Zoos-based Rankings of European Countries

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Nikola Chavkosk

Well-Known Member
I spent about 1.5 hour providing info about this thread. This is more objective estimations of different zoo-based criteria for European countries (because of availability from ZTL). I would be very interested also for such estimations for other countries in the world. I ommited Russia, Turkey, etc. and countries who have (or had) below 10 zoos (those in some next post). I consider zoo in this thread, also aquarium, dolphinarium, petting zoo, terrarium/reptilarium, butterfly park, all-in building small zoo, etc. - all listings on Zootierliste, including closed zoos (so every zoo is counted, both existing and former). Also are included zoos in islands and oversea territories of certain countries (but that's not considered for the surface area of such territories, since there are negligible numbers of zoos in oversea territories).

Number of zoos by country:

Germany: 1,134 ! ! ! (is this possible? :) (by far the champion by number of zoos in Europe, possibly in the whole world)
UK: 348 (England 283, Scotland 29, Wales 18, N. Ireland 6, UK other, 12)
France: 192
Spain: 108
Switzerland: 94
Austria: 93
Netherlands: 81
Czech Republic: 69
Italy: 67
Sweden: 64
Denmark: 55
Croatia: 35
Romania: 30
Belgium: 29
Portugal: 28
Ukraine: 27
Poland: 24 (isn't this too small number, for big country as Poland?)
Hungary: 22
Bulgaria: 20
Ireland: 17
Norway: 17
Estonia: 10

Number of zoos per 1,000 km2 (not per 1 km2) ( ! ) (maybe it was better to present per 100 km2 (10x10 km):

Germany: 3.17
UK: 1.44 (England 2.17)
France: 0.35
Spain: 0.21
Switzerland: 2.28
Austria: 1.12
Netherlands: 1.95
Czech Republic: 0.87
Italy: 0.22
Sweden: 0.14
Denmark: 1.28

GDP/per zoo by country (in billions US dollars (USD)/per zoo):
Germany: 3.4 billions USD/per zoo (3.04 billions of Euros/per zoo)
UK: 7.7
France: 12.6
Spain: 11.5
Switzerland: 6.9
Austria: 4.1
Netherlands: 9.4
Czech Republic: 2.8
Italy: 27.6 ( ! :) )
Sweden: 7.6
Denmark: 5.5

Number of citizens/per zoo by country:
Germany: 72,000/per zoo
UK: 182,000/per zoo (England 194,000/per zoo)
France: 348,000/per zoo
Spain: 430,000/per zoo
Switzerland: 89,000/per zoo
Austria: 94,000/per zoo
Netherlands: 210,000/per zoo
Czech Republic: 153,000/per zoo
Italy: 903,000/per zoo
Sweden: 151,000/per zoo
Denmark: 106,000/per zoo



To be edited and continued...
 
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R. Macedonia, a poor and small country (Zoos: 4; citizens per zoo: 505,000/per zoo; 0.16 zoos/per 1,000 km2; 2.6 billions USD/per zoo :) )


If UNITED STATES OF AMERICA have (+had former) 750 zoos, then data for the US are:

Zoos per 1,000 km2: 0.07 zoos/per 1,000 km2 (a far less by a European country like UK or Netherlands)
Citizens/per zoo: 433,000
GDP/per zoo: 24.7 billions USD (24,700,000,000.0 USD)


Russia: number of zoos: 89
Zoos per 1,000 km2: 0.005
Citizens/ per zoo: 1,620,000 ( ! )
GDP/ per zoo: 12.7 billions USD

Tell me the total number of zoos in Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Mexico, Japan, China, etc. I will estimate. I don't consider Wiki very accurate since for example there, Germany have about 350 zoos, but on ZTL - more than 1,100.
 
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It is indicative that Germany have (and had) greatest diversity of species/subspecies of zoo animals than any other country in the world, even more than US. What do you think?
 
This is a lot of research - thank you!

