Exhibit tour "rides" in zoos

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Nathano

Well-Known Member
10+ year member
This was founded on thoughts for a story I'm writing.

In recent years, the distinction between zoos and theme parks is becoming a little blurred. There's very few major theme parks I can name (in the UK, at least) that don't keep at least a few live animals on site - I'd say most of it is petting barns and aquariums, but sometimes birds, reptiles and insects. Is this something that's true internationally?

And a lot of zoos are offering things that would probably be best described as rides - in particular, I seem to remember some tours of different areas probably could be described that way. The problem is I can't really think of anything other than boat rides - are sort of 4x4-themed trams and suspended gondolas that go over animal exhibits a thing or am I mistakenly remembering something?
 
Nathano said:
This was founded on thoughts for a story I'm writing.

In recent years, the distinction between zoos and theme parks is becoming a little blurred. There's very few major theme parks I can name (in the UK, at least) that don't keep at least a few live animals on site - I'd say most of it is petting barns and aquariums, but sometimes birds, reptiles and insects. Is this something that's true internationally?

And a lot of zoos are offering things that would probably be best described as rides - in particular, I seem to remember some tours of different areas probably could be described that way. The problem is I can't really think of anything other than boat rides - are sort of 4x4-themed trams and suspended gondolas that go over animal exhibits a thing or am I mistakenly remembering something?
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Yes, many theme parks globally nowadays, keep a few live animals. Geese, various species of birds like parrots, ducks, etc., and fish [particularly ones like koi] are commonly kept. And some zoos build theme park-like attractions too.
A lot of zoos have gondolas/trams/mini trains or things of the sort.
Chester and Columbus have boat rides in their islands theme exhibits, San Diego has gondolas that they call skyfari, Bronx zoo has the wild Asia monorail, and many zoos have trams and mini trains. Usually the trams or gondolas require an additional fee not included in the admission ticket to the zoo. At the Oakland zoo you can access the California trail exhibit only through a gondola, which goes over animal paddocks.
 
Nathano said:
This was founded on thoughts for a story I'm writing.

In recent years, the distinction between zoos and theme parks is becoming a little blurred. There's very few major theme parks I can name (in the UK, at least) that don't keep at least a few live animals on site - I'd say most of it is petting barns and aquariums, but sometimes birds, reptiles and insects. Is this something that's true internationally?

And a lot of zoos are offering things that would probably be best described as rides - in particular, I seem to remember some tours of different areas probably could be described that way. The problem is I can't really think of anything other than boat rides - are sort of 4x4-themed trams and suspended gondolas that go over animal exhibits a thing or am I mistakenly remembering something?
Click to expand...

In the UK, trains are the commonest. Real ones on rails, like Cotswold, but I dont think that takes you anywhere you cannot get to on foot - or road-trains like Hamerton which does go past some off show enclosures, and to their animatronic dinosaurs which can only be seen from the train. Broxbourne used to have one, maybe still has, and I think Paignton has closed theirs. Whipsnade's Umfolozi railway went through a large herd of white rhino when I was a kid, but just a few deer now.
 
We dont really have many theme parks in my neck of the woods. But those that exist very often have a "zoo-corner" with domestics, local wildlife or few hardy exotics (like wallabies or emu).

Local zoos most often offer road-train rides - and they are so popular that many families plan their zoo visits only on days when such trains are active. Two zoos with integrated safaris offer paid rides in off-road cars like jeeps (Dvur Kralove, Chomutov). Dvur also uses double-decker buses. One zoo has a chair-lift (Prague). One zoo has realistic plan to build boat rides (Zlin).
 
Nathano said:
This was founded on thoughts for a story I'm writing.

In recent years, the distinction between zoos and theme parks is becoming a little blurred. There's very few major theme parks I can name (in the UK, at least) that don't keep at least a few live animals on site - I'd say most of it is petting barns and aquariums, but sometimes birds, reptiles and insects. Is this something that's true internationally?

And a lot of zoos are offering things that would probably be best described as rides - in particular, I seem to remember some tours of different areas probably could be described that way. The problem is I can't really think of anything other than boat rides - are sort of 4x4-themed trams and suspended gondolas that go over animal exhibits a thing or am I mistakenly remembering something?
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As ZooNews2024 mentioned, land and rail trains are popular in UK zoos with rail versions as mentioned and land versions at places like Banham. Whipsnade's train has it's own rail enthusiast following.

Dudley zoo is novel I believe in having a chair lift which allows visitors to get to the top of the zoo or back down travelling over enclosures for primates (it also has a land train). It's a fun perspective on the enclosures.

