the best zoo in Germany?

A Statistical Top 20 German Zoos List

Hey, folks, don't know if you knew this, but by trade I'm a professional statistician. So I decided to put my craft to work and used the Stern ratings (despite being called "toilet paper") and the ratings of 5 of you ZooChatters, plus I counted the number of threads and posts for each zoo. I accumulated all of this and used a rather complex statistical rating system to generate my own objective ranking of Germany's best zoos. Here they are:

1. Zoologischer Garten Berlin
2. Zoologischer Garten Leipzig
3. Tierpark Berlin
4. Koln Zoo
5. Tierpark Hagenbeck Hamburg
6. Wuppertal Zoo
Tierpark Nurnberg
8. Zoologischer Garten Frankfurt
9. Tierpak Hellabrunn Munchen
10. Zoo Duisburg
11. Hannover Zoo
12. AllwetterZoo Munster
13. Zoo Dortmund
14. Dresden Zoo
15. Vogelpark Walsrode
16. Wilhelma Stuttgart Zoo
Zoom Erlebniswelt
18. Zoo Augsburg
Zoom Gelsenkirchen
20. Zoo Krefeld

So WHAT do you all think? Some "inside" info on the ratings: Leipzig just barely beat out Berlin TP for the #2 spot, and Duisburg also barely beat out Hannover to make the Top 10.

The biggest surprise to me was Stuttgart! I thought this was a leading zoo! Is it?
 
zoogiraffe said:
Well i wouldn`t have put Duisburg that high and Stuttgart wouldn`t be that low in my book.
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Never been to Stuttgart, so can't comment, but I really like Duisburg, so it should be top 10.
Can anyone tell me why Wuppertal is always ranked higher than Duisburg?
Is it just for the large new tiger and lion enclosures?

Should be going to Leipzig in November so I can decide if I rank it higher than Tierpark (which must be marked down because of that awaul cat house), other than that I liked the place.
 
Zebraduiker said:
Now I hope you see, what the problem is with zoo rankings, folks !
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Quite honestly, one of the things I learned in Statistics is that when taking one person's subjective ratings, there's not much validity there. But once you start combining a few people's rankings, the combined rating has more validity. While I don't think the overall ranking I posted is perfect (ie, Stuttgart), I think it's pretty good -- even though I've only been to 3 of the German zoos myself.
 
I have visited all of these zoos and i do not agree with this ranking.

Nuremberg is much better than both Berlin Zoos and Hagenbeck too. Duisburg is a good zoo and much better than Wuppertal.

My top ten zoos in Germany (concerning animal keeping):

Nuremberg, Leipzig, Cologne, Dortmund, Duisburg, Munster, Hagenbeck, Berlin Zoo, Munich, Wuppertal...
 
You see, this i the problem with Zoo rankings, ha,ha. Everybody has his own opinion....That makes not one zoo better than the other.

So I say, Munich and Wuppertal are much better than Berlin Zoo.....
 
To be honest, if i would have made a prediction about a top twenty list of german zoo's, and considered everything like you did, i wouldn't be surprised at all if that was the outcome.

It wouldn't be my list, but i can very easily understand why the list came up like this. And to be honest, it's not a bad list and probably very reasonably levels out people's opinions. Fun to see it drawn up like this, and coming out perfectly sensible.
 
Zebraduiker said:
@Anyhuis. First thing : Forget "Zoom", don't go that place. It is not a zoo anymore, it is a themepark with animals, and not very good. Big parts of the park, the anme Zoom says anything, are full of cheap looking artificial rocks, altough they are just three years old, they have to be fixed for a lot of money. "Zoom"is not interested in conservation prpjects and, amazing, is using tropical wood from africa in its restaurant......The collection is simple, mostly species wihich are favourites to the public and which brings money. belive me, w ehave much better, real zoos in germany, so your choice is very good. If youc an't visit them all, I suggest you to visit Duisburg,Wuppertal and Dortmund, it depends on, what you would like to see, so the primate collection at cologne zoo is excellent. The zoo als have a great okapie xhibit, the last saiga in an european zoo, douc langurs, red howler monkeys....They do have one of the biggets elephante xhibit in germany, but the exhibit isn't really good for them. The yhave to many elephants in it, so its not really the biggest exhibit. They have a calf, born a few days ago. The zoo also ha a tropical rainforest building and an odler aquarium ,which is very nice. Cologne Zoo is not bad, but it was much better few years ago.

Duisburg Zoo is now much better than cologne, teh colelction is smaller, but excellent, so you can see koalas, wombats, fossas,the last river dolphin,giant river otters,giant anteaters, kodiak bears, dolphins and a good primate collection.

QUOTE]

I agree with you that zoom is a dissapointment, I really don't understand why people are making such a big fuzz out of it. The animals have quite good exhibits though. And the kodiakbear enclosure is really spectacular. The rest is to fake to enjoy.

