dream come true for anybody that adores this great creatures (i'm one), not only their entrance aviary is spectacular, but it feels like is being there for a long time, and their choice of having birds of almost every continent in it, makes for one spectacular feather showcase. Just on sunday i was standing in the aviary and on one side i had a toucan on a branch and in the other an indian hornbill, then out of nowhere a congo peafowl comes out walking, how great is that. Miami metrozoo does have a magnificent Wings of Asia aviary, and in my humble opinion the best exihbit the zoo has to offer, close second the Amazon and beyond.

The Problem with Amazon and beyond is obvious to me, budget, budget, budget...........i'm a little more familiar with the project than most, so i understand where you are coming from loving this exihbit, but please understand this is only a fraction of what it was really supposed to be, not on size but on logistics. There were many different cuts when it came to animal species, plants, building size, exihbit design and structure, and overall layout.

The truth behind Amazon and Beyond.

First off the choice of not going with the portico group that designed the Wings of Asia aviary was a huge mistake in their part, the first of many.
That is not to say that the company they went with, many of you know who i'm talking about, are not as respected, but when you have something that works, why take a chance an change it, isn't this american common knowledge?

Don't let the Zoo fool you, when they tell you how many thousands of plants were used in Amazon and Beyond, most were bought in local nurseries, and are very common in miami, second, most of the big trees were transplanted from County propety (mostly the zoo), a lot of plants don't even belong in this exihbit, but i will not bore you with this details since maybe for you are not very important, but what is important was their original promise:

Trees will be imported and grown in off site nurseries close to the Zoo, at least a year prior to groundbreaking. (NEVER HAPPENED)

There should be at least 20 significant trees, prior to construction on site, we could work around then, or move them if there was a need, this would create the nessesary foliage over the pathways on day 1. (NEVER HAPPENED)

We will have to be accurate when planting an exihbit with plants of the region, the background could be local plants (how do the local plants end up in the exihbit, and the background part is nowhere to be found) i know is a magic trick.


The core building, the flooded forest, was supposed to be spectacular, something never done before, the heart of the area. It was supposed to be two giant galleries, ideally next to eachother, identical, one flooded the other dry, with plants, lots of recreated logs, and then in addition to this there was supposed to be an aviary in this building, extremely lush.

What did we get, a scaled down version of the flooded tank, the identical gallerie, is just a concrete cage, with a glass pannel, and several ropes, logs, etc, not even money for vines?. Anyhow have you seen the small primate exihbits in lowry park, they have realistic looking vines, why do we get ropes instead. The aviary was never done, since the building was reduced in space big time, instead you get to check out some very cool small exihbits that belonged in the reptile house, I'm sorry i almost didn't remember that this one had to be reduced in space as well.


The reptile house, well what can i say, not much, they could at least painted murals in the background, i know a great artist he is doing the ones for my miniature zoo, but no, Miami is too cool for that, they went with the backdrops you can find in petsmarts, and did i tell you they are all the same backdrop. At least the species list was still strong.


Did you see the Lagoon outside the flooded building, did you know it was supposed to be very lush with aquatic plants, and lots of waterfowl birs, well instead you get a giant empty pond, with no aquatic plants, and no birds, well actually they managed to get a couple of black neck swams.


The Harpy eagles aviary is state of the art, have nothing bad to say about it, other than it was supposed to be 3 aviaries, King Vultures, and Andean Condors, at the end this idea did not work out, so the Harpy eagles became part of Land of the Giants.


The giant otter exihbit is awesome, lots of viewing areas, it is propably as good as it gets.


The Atlantic forest area, suffered the most, since by the time they got here, the money was really running out, complete exihbits were left out, and the ones that got built, with the exception of the giant otters, are nothing to write home about, and the layout is horrible, the design firm really droped the ball in this one, or maybe it was the zoo dessision makers who desided to take out about 70% of the design of this area.


