What Zoos Can Do - Addendum

snowleopard

snowleopard

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What Zoos Can Do 2013: Anthony Sheridan: 9783865232304: Amazon.com: Books

Has anyone already ordered the update to Anthony Sheridan's "What Zoos Can Do"? I'd be intrigued to read the thoughts of various ZooChatters, assuming that there is still a target audience for the new book.

Only a couple of years after publishing "What Zoos Can Do" there is now a 64-page update that has 92 zoos from 23 countries (up from 80 zoos from 21 nations in the original version); more factors for the ranking lists; new additional species analyzed; extra zoos of special significance; and an overhaul of the ranking system into 3 broad categories instead of 2.

Is Vienna still #1 in Europe? Has there been any changes to the zoo rankings or have those remained static?
 
I saw this and it's related launch speech at ZooHistorica 2013 at the weekend.

In my opinion (others are available) it appears that the author is so entrenched in his mathematical ratings system he's lost sight of the purpose of such a book. Although mathematical the ratings system comes across as ultimately arbitrary as someone (the author) still has to decide which factors impact the value of a zoo, how much weight they have in deciding the overall rating of a zoo and coming up with a score for each factor.

Personally I don't think the quality of catering, whether dogs can be taken into a zoo or how much money is raised from grant sources (to choose three of the factors used) have any real direct bearing on the overall quality/impression/visitor experience of a zoo. In Germany, for instance, I've visited a number of zoos which I would personally rate highly which, to me, have poor catering facilities (and I wouldn't even know about dogs or money from grant sources).

Whilst some of the pure statistics are admittedly interesting reading (though I'm always a little wary of visitor numbers as different zoos often use different methods to calculate how often members visit) I'd much prefer a book that surveys the zoos of Europe and gives detailed personal opinions of each zoo (without trying to force everything into a contrived mathematical rating system) -I'm thinking something like Tim Brown's survey of UK zoos or Nyhuis and Wassner's survey of US zoos (or ideally John Ironmonger's "best of all worlds" Good Zoo Guide). The real tragedy of this book is that it's probably "queered the pitch" for any such book of real use and quality for at least a decade.

Finally I feel the supplement feels a little overpriced for what's basically a compendium of updated, mostly arbitrary, numbers (though again the pure statistics are interesting) and feel slightly aggrieved that new purchasers of the book get the supplement for free whilst older purchasers have to pay for it separately -that feels to me that I'd be paying over the odds to subsidise newer purchasers, a minor gripe I admit but still annoying.

Basically I won't be buying the supplement though, no doubt, several completists undoubtedly will -further encouraging the author to continue on his pointless (pun intended) mission.
 
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I have no intention of purchasing this book, I came close last weekend and was swayed into buying the IZES Guide To British Zoos instead. I find the ranking system flawed (dogs in zoos, really a factor?) and I disagree with Sheridans views on what constitutes as Europe, nothing outside of the EU is included. No Moscow (which Shorts pointed out to Mr Sheridan this weekend! :p) and no Romanian collections. A very warped view in my opinion.

Basically I will not be purchasing the book or the add-on, even though I'll get the addendum for free, as I find the whole thing reeks of self indulgence. Even though he has sold 30,000 copies (mostly in Germany apparently) this ZooChatter is not going to make it 30,001!
 
Shorts said:
In my opinion (others are available) it appears that the author is so entrenched in his mathematical ratings system he's lost sight of the purpose of such a book. Although mathematical the ratings system comes across as ultimately arbitrary as someone (the author) still has to decide which factors impact the value of a zoo, how much weight they have in deciding the overall rating of a zoo and coming up with a score for each factor.
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Quite; I think it speaks to how entrenched in his opinions Sheridan is that when another of our number attending Zoohistorica asked him a question regarding how fair it was to include points for something - dogs being permitted into the zoo - that is actually legislated against in many parts of Europe, they were shouted down by the author mid-sentence and Sheridan made it entirely clear that as far as he was concerned, zoos could just ignore that legislation.


