Europe's 50 must see zoos
- Thread starter lintworm
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I was a week away from a first visit there when the pandemic hit full-force in March 2020
definitely one of my priority stops once things get safe enough for me to feel up to travel!
Germany - Tierfreigelände I des Nationalparks Bayerischer Wald, Grafenau
Founded: 1975
Size: 200 hectares
Species (including domestics):
Mammals 12
Birds 26
Reptiles & amphibians 0
Fish 0
Wildparks (“game parks”) are a common feature throughout Europe, often focusing on European wildlife, mammal-heavy and with spacious and wooded enclosures. the Tierfreigelände at the National Park information center Lusen, near Grafenau, is no exception. The Tierfreigelände was founded by the Bavarian Forest National Park to show some of the animals (originally) occurring in the park. This zoo sets itself apart by having even larger enclosures than most wildparks and having multiple large aviaries, mostly walkthrough, for native birds. Set in a hilly forest many enclosures are several hectares in size and are perfectly suited to their inhabitants, as they are basically the natural habitat of these species. So some of Europe’s best enclosures for European lynx, Brown bear, Wisent and others are located here. The mammal line-up is maybe not spectacular with European otter, European bison, Pine marten and Brown bears as highlights. The bird collection is more interesting with species as Hazel grouse, Capercaillie, Black kites and European honey buzzards. With some luck Ural owls can even be observed in the wild, as several of these animals have been re-introduced into the National Park, but still return from time to time to the zoo. Though visiting this zoo might sometimes feel as a good walk through the forest with long stretches between the relatively few enclosures, this is still very much a zoo and possibly the best in what it is trying to be.
There is no gallery of this zoo at Zoochat, all pictures were made by uli1001 from the German Zoofreunde Forum and are shared here with her permission. There is an extensive walkthrough of this collection in the Zoofreunde forum by her as well.
Black grouse and songbird aviary
Part of Lynx enclosure
Wisents in a clearing in their enclosure
Bear enclosure
Tier- Freigelände im Nationalparkzentrum Lusen - Internetangebot
Zoo map:
Tier- Freigelände im Nationalparkzentrum Lusen - Virtueller Rundgang - Internetangebot
After years of non-representation, I have now uploaded a brief walkthrough of this collection in the gallery based on my 2020 visit:
Tierfreigelände des Nationalparks Bayerischer Wald - ZooChat
Excellent - this is one of several collections I came within a week or two of visiting back in March 2020, before the obvious issues cropped up, so it is rather interesting to see what the collection looked like around that time
It exists! For the US at least, that is! @pachyderm pro made an excellent thread!
America's 50 Must See Zoos
Thinking about this thread again, with 100 must-see exhibits done and Bristol's imminent enclosure... I can only think again what would theoretically replace Bristol and Duisburg on this list now that they are either closed or have lost their main draw. I decided to look at lintworm's other thread on the 100 must-see exhibits and noticed that the only two zoos in that thread to have multiple exhibits listed but not included in the original 50 must-see zoos thread were Réserve Africaine de Sigean in France and Zoo Basel in Switzerland.
I'm curious to ask @lintworm if he thinks those two could possibly be regarded as "must-see" zoos? I seem to remember Basel being considered or being close to making the top 50 when this thread was still new.
I'm curious to ask @lintworm if he thinks those two could possibly be regarded as "must-see" zoos? I seem to remember Basel being considered or being close to making the top 50 when this thread was still new.
An excellent question for @lintworm in regards to those two zoos. Also, there is the question of Hellabrunn Zoo (Munich). I know several zoo nerds who think Munich is a candidate for being one of the top 15 zoos in Europe, yet alone top 50!
In terms of attendance, Munich is one of the top 5 most popular zoos in all of Europe with two million annual visitors.
See the quote above
. Instead of Bristol and Duisburg, I would probably pick Cleres and Sigean. Basel will always be the 51st zoo in a way. There is a lot to love, but not a great deal that is significantly different from other city zoos (or in the case of concrete: the Wilhelma). Just the Etosha and Gamgoas buildings aren't enough to set it apart. Basel is a must see for a zoo designer as it shows options on how to showcase a large amount of ABC species successfully on a small footprint.Munich suffers from being a very high level overall, but failing to stand out from other top zoos throughout. If one exhibit would have been selected, it would have been the Mhorr gazelle paddock, which is brilliant in its simpleness and elegance. The 2.5 million visitors is an inflated number though due to their counting method. Munich being a touristic city and being only one of 3 major zoos in a Bundesland of 13 million does help too... Visitor numbers really don't tell much about the excellence of a zoo.
So I'm really into geoguessr now, and what better way to celebrate the 5 years anniversary of one of the best threads on zc to make it into a geoguessr map!
GeoGuessr - Europe's must see zoos- the map
Idk if this is ok to most here (I think it is), but it's just a fun thing that i hope people can enjoy as well
GeoGuessr - Europe's must see zoos- the map
Idk if this is ok to most here (I think it is), but it's just a fun thing that i hope people can enjoy as well
May I share it on my Facebook Page?