The cloud forest suffered as well, since there was supposed to be a second building a little smaller than the actual flooded forest, but a little bigger than the one that was built at the end, this was supposed to be an indoor choice for the jaguars, in addition to their outside areas. The original idea was to house a black jaguar in the indoor building, to show the melanistic variation deep withing the dark rainforest. You were going to find the howler monkeys and other species in an indoor rainforest replica, with lots of fog, in addition there was the option ofoken including the king vulture exihbit inside this building, or a smaller aviary. All this went to Dream on land, followed by, Never to be spoken of kingdom.


The Jaguar enclosure is excellently a poor choice of exihbit design, since the viewing areas are terrible, they are much smaller than what they needed to be, and the jaguars spend most of their time in areas where the visitors can't see them, don't judge this exihbit based on the few lucky pictures that some visitors have managed to capture. Look at seattle's jaguar exihbit, and the giant viewing area, i beieve this exihbit was also done by the portico group the one behind the Wings of Asia aviary.

and many other things i will leave out, make this exihbit in my mind, a true, ALMOST, i was there in the special screening for the members and most of them were really dissapointed, i was already prepared since i have a very good friend working at the Zoo, and i had already seen enough to know that my worst fears had come true. Well maybe not worse, it really could off being much worse to be fairly honest.

So there my beloved Rhinocerous men this is the reason i'm not the biggest fan of the new exihbit, but i have to admit that is much better that plenty of others in other zoos, but this is not enough, not for me, neither for the people who donated money for this project.
 
This plot is the same that has plagued new exhibits for years....I can name several zoos that have gone through the same process in their own fashions - Jacksonville, National, Los Angeles, Dallas, Lowry Park, Brevard, Columbus, Cincinnati, Cheyenne Mtn, Franklin Park, Buffalo, Houston, Louisville, etc....
 
Miniaturezoo954 said:
Well, it is a little difficult to respond, when you really don't provide much info about why you feel a particular exihbit is better in MMZ than in Lowry Park, but i will give a try:


First off, what makes Lowry Park Zoo a ton of fun, is all the different areas that the zoo offers, from the moment you first enter the Zoo, you have so many options, and all so different from eachother, the mature landscape and choice of plants species makes the Zoo look extremely lush, their pathways are smaller than MMZ so it takes the visitor closer to full inmersion in both sides of the track.

The aviaries, the extensive bird collection in Lowry park zoo is a dream come true for anybody that adores this great creatures (i'm one), not only their entrance aviary is spectacular, but it feels like is being there for a long time, and their choice of having birds of almost every continent in it, makes for one spectacular feather showcase. Just on sunday i was standing in the aviary and on one side i had a toucan on a branch and in the other an indian hornbill, then out of nowhere a congo peafowl comes out walking, how great is that. Miami metrozoo does have a magnificent Wings of Asia aviary, and in my humble opinion the best exihbit the zoo has to offer, close second the Amazon and beyond.

The Problem with Amazon and beyond is obvious to me, budget, budget, budget...........i'm a little more familiar with the project than most, so i understand where you are coming from loving this exihbit, but please understand this is only a fraction of what it was really supposed to be, not on size but on logistics. There were many different cuts when it came to animal species, plants, building size, exihbit design and structure, and overall layout.

The truth behind Amazon and Beyond.

First off the choice of not going with the portico group that designed the Wings of Asia aviary was a huge mistake in their part, the first of many.
That is not to say that the company they went with, many of you know who i'm talking about, are not as respected, but when you have something that works, why take a chance an change it, isn't this american common knowledge?

Don't let the Zoo fool you, when they tell you how many thousands of plants were used in Amazon and Beyond, most were bought in local nurseries, and are very common in miami, second, most of the big trees were transplanted from County propety (mostly the zoo), a lot of plants don't even belong in this exihbit, but i will not bore you with this details since maybe for you are not very important, but what is important was their original promise:

Trees will be imported and grown in off site nurseries close to the Zoo, at least a year prior to groundbreaking. (NEVER HAPPENED)

There should be at least 20 significant trees, prior to construction on site, we could work around then, or move them if there was a need, this would create the nessesary foliage over the pathways on day 1. (NEVER HAPPENED)

We will have to be accurate when planting an exihbit with plants of the region, the background could be local plants (how do the local plants end up in the exihbit, and the background part is nowhere to be found) i know is a magic trick.


