top ten zoos in the world.....apparently

Chlidonias

Chlidonias

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following on from Tripadvisor's "interesting" list of America's best zoos (http://www.zoochat.com/22/americas-top-zoos-how-exciting-274214/), here are the top ten "world's best zoos" by cheapflights.com.

Travel: World's best zoos; Plus: Tipping in Rome, a 48-room tourist estate - San Jose Mercury News

Edinburgh's photo is a skunk which is cool (as opposed to using something popular like a lion or panda) but at least some of them are stock photos because Singapore's one is a Yunnan snub-nosed monkey!

Zoos in alphabetical order:
Belize Zoo
Bronx Zoo
Dubai Underwater World [nice to see an aquarium in there]
Edinburgh Zoo
Lone Pine [a bit of an odd inclusion]
National Zoo (Washington)
San Diego Zoo
Singapore Zoo
Toronto Zoo
Wuppertal Zoo
 
I'd say that the Bronx, National Zoo, and San Diego are probably safe choices for U.S. zoo excellence.

Do our Canadian friends agree that Toronto is excellent?

Singapore Zoo gets a lot of good reviews here. Chlidonias, would you consider it the best zoo in Asia?

The European zoo choices seem pretty strange. I looked up the Wuppertal Zoo in the gallery and on their website, and they look like they have nice ape and big cat exhibits, but is it really considered one of Europe's world class zoos? Ditto Edinburgh, which seems to have a good collection, but nobody here seems to rave about it.

The Belize Zoo has gotten a lot of positive attention for its conservation work and being a resource for Belizeans to get to know their local wildlife.

What are considered to be the world's great aquariums?
 
Wuppertal is a very strange choice, an extraordinary collection, very large lion and tiger exhibit, average gorilla and orang-utan exhibit, worst bonobo exhibit in europe, very bad monkey exhibits, very small exhibit for small cats and several leopard species.
 
there may be a better article somewhere explaining the choices, but I'd guess that the choice of Wuppertal might have something to do with flight patterns seeing the site is cheapflights.com. Or maybe the staff member who chose it came from Wuppertal. Or maybe they thought "hey we better include a European zoo" and threw a dart at a map. There are of course loads more zoos in Europe that should be considered better.

Singapore is definitely the best zoo in Asia, even if I am critical of what I consider to be often small enclosure size.

I definitely like the inclusion of Belize Zoo: smaller regional zoos always get overlooked in favour of those from the big "important" countries like the USA, and Belize Zoo is committed to conservation.
 
....and here is a better article :D
Top 10 zoos worldwide | Cheapflights.com
they seem to be mashing Singapore Zoo and Jurong Bird Park together, but here's what they say about Wuppertal:
Remember Knut, the lovable polar bear cub who was raised by a zoo keeper at Berlin Zoo after his mother rejected him? He charmed the world, lending his likeness to a mountain of covetable merchandise before passing on at just four years. Now, happily, he has a new half-sister Anori whose playful frolicking is wowing visitors to the 24-hectare zoo in Wuppertal. Apart from Anori, the zoo also has the largest lion enclosure in a German zoo, an outdoor enclosure for orangutans and, somewhat unusual for a zoo, a large herd of elephants. Search and compare cheap flights to Dusseldorf.
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note the last sentence ;)

and not particularly surprisingly, Edinburgh seems to be based on there being giant pandas there:
Tian Tian (the girl panda) and Yang Guang (the boy panda) left their Chengdu home and arrived in Scotland – to the sound of bagpipes – in December 2011. They are the first giant pandas to live in the United Kingdom for nearly 20 years, drawing around 70,000 panda lovers already – including Nicole Kidman and her daughters. The big hope is that they mate and have super-cute cubs. That would turn the 99-year-old, 1,000-animal Edinburgh Zoo into a stellar attraction. Search and compare: cheap flights to Edinburgh
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I can't believe Lone Pine wins for Australia. I guess it must be because most people I know from overseas who have been to Sydney go here to see koalas. They must have a lot of international visitors who give it good reviews. I've never been but I can't imagine it even being in my top 10 Australian zoos

I think we should publish our own list and send it into all of these travel sites. Surely they'd listen to the world's largest community of zoo enthusiasts. There are enough threads about it maybe we need one collated list and we can vote. :)
 
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PAT said:
I can't believe Lone Pine wins for Australia. I guess it must be because most people I know from overseas who have been to Sydney go here to see koalas. They must have a lot of international visitors who give it good reviews. I've never been but I can't imagine it even being in my top 10 Australian zoos

I think we should publish our own list and send it into all of these travel sites. Surely they'd listen to the world's largest community of zoo enthusiasts. There are enough threads about it maybe we need one collated list and we can vote. :)
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Hey PAT, that is a great idea. I am not going to poach it from you, so why don't you start an open-ended thread asking us to nominate (say) which 3 zoos we think are the best in the world. Then, you could collate the list for a forum poll? Just a thought.
 
nanoboy said:
Hey PAT, that is a great idea. I am not going to poach it from you, so why don't you start an open-ended thread asking us to nominate (say) which 3 zoos we think are the best in the world. Then, you could collate the list for a forum poll? Just a thought.
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Maybe you could ask for some number of rankings (3 or 5) for the top zoos from each continent or some other geographic unit? Should there be a separate ranking category for aquariums or would they be tossed in with the zoos?
 
SMR said:
I do, it has its faults (like all zoos) but it's my favourite in the UK.
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I can't see how a zoo which culls animals regularly could be consider a good zoo or even a best zoo. Prevent breeding in first place, don't produce babies just to get more visitors. Shameful approach.
 
docend24 said:
I can't see how a zoo which culls animals regularly could be consider a good zoo or even a best zoo. Prevent breeding in first place, don't produce babies just to get more visitors. Shameful approach.
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Regardless of the rights and wrongs of the Edinburgh situation, culling as part of husbandry should not be written off, arguably:

1. It's a valid way to keep endangered species breeding, especially hoofstock, where bachelor groups are impractical for whatever reasons;

2. It's been commented, by some zookeepers, that it's better to let a species breed and cull surplus offspring than stopping them breeding and then finding it very difficult to get them restarted again.

Personally, I don't know enough about the various issues to conclude (like I wouldn't comment on a criticised heart surgery technique) but given a significant number of people close to animal husbandry feel the technique is valid I'll hold my judgement and not use it as a criteria to judge zoos.

Also, what do you mean by regularly? It's hardly like Edinburgh have a production line abattoir.
 
I think that we should think harder about the factors that make a 'top zoo'. The size of the lion enclosure is not one of the criteria that I would use - but I wonder how far we can agree. A question for a new thread perhaps.

Alan
 
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