I liked the duisburg collection, and they have some fine exhibits, although there are still terrible exhibits in here unfortunately. Osnabruck has roughly the same level as duisburg, only the collection is less appealing.

Munster was a dissapointment, but without really bad exhibits. I just didn't like the way the zoo is build up.

Berlin zoo and tierpark are nice, but not terrific. In terms of visitor experience berlin zoo was great however, with their enormous collection, and their beautiful aquarium and hippo exhibit.
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Thanks for all of the input everyone! Now that I've gotten it, I'm starting to decide on a slightly different course of action, however. While I haven't made any definite plans, for logistical reasons I may do the zoos of Southern Germany instead (Stuttgard, Frankfurt, and hopefully Nuremberg), plus the 2 Swiss zoos. Then again, I may change my mind again. I've got until October 9 to finalize my plans.
 
I have yet to visit many of these German zoos mentioned here, but during my time living in Germany i managed to visit: Zoo Aquarium Berlin, Berlin Tierpark, Hannover Zoo, Frankfurt Zoo and Heidelberg zoo:

Out of these zoos, my opinion was and still is that Germany has the best zoos in the World, i have seen some of the biggest zoos in the US, and the German Institutions offer a far greather diversity when it comes to the many aspects of their zoos, the culture and history helps a lot in my opinion.

Berlin Zoo is still my favorite, with its massive animal collection, and the mixture of many buildings, it allows you to enjoy the zoo in many different ways, as a museum with its historic influence, as a zoological collection, and an architectural Gem with its many different structures, some old some new, but all very interesting.
That is why i rank Berlin Zoo as 1# in the World, because of its many different layers, FOR THE VISITOR EXPERIENCE, i do not judge zoos based on what exhibits are better for any specific animal, with its exeptions, i can appreciate a state of the Art exhibit in any zoo (examp Congo in Bronx zoo) and i can hate a real cruel exhibit for an animal as some of the many still outhere in many zoos, but all in all, none of us are animals, so we can't know for a fact where an specific animal is happier, at the Hippo dome in Berlin or in Ituri Forest in San Diego.

Berlin Tierpark is a very big place, lots of room, a real mixture of natural exhibits and concrete buildings, i happen to enjoy more the architecture in Berlin Zoo, but Tierpark is not to far back, i loved its history just as much, and the Alfred-Brehm-Haus is really massive, but it could use a little more plants in my opinion, i would consider this one of the great zoos of Germany but most likely if i had visited all the others, it would not be 2#

Hannover Zoo is a real fun place, i did not take this Zoo in the same way as the other two already mentioned, to me, Hannover was a kid friendly zoo and not a zoological museum like the Berlin parks, lots of colors in this zoo, the mini safari boat ride was nice, and the many theme lands make this zoo a little too much like a theme park, but i still can appreciate its very diverse collection, a great place to get away from the traditional.
With its new Alaska exhibit opening in the near future it should add another theme land to this German Busch Gardens without any rollercoasters.

Frankfurt Zoo is a smaller version of Berlin Zoo, and i especially liked the size of its collection, i really enjoyed Frankfurt Zoo, and its buildings are extremely interesting, but the park is far too small when compared to Berlin Zoo, and in my opinion they are the same type of zoo, my favorite at that, but Frankfurt is just too small. (would like to visit again and see the new exhibits in the zoo)


Heidelberg zoo was just too short of a distance from where i was living that i had to visit, but it can not be compared to the other great zoos of Germany that i visited, smaller collection, not a single world class exhibit or architectural gem, nothing to write home about.

Out of the zoos that i visited, here is the order i would rank them:
1#Zoo Aquarium Berlin
2#Berlin Tierpark
3#Hannover Zoo
4#Frankfurt Zoo
5#Heidelberg zoo

Will visit Germany again sometime next year, hope to make the trip at least two weeks long, and make it to some of the other zoos i have not visited yet.
 
@Johnny. Thank you for your agreement of my opinion to Zoom, I thought, I'm the only one who recognized the truth of that park....
@Anyhuis. If you really go to South geramny, don't go to Stuttgart Zoo, it's one of the worst "big"Zoos in germany, but try to visit Nuremberg, it is really the best Zoo in germany.
If you want to see another good zoo in south geramny, go to landau, its a small city between Karlsruhe and Neustadt and its on the way to Frankfurt. The Landau Zoo is small, but tehe xhibits are great and they have a lot of rare species, so gnus, philipne spotted deer , red forest duikers, red river hogs, white collared mangabeys, mountain zebras, northern cheetahs and much more. A really godo zoo and highly recommended. Landau also has the biggest Reptile Zoo in germany, go to that place also, if you intereste din Reptiles. You can visit both places the same day, the Zoo is only 10 acres.