The core building, the flooded forest, was supposed to be spectacular, something never done before, the heart of the area. It was supposed to be two giant galleries, ideally next to eachother, identical, one flooded the other dry, with plants, lots of recreated logs, and then in addition to this there was supposed to be an aviary in this building, extremely lush.

What did we get, a scaled down version of the flooded tank, the identical gallerie, is just a concrete cage, with a glass pannel, and several ropes, logs, etc, not even money for vines?. Anyhow have you seen the small primate exihbits in lowry park, they have realistic looking vines, why do we get ropes instead. The aviary was never done, since the building was reduced in space big time, instead you get to check out some very cool small exihbits that belonged in the reptile house, I'm sorry i almost didn't remember that this one had to be reduced in space as well.


The reptile house, well what can i say, not much, they could at least painted murals in the background, i know a great artist he is doing the ones for my miniature zoo, but no, Miami is too cool for that, they went with the backdrops you can find in petsmarts, and did i tell you they are all the same backdrop. At least the species list was still strong.


Did you see the Lagoon outside the flooded building, did you know it was supposed to be very lush with aquatic plants, and lots of waterfowl birs, well instead you get a giant empty pond, with no aquatic plants, and no birds, well actually they managed to get a couple of black neck swams.


The Harpy eagles aviary is state of the art, have nothing bad to say about it, other than it was supposed to be 3 aviaries, King Vultures, and Andean Condors, at the end this idea did not work out, so the Harpy eagles became part of Land of the Giants.


The giant otter exihbit is awesome, lots of viewing areas, it is propably as good as it gets.


The Atlantic forest area, suffered the most, since by the time they got here, the money was really running out, complete exihbits were left out, and the ones that got built, with the exception of the giant otters, are nothing to write home about, and the layout is horrible, the design firm really droped the ball in this one, or maybe it was the zoo dessision makers who desided to take out about 70% of the design of this area.


The cloud forest suffered as well, since there was supposed to be a second building a little smaller than the actual flooded forest, but a little bigger than the one that was built at the end, this was supposed to be an indoor choice for the jaguars, in addition to their outside areas. The original idea was to house a black jaguar in the indoor building, to show the melanistic variation deep withing the dark rainforest. You were going to find the howler monkeys and other species in an indoor rainforest replica, with lots of fog, in addition there was the option ofoken including the king vulture exihbit inside this building, or a smaller aviary. All this went to Dream on land, followed by, Never to be spoken of kingdom.


The Jaguar enclosure is excellently a poor choice of exihbit design, since the viewing areas are terrible, they are much smaller than what they needed to be, and the jaguars spend most of their time in areas where the visitors can't see them, don't judge this exihbit based on the few lucky pictures that some visitors have managed to capture. Look at seattle's jaguar exihbit, and the giant viewing area, i beieve this exihbit was also done by the portico group the one behind the Wings of Asia aviary.

and many other things i will leave out, make this exihbit in my mind, a true, ALMOST, i was there in the special screening for the members and most of them were really dissapointed, i was already prepared since i have a very good friend working at the Zoo, and i had already seen enough to know that my worst fears had come true. Well maybe not worse, it really could off being much worse to be fairly honest.

So there my beloved Rhinocerous men this is the reason i'm not the biggest fan of the new exihbit, but i have to admit that is much better that plenty of others in other zoos, but this is not enough, not for me, neither for the people who donated money for this project.
Click to expand...

Whoa, The Seattle Zoo's jaguar exhibit is one of the best exhibits in the nation, so unless I misunderstood you, you don't like it showing you and I like completely different things in zoos.

