Quick response: They are "different", but NOT "completely different". I've seen similar ride-tours to DAK's Kilamanjaro Safari -- SDWAP's "Journey Into Africa", Guadalajara (Mexico)'s "Safari Africa", and even the monorail tours in Dallas and the Bronx are somewhat similar, taking visitors in among the wild animals.
And yes, Disney is unsurpassed in their efforts to build a complete African (or Asian) environment, which their animal exhibits are a part of. But this is also not "completely different" from what other zoos are doing. Again, SDWAP's "Nairobi Village" is quite similar, and both Kansas City and Binder Park (Michigan) have built lower-budget versions of DAK's African village. Jacksonville's "Range of the Jaguar" is a South American version of this, while Memphis has a Chinese version.
Rather than "completely different", I'd say that Disney's exhibits are "more extensive" in their scope.
ANyhuis,
I agree with pretty much everything you have stated, my feelings exactly, both zoos and theme parks have crossed the invisible fronteir into eachother, and as the clock moves on, it will only become more common.
Most of this exhibits you have mentioned still have one thing in common their place of residence has the word zoo in its official description.
I guess that could be a way to do it, what do you think "Zoos" and everything else, and the Zoos would have to be officially named Zoos or Zoological parks, Zoological gardens, Zoo worlds, something to that effect to be considered Traditional Zoos, as a matter of fact this could be fun stay tunned for my two unofficial lists of Top 10 Zoos and Top 10 parks that deal with wild animals, i read somewhere very recently that Lion Country Safari was ranked as the #3 Zoo in North America, if i visited this country from lets say Germany for the first time, and visited this park, and then found out it was their number #3 Zoo, i would probably never visit another zoo in North America.