Brum said:
I find the ranking system flawed (dogs in zoos, really a factor?) and I disagree with Sheridans views on what constitutes as Europe, nothing outside of the EU is included. No Moscow (which Shorts pointed out to Mr Sheridan this weekend! :p) and no Romanian collections. A very warped view in my opinion.
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As for his stance on what constitutes Europe, he quite plainly has lingering prejudices from the Cold War - Switzerland, a non-EU country, is accepted by him, but anywhere which lay in the shadow of the Iron Curtain has to be a fully paid-up member of the EU for him to deign to see them as European. One wonders whether he will have a bit of cognitive dissonance in a few years, when it is quite possible that Turkey will be in the EU but Albania and Bosnia-Herzegovina (who are both much further away from membership due to neither having been officially accepted as candidate countries yet) are not. :p

Incidentally, Romania is indeed a member of the EU already; it is merely not yet a member of the Eurozone. But if Sheridan uses that as his definition, then he shouldn't be including the UK!
 
snowleopard said:
What Zoos Can Do 2013: Anthony Sheridan: 9783865232304: Amazon.com: Books

Has anyone already ordered the update to Anthony Sheridan's "What Zoos Can Do"? I'd be intrigued to read the thoughts of various ZooChatters, assuming that there is still a target audience for the new book.
Is Vienna still #1 in Europe? Has there been any changes to the zoo rankings or have those remained static?
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I agree with many of the criticisms made by previous commentators on this thread. However, just to answer snowleopard's question: yes, Vienna is still ranked #1.
There are now three groups of zoos =
Group A - 1 million+ visitors p.a.
Group B - 500,000+ visitors
Group C - 250,000+ visitors
Vienna is ranked top of Group A; Beauval is top of Group B; Odense (Denmark) is top of Group C.
The chapter on "Interesting Zoo Facts" contains some useful data on visitor numbers, date of foundation of zoos, etc.
 
I bought the original of this book when it was advertised by IZES as I have bought most of the books they have published, and found them all top be of excellent quality (especially Tim Brown's Guide to British Zoos).

Unfortunately, I found Sheridan's book dull in the extreme.....I mean really....who cares?

What s 'best' is clearly a personal perspective and Sheridan has merely designed a scoring system that reflects his own personal tastes. He thinks this somehow justifies his ranking, it doesn't.....

I also question who this book is for exactly?

Perhaps he was a failed board game designer?

I certainly won't be buying the update......
 
The whole thing is a ridiculous exercise in self-indulgence. I love getting books about zoos and having a as complete collection as possible but I think I will pass on this one.
 
I hearby present all my fellow zoochaters with the Shirokuma award for zoological excellence in 2013

corporate_awards_mats_wildlife_elephant.jpg


(Physical trophies are available to all members at a special price of $91.99, shipping is free)
 
Shirokuma said:
I hearby present all my fellow zoochaters with the Shirokuma award for zoological excellence in 2013


(Physical trophies are available to all members at a special price of $91.99, shipping is free)
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Shouldn't that trophy have a polar bear on it? :)
 
It does still have one saving grace and that he is still not taking a penny from the book,which is the only positive thing I can say about it!
 
I hate to say it but I agree with all the above comments, I was excited to read this book but found my self struggling to get through it.

I usually can't wait to read a new zoo related book and absorb its content but I had to really push myself to read it all and at some points I was tempted to skip whole chunks of the book.

I agree a decent description of each zoo chosen and more on the zoos history could have made this book a lot better!
 
Odense Zoo is number one this year? How did that happen? (I know nothing about Odense, but it wasn't even in the top ten of the last book was it (based on the list given in the other thread)?
 
Chlidonias said:
Odense Zoo is number one this year? How did that happen? (I know nothing about Odense, but it wasn't even in the top ten of the last book was it (based on the list given in the other thread)?
Click to expand...

I believe it isn't number one overall - that is still Vienna - but the number one zoo in the C tier, which is zoos attracting between 250,000 and 500,000 visitors per annum. This tier did not exist in the last book.
 
Yep, that is correct. The Odense Zoo website says that Anthony Sheridan noted some enclosures of unbelieveably high quality, a high level of animal welfare, unique theming and an almost magical atmosphere. Also in particular he mentions the zoo's experiences where guests get very close to the animals. He says the zoo is an example of innovative thinking and in particular noted the Kiwara African exhibit including giraffes and zebras amongst other species.
 
TeaLovingDave said:
I believe it isn't number one overall - that is still Vienna - but the number one zoo in the C tier, which is zoos attracting between 250,000 and 500,000 visitors per annum. This tier did not exist in the last book.
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ah I see*. What he needs to do now is to create some more tiers. Theoretically he could make every zoo in Europe the best zoo in Europe and give them all awards. Except Moscow of course.



*Having re-read the thread just now before posting, I see that has already been mentioned. :cool:
 
Ah, but he wouldn't want to give everywhere an award - he dislikes anywhere that bows to something as flimsy as "the law" when it comes to banning dogs from a zoo :p so odds are anywhere that doesn't will never be top of their tier.
 
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