Stuutgart is an outdated Zoo, full of 60ty years concrete exhibits and buildings, so tehe lpahnat,carnivore and hippo houses are tiny and really bad. The new snow leopard exhibits is smaller tah a bird cage with absolutly no hiding places, the polar bear exhibit is a desaster, the apehouse is desaster ( they want to buid a new one ), the new amazon building is new, but not really good ( and the operating costs are evry high ). The aquarium is nice, but outdated, the only really good exhibit is the okapi enclosure.
 
@Zebraduiker, since Stuttgart has the second-largest collection in Germany (and one of the largest in the world), I feel obligated to at least check it out for myself. But I LOVE your recommendation of Landau. I'll likely include it in my itinerary. And I'm pretty sure Nuremberg will be a part of this trip -- IF I do the southern Germany option (not sure of that yet).
 
If you do a zoo trip you can combine several zoos, f.e.
D 1 Frankfurt (modern cat enclosures, good primate collection (Bogori Wald still under construction?), excellent Grzimeck house with day and night section for small mammals and kiwi)
D 2 Heidelberg (some interesting primate species) + Saarbrucken (good primate and lemur collection, hilly compound)
D 3 Landau (small and no spectacular enclosures but some really interesting species) + Karlsruhe (polar bear enclosure)
D 4 Stuttgart (historical buildings, superb gardens, large collection; but also in the hillside part some modern but already outdated enclosures)
D 5 Augsburg (good savannah; drill) – Munchen (large wooded geografical zoo)

Or
D 1 Köln (top german primate/lemur zoo, rainforest, elephant enclosure; rare species like saiga and douc)
D 2 Munster (concrete but convenient all weather zoo; iberian wolf) – Osnabruck (nothing special)
D 3 Walsrode (superb vast collection of rare birds, excellent gardens)
D 4 Hamburg (impressive architecture: hagenbeck rocks; moderate collection, although giant otter) – Schwerin (rare gibbon species a couple of years ago)
D 5 Rostock (large wooded zoo with good cat enclosures)
D 6 Berlin Zoo (largest collection in the world; very good classic aquarium and hippo under water viewing; row after row of birds, monkeys, deer, pigs and cattle)
D 7 Berlin Tierpark (largest european zoo with Alfred Brehme- and Elephanthouse; large collection of deer, zebra, hyena, big cats, birds of prey. Notable for european and asiatic moutain animals. Wear good shoes!)
For both Berlin zoos: almost impossible to see everything in one day!
D 8 Eberswalde (nothing special) – Hoyerswerda (a little depressing)
D 9 Dresden (moderate zoo with superb tundra-aviary and mixed enclosure for gelada and vulture) – Gorlitz
D 10 Leipzig (superb mix of large modern – pongoland, savannah – and historical enclosures (elephanthouse, vulture aviary, bear enclosures). The new rainforestdome Gondwanaland - not open yet - appears to be fantastic)
D 11 Halle (moutain zoo is it name and mountainous it is; small but good cat enclosures) – Magdeburg (good for small south american monkeys, serow, wolverine)

Duisburg, Wuppertal, Hannover, Dortmund and Nurnberg are still on my to do list.

Ranking zoos is always difficult. I like a large collection and a good mix between historical buildings/gardens, and modern enclosures. I certainly do not like ‘disney’themed zoos.

For collection: Zoo Berlin, Tierpark Berlin, Köln, Stuttgart, Frankfurt, Walsrode
For atmosphere (buildings, gardens): Stuttgart, Leipzig, Berlin Zoo, Hamburg, Walsrode
If you like large enclosures in a wooded setting: Tierpark Berlin, Munchen, Rostock

But every zoo I’ve been, I was happy to visit it.
 
Zebraduiker interesting about Stuggart Zoo, it is one of the zoos i will most likely visit when i make my way over again, their collection looks massive, and the grounds look (at least in pics) very well planted, is your opinion in this zoo based in space for the animal exhibits along? if it is then i know what to expect, since the Antwerp Zoo in Belgium is extremely packed, and lots of space restrictions for some of the animals, yet it is my second best Zoo in the world, only behind Berlin Zoo Aquarium.

But very interested in your comments about Stuggart Zoo, not even worth a visit to you?
 
"Ranking zoos is always difficult. I like a large collection and a good mix between historical buildings/gardens, and modern enclosures. I certainly do not like ‘disney’themed zoos."

I agree with you about the ranking being extremely difficult, you will never please everybody, just ask Anyhuis, his incredible book (a must for any forum member) is a perfect example.