Here is remedy for seeing the jaguars, GET THERE EARLY! I got to the jaguar exhibit at 10 AM both times I went to Miami Zoo, and both times the jaguar (the male) was up and about prowling the enclosure. (The female is shy and likes to stay in the night house). If you want to see an animal in an exhibit that has tons of hiding places get to that exhibit early when the animals are awake. I will admit that the windows could be bigger like in Seattle though. Not judging on the previous plans, Amazon & Beyond is an amazing exhibit and is much better than anything Lowry Park has ever done.

I could go on and on about why I hate Lowry Park, and of the 60 best zoos reviewed in "America's Best Zoo's" this one would be near the bottom of the ones I have visited or want to vist (Thus all of the 60).

The Wings of Asia is known as one of the best aviaries in the nation, and much better than Lowry's aviary.

You also say before Amazon & Beyond, you could do Miami Zoo in 2 hours, how! Gosh I spend 2 hours each for the Asian Loop and African loop with a half hour in Wings of Asia, and another half hour in the front by the tigers and siamangs. With Amazon & beyond that adds another hour, so Miami Zoo is much more than a 2 hour adventure.
 
Whoa, The Seattle Zoo's jaguar exhibit is one of the best exhibits in the nation, so unless I misunderstood you, you don't like it showing you and I like completely different things in zoos.
Click to expand...

Dude, you completely misunderstood him...
 
BlackRhino said:
What is so great about Lowry Park?

and about Amazon & Beyond, it is one of my favorite exhibits, and if you give it some time the plant life will mature and make it look more like a forest. I am not an antelope lover, but I certainly am a pachyderm lover, and Miami Metrozoo has the most pachyderms of any zoo. Plus, they are all displayed in spacious, pachyderm equipped yards.


To me absolutely nothing stands out as good at Lowry Park aside from their elephant paddock.
Click to expand...

As a pachyderm "lover", I could not understand why you wold say nothing stands out to you at lowry. For one, it has only one less specie of pachyderm than Miami does. Also you say that miami has spacious, pachyderm equipped yards, whatever that means, but Lowry has mixed species exhibits with 3 of their 4 pachyderms which would supply much more enrichment than just large areas with tires and boomer balls. Large areas are great but the animals need to be occupied and stimulated not just be able to walk around more. The exhibits at Lowry are not tiny and they keep the animals in the proper social situations within their own specie. I personally love the white rhino encounters at Lowry which truly allows the public to get up close and touch one of these magnificent animals. This also helps the public have a kind of bond with the animal which my inspire them to help the species or at least be more educated on them. I am not saying Miami Zoo stinks or that Lowry is better I just think you need to take in the whole picture and really think about it before putting one down over the other.

P.S. Toronto zoo also has five pachyderm species.
 
Well here is my Zoo faceoff: Miami Metrozoo VS lowry park Zoo



If this was a prize fight, it would never be sanctioned by a sporting comission, due to the fact that both contenders are in separate categories. Because of size and resources MMZ is considered a Heavyweight, a very mediocre heavyweight, but one at the end, and trust me coming from a former pro fighter myself i can tell you size does matter, it is no fun getting hit by a bigger fellaw, at least when the game is the same. Lowry park Zoo, must be a walterweight pugilist, but it packs a heavyweight punch, so it is fair enough for this two institutions of the zoo world to finally meet, and deside who is the Undisputed King of florida's zoo world.


Mammals collection: The advantage here is obvious Miami wins this, by a blow out. MMZ ungulate collection is really the envy of many zoos, and as the Rhino men pointed out, their pachyderm collection is by far superior to lowry park's, add the fact that lowry park is missing key species like gorillas and african lions, if you add all the rare species that mmz has brought with amazon and beyond, lowry park has no real chance. miami wins round 1

Zoo size: This will have to be another round for Miami since the total area of this zoo makes it one of the largest in the US. round 2 Miami


Use of available land withing grounds: Now the walterweight takes the fight to Miami, nearly every little corner of Lowry park is develop making it interesting and rewarding for the visitor, MMZ can't say the same, nearly every area of the zoo has views of undevelop land withing the zoo grounds, once you take out all the undevelop land, you end up with too much empty space. round 3 Lowry park