Sure, although please link this thread to it as well, as lintworm deserve all the credits not me.
Budapest Zoo is a fantastic urban zoo ,with animals crammed into every corner and some unique architecture - how it didn`t make it into lintworm`s "50 must see European zoos" thread is beyond me ! Without opening the debate, there are at least half a dozen on that list that I would replace.
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Given the closure of Bristol Zoo since he created that list, this creates a nice little vacancy anyhow
The 50 must see zoo’s aren’t the 50 best zoos in Europe, it’s a showcase of different types of zoos and in it’s categorie (urban city old skool zoos) it was probably second to Antwerp (which I agree). If the list would be about the 50 best zoos in Europe, it should be on the list. The Elephant Temple alone warrents a visit, let alone the impressive zoo that’s attached to it
Budapest is from a historical perspective a fantastic zoo and there are few that can rival the huge amount of historical architecture. But it hasn't seemed to realize that there is a large number of species in average to clearly unsuitable enclosures. The 50 must see list is all about highlighting good examples from a variety of zoo types. Historical city zoos are already disproportionally represented with Berlin, Frankfurt, Cologne, Artis, Antwerp, Paris & Vienna. Budapest would be in competition with Antwerp and Artis, but those zoos have realized you cannot keep 100+ mammal species on 10-15 hectares, including a lot of large species and when it comes to renovating historical architecture Antwerp is clearly a league above Budapest, which has some neglected areas.
Given the closure of Bristol Zoo since he created that list, this creates a nice little vacancy anyhow
With Duisburg also having lost its main draw, there are 2 vacancies, but as written earlier, those would be occupied by Sigean (the first real Safari park on the list) and Parc de Cleres, with its fantastic animal filled English garden & historic aviaries near the Chateau.
One could also debate whether e.g. Slimbridge, Odense or Chemnitz still belong there, but if I were to add a city zoo, Zoo Basel would be the first choice...
Without wishing to pour cold water on a very worthy and interesting thread (and perhaps not on topic) the omission of London from the 50 is startling when it comes to such a nebulous concept as "must see" - surely the most important zoo in zoo history (whilst admitting it is not today what it was by any means) is a "must" ? Being a contrary kind of person i admire the fact that Budapest is full of animals..to the left,to the right and straight down the middle. Not everything is perfect by any means, but rather a crammed zoological experience than staring at empty fields with little dots representing living creatures in the distance i.e Haute Touche .
Without going into semantics, but even if London was the most important zoo in zoo history, it ceased to be the most important one decades (if not over a century) ago, as you already imply. It is also not as if the current London zoo breathes its history as a Paris, Antwerp or Vienna does. That is what is most important for a must-see list, is that it is currently must see, without having to visit the library...
It is fine that you like a zoo crammed with animals everywhere, I can also love such zoos (like Cologne or Prague). But if hoarding of species is prioritized over animal welfare, you lose me.
Comparing Budapest to la Haute Touche is irrelevant anyway as they are completely different concepts of a zoo. The must see list is a way to highlight that diversity and no-one will be a fan of them all.
I don’t think I can make a statement that could compel either side of this debate but I just want to put my two cents to this discussion.
Before I did my European trip back at 2022 Budapest was the zoo I was most excited about for the first part of my trip. Part of it is because I didn’t read too much about destinations beforehand, but another part was the fact that I would be seeing one of my star species (if you know, you know). Budapest Zoo is a fine zoo, and I argue it is a zoo animal nerds and aficionados should or could be thankful for. I got to see many lifers and ild building designs that made the visit worth it and seeing this zoo survive despite the historical hardship Hungary has went through is admirable. However, there are some problems that tarnishes the collection in my eyes.Exhibits with animals not suiting the theme in them, and exhibits of underwhelming standards (Polar bear, sea lion, and hippopotamus comes to mind) makes it look as if the zoo just gets anything without a plan. And the fact that the zoo won’t be able to make any renovations anytime soon unfortunately doesn’t really encourage me to return to the Budapest Zoo.
Before I did my European trip back at 2022 Budapest was the zoo I was most excited about for the first part of my trip. Part of it is because I didn’t read too much about destinations beforehand, but another part was the fact that I would be seeing one of my star species (if you know, you know). Budapest Zoo is a fine zoo, and I argue it is a zoo animal nerds and aficionados should or could be thankful for. I got to see many lifers and ild building designs that made the visit worth it and seeing this zoo survive despite the historical hardship Hungary has went through is admirable. However, there are some problems that tarnishes the collection in my eyes.Exhibits with animals not suiting the theme in them, and exhibits of underwhelming standards (Polar bear, sea lion, and hippopotamus comes to mind) makes it look as if the zoo just gets anything without a plan. And the fact that the zoo won’t be able to make any renovations anytime soon unfortunately doesn’t really encourage me to return to the Budapest Zoo.