[ame=http://www.amazon.com/Americas-Best-Zoos-Travel-Families/dp/188714076X]Amazon.com: America's Best Zoos: A Travel Guide for Fans & Families (9781887140768): Allen W. Nyhuis, Jon Wassner: Books[/ame]

You seem to enjoy the type of zoos that i love, a Museum/botanical garden/architectural wonder heaven, lots of history, yet, state of the art exhibits, and massive animal collections.
This has to be my prefered type of zoo, but that is not to say, that i don't see the beauty in places like Disney Animal Kingdom, the park is perfect in every way, and since we are in the German subject, Hannover i would place in the category, and the place is certantly worth a visit, wouldn't you think?
 
Philipine eagle said:
If you do a zoo trip you can combine several zoos, f.e.......
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Thanks SO much for typing all of these recommendations in! I do definitely hope to do some "combining" (2 zoos in one day), as time away from my family is at a premium. Note that I've already seen the 2 Berlin zoos (in late 2007), so I don't plan to get back there on this trip. I also saw Munchen (Munich) back in 2004. Has it changed much since then?

Funny note regarding Munchen: It was there that I had one of only two instances of anti-Americanism that I've ever experienced. When entering the zoo, I kindly asked the (older) ticket lady (in my best German):
"Haben Sie ein Mappe auf englisch?"
Her face turned red and she angrily responded,
"Nein! Dieses ist Deutschland!"
I think she threw in a German profanity too. I don't know what set her off.
 
Zebraduiker said:
If you want to see another good zoo in south geramny, go to landau, its a small city between Karlsruhe and Neustadt and its on the way to Frankfurt. The Landau Zoo is small, but tehe xhibits are great and they have a lot of rare species, so gnus, philipne spotted deer , red forest duikers, red river hogs, white collared mangabeys, mountain zebras, northern cheetahs and much more. A really godo zoo and highly recommended.
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And would you have any vested interest in this, Mr Duiker?

I would agree that Stuttgart Zoo is most certainly not where it's at right now. The collection is good, but the overwhelming majority of the exhibits are less-than-brilliant. And soem of the older buildings aren't even poor in a charming sort of a way - they're just not very nice. But I'd still go there given half a chance...

Someone else mentioned Saarbrucken. To quote Dr Johnson (I think), this is a place which is worth seeing, but probably not worth going to see. It's one of the least impressive 'big' (ish) German zoos. It could, potentially, be great - it's a good site, and a great city. But at the moment - not great.

It's interesting that you like Nuremberg so much (and you are not alone in this). I must admit to being rather underwhelmed by the place when I went there (last visit in 2006). Some nice animals, some nice exhibits, but an awful elephant set-up, and lots of what - to me - seemed rather tired exhibits. One man's wine and all that.
 
Stuttgart has a good colelction, no question, but the biggets part are fsihes, birds, reptiles and invertebrates, the mammal colelction is not really special, just a few antelopes, a few of them have to leave for the new ape house, okapis, indian rhion, one old malayan tapir, one old pygmy hippo, the hoofstock collection is not very good.

Nic eis the mox between botanical and zoological garden, but the beautyful pants are hide a lot of the old outdated exhibits and make them"look" better than they are in reality....

@Sooty mangabey. Nuremberg is the at the time the ebst zoo in geramny with great hoofstock exhibits, good primate and carnivore exhibits, a very good sealion and polar bear exhibits and is building now an outdoor pol for the dolphins and a new manatee house. They don not have elephants at this time, the last one wass end to Rostock, the female died recently. After they have finished the Lagoon, the next project will be a new elephante xhibits, probably just for bulls, but i bet, they will change the plans....My idea is, noe elphants anymor eat this zoo ( why every zoo have to keep elephants ??? ) and to build a huge indoor exhibts for the indian rhinios with heated pool, soft natural ground and a mudhole, so they have more space in winter times, and two big outdoor exhibits, where they can keep the rhinos together with hog deer for example.

Yeah, Landau zoo doesn't have spectacula exhibts, but tehy have very godo exhibits for the animals, and this is more important than "spectacular"exhibits for the visitors. One reason morem, why I like this little"big"Zoo, which is giving every year 5000 Euro for conservation projects, the only zoo in germany who do is doing that...
 
Zebraduiker wrote:

@Johnny. Thank you for your agreement of my opinion to Zoom, I thought, I'm the only one who recognized the truth of that park....

From what I've seen on pictures, Zoom is an improvement compared to its predecessor, and I've seen firsthand that the animals have quite good exhibits. It's just that people are so carried away with this zoo because of it's experience concept, and the entire experience is completely fake. No efforts to make it really look natural. I haven't got a problem with an experience concept, but if you do it, do it right!

How about tierpark hagenbeck? I would like to visit this zoo during my vacation ( mainly because of the tropenaquarium), but it's almost a 3 hours trip for me, while the zoo's at the ruhr area are much closer. Should I still visit hagenbeck, or are zoo's like dortmund or krefeld better options?
 
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