Back to animals collection, we will now go with reptiles: In my opinion this was all Lowry Park before Amazon and beyond, since Miami had very little reptiles, mostly just large species, and no reptile house, but since the opening of Amazon and beyond this all has changed, so Miami wins again, round 4 Miami


Visitor's attendance: now this one is really dissapointing, coparing miami to tampa, should be like comparing new york city to buffalo, but surprice surprice, miami losses big time, so big in fact, that it should be a 10/8 round, but it is not that kind of a fight, so breaking the million visitor's a year mark, having a large number of local supporters, etc earns Lowry park their much needed round. In all fairness MMZ has done as much as it can to promote their zoo, it is just a shame Miami locals and tourism have not yet catch on with the idea. round 5 Lowry park


Back to animal collections, Birds: Wings of Asia aviary is the home of many endangered and rare asian birds, and with the addition of Amazon and beyond's bird collection, the MMZ becomes a very strong contender to almost any zoo avian collection, however not enough to overcome a collection of feathers, surpassing 800 individuals, 5 themed aviaries, and a number of small bird exihbits around the zoo. round 6 Lowry park


Overall layout of the zoo, from the visitors perspective: MMZ comes full circle with the addition of Amazon and beyond, in addition to this it is one of the easiest zoos to navigate in the entire country, and for its size this is saying something. Its oponent is really the home of dead ends, and the layout becomes a bit of a problem to fix this problem. round 7 Miami


Back to animal collections, fish and amphibians collection: This one after the addition of amazon and beyond becomes very interesting, and i believe we have a fight. The collection of amphibians in Amazon and beyond is impressive, they have added endangered tropical frogs to almost every section, a most for any amphibians collection, the collection of amphibians in Lowry park is equally impressive, they have a discovery building that goes overlooked by guests where they have frogs and toads from almost every continent that is a home for them, this is too close to call, even thought variety of location is on lowry park's favor. So we get to the fish department, MMZ could have really become a contender here, had they only followed their initial plans and built a bigger flooded forest, as to bring a more diverse collection of tropical fresh water fish species to MMZ, instead they brought a very reduced list, and some of the key players are missing, there are asian fish in the Wings of Asia exihbit, but not enough species to offset the beatdown they have coming their way.
Lowry park's manatee and aquatic center, could make you forget you are in a zoo and instead an aquarium, had it been a little bigger, it could had easily carried that tittle, there is more species of fish here that in any other average zoo. No question Lowry park wins this round. round 8 lowry park.


Exihbit design and enrishment: this is a very complicated category since, it can be judge in many areas, there is no question that the bigger world class exihbits are in MMZ, with the exception of the Aquatic building in Lowry park, but bigger does not allways mean better, and there is plenty of space in MMZ, maybe too much, there exihbit concept is very plane, and after you have walked the initial area of the zoo, it becomes a little too similar, however with the addition of Amazon and beyond, the edge has been establish. All exihbit areas in Lowry Park Zoo are very different from eachother, and they get very simple things done in a very nice way, there is a lot more variety of exihbit design in lowry park, sadly by today's modern zoo standars the design in a lot of them is outdated. My choice is Lowry park, because i will allways go with variety, but the popular choice is with MMZ i believe and common sense, as well as years of experience tell me that MMZ wins this category. round 9 Miami


Guest area design: Where as MMZ is a world class exihbit design zoo, their are masters at letting your average guest walk out, angry and tired, especially if they have childrens. Recently the zoo remodeled their childrens zoo, and is working as i write this on a much needed improvement of the zoo world area. Still their lack of snack facilites, restaurants, and restrooms in this so called world class zoo, have made it a site to avoid for local families, i don't want to quote what the average family with kids thinks of MMZ because is really not nice, and trust me whenever i hear this i come in the zoos defence, but here in front of zoo friends i tell you this must change, lack of fundamental establishments thru the zoo, and an extensive amount of them in Lowry park, make this a real beatdown and a close stoppage. round 10 Lowry Park


