Kalaw
Well-Known Member
Out of curiosity, I looked at what the top 20 largest zoological collections in the UK were in terms of species list according to Zootierliste. By a nice coincidence, the date in which I checked this was the 31st of January, which opened the possibility of (again using ZTL) creating a new such list on the same date every year, to see what has changed over the past year. Not quite sure if one year is sufficient enough time to see any interesting change, but it could reveal something interesting.
Of course, using ZTL has its flaws. It doesn't list invertebrates, which hinders aquariums with their extensive collections of corals, anemones and crustaceans among other marine invertebrates, zoos with large invertebrate houses (such as London), and specialist invertebrate zoos (such as the Bug Parc, which may have a large enough collection to make the list). It also is entirely reliant on visitors to said collections updating it, which inevitably leads to mistakes, but hopefully most of these are minor and don't have too much of an impact on the overall result.
On that note, the top 20 is as follows:
It is also interesting how area and species collection have no correlation. Excluding aquariums, which feel like cheating being all indoors, there are four collections (Exmoor, Axe Valley, Tilgate and Tropiquaria) that are under 15 acres, with Tropiquaria even being as small as 4. Meanwhile, 500 acre giants such as Knowsley and Port Lympne are nowhere to be seen.
Of course, using ZTL has its flaws. It doesn't list invertebrates, which hinders aquariums with their extensive collections of corals, anemones and crustaceans among other marine invertebrates, zoos with large invertebrate houses (such as London), and specialist invertebrate zoos (such as the Bug Parc, which may have a large enough collection to make the list). It also is entirely reliant on visitors to said collections updating it, which inevitably leads to mistakes, but hopefully most of these are minor and don't have too much of an impact on the overall result.
On that note, the top 20 is as follows:
- Chester Zoo - 424 species
- Blue Planet Aquarium (Ellesmere Port) - 275 species
- Cotswold Wildlife Park (Burford) - 250 species
- Blue Reef Aquarium Hastings - 246 species
- National Marine Aquarium (Plymouth) - 232 species
- Paignton Zoo - 227 species
- ZSL London Zoo - 221 species
- ZSL Whipsnade Zoo (Dunstable) - 217 species
- Exmoor Zoo (Bratton Fleming) - 184 species
- WWT Slimbridge Wetlands Centre - 183 species
Birdworld (Farnham) - 183 species - Blackpool Zoo - 181 species
- The Deep Aquarium (Hull) - 178 species
Dudley Zoo - 178 species - Tropiquaria Zoo (Washford) - 175 species
Wingham Wildlife Park - 175 species - Colchester Zoo - 165 species
- Hamerton Zoo - 160 species
- Sea Life London - 158 species
- Oceanarium Bournemouth - 152 species
Bristol Aquarium - 152 species - Hoo Zoo (Telford) - 149 species
- Axe Valley Wildlife Park (Axeminster) - 147 species
- Tilgate Nature Centre (Crawley) - 145 species
It is also interesting how area and species collection have no correlation. Excluding aquariums, which feel like cheating being all indoors, there are four collections (Exmoor, Axe Valley, Tilgate and Tropiquaria) that are under 15 acres, with Tropiquaria even being as small as 4. Meanwhile, 500 acre giants such as Knowsley and Port Lympne are nowhere to be seen.
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