Chester had a monorail, though it closed a while ago and now have the boats. Longleat also has a boat which allows visitors to see (and feed) the sealions (and when they were alive, see the hippos) in the lake and gorillas on the island.
 
Nathano said:
This was founded on thoughts for a story I'm writing.

In recent years, the distinction between zoos and theme parks is becoming a little blurred. There's very few major theme parks I can name (in the UK, at least) that don't keep at least a few live animals on site - I'd say most of it is petting barns and aquariums, but sometimes birds, reptiles and insects. Is this something that's true internationally?

And a lot of zoos are offering things that would probably be best described as rides - in particular, I seem to remember some tours of different areas probably could be described that way. The problem is I can't really think of anything other than boat rides - are sort of 4x4-themed trams and suspended gondolas that go over animal exhibits a thing or am I mistakenly remembering something?
Click to expand...
This is largely a European (maybe just UK?) phenomenon. While there certainly are theme parks in the US with animals, most don't have them (and if they do, it'll be entirely domestics).
 
Rohin said:
Six Flags and Disney are exceptions to this, I'd say.
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Obviously, there are plenty of theme parks in the US with animals. Many are explicitly animal themed, such as DAK, Busch Gardens, SeaWorld, and one Six Flags locations.

But this isn't the case for most US theme parks. I mean, even if we look at Disney, of their 6 parks in the country (the four at Disney World and the two at Disneyland), only two have animals. There are 23 Six Flag locations in the US, and while I'm not an expert on this franchise, I'm pretty sure only one of them has animals. Certainly, only one of them has a significant animal collection.
 
I feel an exhibit tour is more or less what a safari ride at a zoological location acts as, but I don’t believe they’re too common, at least not in the US. The only “traditional” zoo I can think of with such a thing is Bronx Zoo with the aforementioned Wild Asia Monorail, while most of the others are specifically meant to be safari parks of some type or another.

Animal theme parks like to use these as attractions, but they often garner the complaint of moving too fast and potentially not allowing enough time to properly view the animals or exhibits.
 
Columbus is the only US zoo that I can think of that has a multitude of seperate amusement attractions, but I wouldn't consider that zoo a theme park in the least.
Indianapolis also has a few rides, most notably a coaster, which not a lot of zoos have.
 
NNM. said:
I feel an exhibit tour is more or less what a safari ride at a zoological location acts as, but I don’t believe they’re too common, at least not in the US. The only “traditional” zoo I can think of with such a thing is Bronx Zoo with the aforementioned Wild Asia Monorail, while most of the others are specifically meant to be safari parks of some type or another.

Animal theme parks like to use these as attractions, but they often garner the complaint of moving too fast and potentially not allowing enough time to properly view the animals or exhibits.
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Do you think the Bronx Zoo would be severely strapped of funds, if the 2 remaining elephant are relocated to an elephant sanctuary? As of last month, you can only see one of them outdoors now. NYC has a retirement age for horses. I am sure that these elephants reached the equivalent age years ago.
I know that NYC is not as cold as Toronto where they relocated their elephants to a sanctuary. Is Tennesse, 1 of 2 US states with elephant sanctuaries, significantly warmer than NYC?
 
I don't see any theme parks with an animal corner in the Netherlands, although the Efteling (Our biggest theme park) has multiple free-roaming animals, including a small parade of ducks, multiple peacocks and many (many) wild squirrels. As well as ducks and swans in the large, central pond
 
Valerie Francis said:
Do you think the Bronx Zoo would be severely strapped of funds, if the 2 remaining elephant are relocated to an elephant sanctuary? As of last month, you can only see one of them outdoors now. NYC has a retirement age for horses. I am sure that these elephants reached the equivalent age years ago.
I know that NYC is not as cold as Toronto where they relocated their elephants to a sanctuary. Is Tennesse, 1 of 2 US states with elephant sanctuaries, significantly warmer than NYC?
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I don’t believe elephants are used as a theme park ride at Bronx zoo or indeed any accredited facility in the US.
 
Valerie Francis said:
Do you think the Bronx Zoo would be severely strapped of funds, if the 2 remaining elephant are relocated to an elephant sanctuary? As of last month, you can only see one of them outdoors now. NYC has a retirement age for horses. I am sure that these elephants reached the equivalent age years ago.
I know that NYC is not as cold as Toronto where they relocated their elephants to a sanctuary. Is Tennesse, 1 of 2 US states with elephant sanctuaries, significantly warmer than NYC?
Click to expand...
I wouldn't qualify the Monorail as a "theme park ride" anymore than I'd consider a jeep tour one. Arguably the animals have a lower stress experience since the passengers on the monorail are moving by relatively quickly as opposed to having people stare at them constantly.
 
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