Entertaiment: this seems a little bit unfair, but is a most category because is a huge part of what people expect when going to a zoo, besides the educational value, and all other significant things that one looks for in a zoo, the average american family looks for entertaiment, it is not a museum, and neither it is an amusement park, but it is and will allways be a zoo, having said this, this category is a massacre, there is so much to do in lowry park zoo, from a rollercoaster, a water ride to a skyfari and a behind the scenes miniature train ride, to a vast amount of animal rides (of wish i'm not a fan off) but the kids seem to love it, to an australian theme petting zoo, that seems to be every child's dream (there were hundreds of kids in this area the last time i visited), this is really the zoo entertaiment capital of the world. round 11 Lowry Park


For round 12 i'm including a special category based on exihbits this zoo have in common and the ones who are clearly better, at the end the zoo that takes the most exihbits will win this final round:

Komodo dragon: MMZ is a small exihbit, you can only look at the dragon from an elevated walkway, most of the time the visitors do not understand how big this reptile king is, since the guest can't really get too close. Lowry park has a large viewing window in a visibly larger exihbit, that brings you that much closer to this magnificent species, my girl, told me when she saw this specimen, "i had no idea they were this large", keep in mind she is been to MMZ several times. Lowry park has the best komodo exihbit.

Tiger exihbit: MMZ has one of the coolest designs of a tiger exihbit in america, and a landmark of the zoo, the large temple, the large island....the perfect setting right? wrong, the main reason guests come to a zoo is to view an animal, and once again MMZ does a great job at putting space in the middle of visitor and animal resident. Lowry park in other hand, without a temple, but a gorgeous landscape design, brings you closer to the tiger with a window right on the exihbit, great design, smart design. Lowry park has the best tiger exihbit.


clouded leopard: they are both similar, and both great and not showing you the leopard, i have been to MMZ about 60 to 80 times, and i have probably seen the clouded leopard 3 to 5 times, not bad.......in Lowry's case, i have been to it a fraction of the last number, and i got to see the leopard once, both exihbits are too small, but the landscape and enrishment items is great in both. No winer here.


orungutan exihbit: Both are fairly large, but the key difference is design structure, the one in lowry park is much more complex and elaborate, MMZ lacks proper design in this area, theirs is very average, actually based on some other american zoos, below average. Lowry park zoo wins this one


smaller primates exihbits: both zoos have a very nice collection of small primates, but with the exception of the gibbons and siamangs island in MMZ the rest of their enclosures, including as surpricing as it is the ones in the all new amazon and beyond lack any creative skill, they are a collection of well covered concrete boxes, even the smaller primates in Lowry park zoo, have very creative enclosures, where the outside of the exihbit is made of artificial rock work, this is much better, than Amazon and beyond square concrete boxes, with plain structures that have zero design. Another small detail that really bothers the eye, is MMZ used of ropes instead of artificial men made vines, i understand that vines are costly and ropes are cheap or free, but for a zoo of this size, couldn't they do better?. Lowry park zoo wins this one



Indian rhino exihbit: the indian rhino exihbit in MMZ really places you within paces of this massive and impressive beast, Lowry park zoo has a very lackluster exihbit for the same species, a limited view from an elevated board walkway. MMZ has the best Indian rhino exihbit.


White rhino exihbit: the white rhino in Lowry park has great space, to move around, but too much space is not allways best, and this is the perfect case, add to this a real nightmare for visitors viewing angles, since there is no closeup experience, MMZ in my opinion is much better, it provides you once again with a closer view of the rhino, but to a degree is just too similar to the indian rhino exihbit, i guess that if it ain't broke don't fix it, right? MMZ has the best white rhino exihbit.


African elephants: this one is really very hard to judge, maybe a more experienced individual with the species can add a little imput, is space really that much of an issue with this species, and when i mean space, i mean is allways the bigger the better when it comes to elephants? If this is the case as i'm believe it might be, due to pass events in other zoos, then lowry park wins it, add to that a more complex exihbit, with a massive waterfall, and lots of water. MMZ is good as well, large exihbit, and very cool design, their holding building is state of the art as well, so i'm going to call this one a draw and leave it up to you.


Finally it comes to mind the malayan tapir exihbit: i was really dissapointed with the viewing angle in lowry park zoo, the exihbit design is really creative, but the angles it offers to view this great species leave a lot to desire, in any case MMZ has the best viewing angle, not that you are that close to the animal, but more like you have nothing in front of you blocking the view, but when it comes to design, the MMZ is as plain as they come, one tree in the exihbit, not even an asian tree, they should have planted a banyan, and a limited water area, but it comes down to viewing. I was happy to learn however that Lowry park zoo was working on the construction of a bridge that will go over their exihbit and others in this area. What can MMZ do, built a whole new exihbit. This one is a draw for now.


this is it, since i will not compare aviaries and enclosures that are really just so different as apples and oranges, this was about very similar exihbits, with popular species. And with 4 to 2 Lowry park zoo wins it.



Folks this championchip bout has ended, and we now go to the judges cards........cough, one single judge's card........and after a bout that saw one contender win 5 rounds and the other 7, there can only be one winer, so for that we go to our special anouncer.


"Please give a hand for this two warriors, all judges scored this contest
as a dessision for Lowry park Zoo..................will there be a retmach in the future, maybe so, but for now the undisputed King of Florida's zoo world will be:

TAMPA'S LOWRY PARK ZOO
 
Thank you okapi for pointing that out, i understand he likes MMZ, but i was just trying to show him why Amazon and beyond did not rock my world, i was just too involved during the planing and construction time, i spent weeks on the design process, if you count all the hours, and yes i think we both like different things rhino, and that is fine, but i try to understand your points, now try reading mine, maybe you will see things from different angles, it is a lot of fun.
 
I am 100% certain Miami does not have White Rhinos. I am also 100% certain they are Black Rhinos.
 
By the way, this is extremely subjective, and I figured with someone who loves Lowry Park so much Lowry Park would win anyways. Not to mention, you know MMZ is your home zoo so you will probably be a little more hard on it. My home zoo, Cleveland Zoo, I tend to be a little hard on too.
 
Oh, and the Lowry Park Zoo has a poor tiger exhibit that really is nothing special. Sorry, just my input and extremely subjective. Both Orang exhibits are horrible, and I fail to see what is so great about Lowry Park's primate grottos.
 
You are 100% correct about the rhino species, i stand corrected, your screen name is blackrhino so i should had placed better attention to it.


I also welcome your differences, and feel free to elaborate your own zoo face off, i would be very interested in it, since i understand this is just based on my own opinion, even thoght i tried to be as fair as possible, but i will look foward to any other angles from you or any other member.

Dear Okapi, you have an excellent point, when you mentioned other top zoos in the state, i think right away of the west palm beach zoo, and the jacksonville zoo, is there any other contenders, please inform me of any other zoo within this size and collection range that can go for the tittle, i will tell you that i do not consider DAK a true zoo, and i love this park, love it to death, for it is really not a zoo, too many other things going on, and no zoo can go toe to toe with disney when it comes to their landscape budget and facilites, design and so on, and at the same time their species variety is not that impressive when you really look at it from a zoological point of view.

BGT is not a zoo in my view either, it is too multi dimensional, with its rides and theme areas, so if you take this two great parks out of the contest, feel free to bring on any other top zoos in florida.


Will anybody be interested in a face off, of Berlin zoo and Bronx zoo, they are similar in a few things, both are in places that because of their extremely cold climate require lots of buildings, and while Bronx has the largest number of species in the US, Berlin has the largest number of species in Europe, add to this they are world aparts, it makes for an interested international zoo face off, if not the battle for largest zoo in the world, i understand San Diego zoo might have something to say about that, but i will visit this zoo in april for the first time in my life, so for now Bronx vs Berlin could be a real face off...........................let me know what do you think.
 
Back to Lowry Park's accreditation issues...

Does anyone know if Larry Killmar is still with the zoo?
 
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