The number of zoos in European countries is completely amazing and Germany is unbelievable. If you look at this size chart: MapFight - Germany vs Arizona (US) size comparison, Germany is slightly bigger than my state of Arizona, but not by a large amount. My state has around ten zoos and aquariums yet Germany has over one thousand!

How can Germany sustain those kind of numbers? Even the UK is oversaturated, which likely explains why a ZooChat favorite such as RSCC cannot generate enough income to stay open.
 
Arizona Docent said:
This is a lot of research - thank you!

The number of zoos in European countries is completely amazing and Germany is unbelievable. If you look at this size chart: MapFight - Germany vs Arizona (US) size comparison, Germany is slightly bigger than my state of Arizona, but not by a large amount. My state has around ten zoos and aquariums yet Germany has over one thousand!

How can Germany sustain those kind of numbers? Even the UK is oversaturated, which likely explains why a ZooChat favorite such as RSCC cannot generate enough income to stay open.
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Thank you too Arizona Docent. I was amazed when I counted the numbers, I expected Germany to have about 450 listings on ZTL, but it turned out much more. My hand and my eyes tired of so much counting. Of course many of the listings are closed. ;)
 
Nikola Chavkosk said:
Germany: 1,134 ! ! ! (is this possible? (by far the champion by number of zoos in Europe, possibly in the whole world)
Click to expand...
the Philippines is reputed to have over 2000 zoos.
 
A reason why Germany (and Switzerland & Austria as well) have so many zoos, is because zootierliste recognizes also the smallest institutions that keeps animals (for examples only wild boar). If you would add a criterium that the zoo should have at least 10 species or so, it would already give a different picture...
 
Great work Nikola! You've accumulated some very impressive statistics.

The book on the link below contains a list of 500 zoos in Germany and then an additional 100 zoos between Austria and Switzerland. I wonder if there are perhaps many smaller facilities (with 10 species or less) missing from the book.

https://www.amazon.ca/Abenteuer-Silke-Sorge-Dirk-Petzold/dp/3702013148
 
Chlidonias said:
the Philippines is reputed to have over 2000 zoos.
Click to expand...

I really didn't expected Chlidonias that. If so, the Phillippines would have 6.7 zoos/per 1,000 km2; citizens per zoo: 51,000; 0.16 billions (160 millions) USD/per zoo.

lintworm said:
A reason why Germany (and Switzerland & Austria as well) have so many zoos, is because zootierliste recognizes also the smallest institutions that keeps animals (for examples only wild boar). If you would add a criterium that the zoo should have at least 10 species or so, it would already give a different picture...
Click to expand...

Most probably yes. Like for example even in my country of R. Macedonia are not listed all zoos (2 real zoos existing now, 2 real former zoos (when was part of former Yugoslavia), and 2 petting zoo now (with some wild animals - roedeer, red deer, liama, pheasants, red fox) and one falconry - but it's not commercially open for visitors).
I think they count establisments who are only open to visitors?
Official deffinition of zoo (EU Directive 1999/22/EC): A ‘zoo’ is defined as a permanent establishment where live wild animals are kept on public display for 7 days per year or more. Don't states any minimum number of species, yet some zoo may keep only elephants for example like sanctuary.
 
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snowleopard said:
Great work Nikola! You've accumulated some very impressive statistics.

The book on the link below contains a list of 500 zoos in Germany and then an additional 100 zoos between Austria and Switzerland. I wonder if there are perhaps many smaller facilities (with 10 species or less) missing from the book.

https://www.amazon.ca/Abenteuer-Silke-Sorge-Dirk-Petzold/dp/3702013148
Click to expand...

Thank you snowleopard. But does the facillities keeping let say only elephants, are also excluded? Like sanctuaries? I think they should be regarded as some type of zoo establishments.
 
Batto said:
It might be a bit tricky for a Canadian to explain German legislation to a Macedonian...unless his German is up to the task.;)
The definition of a zoo in Germany is based on Bundesnaturschutzgesetz §42, which itself is based on said Directive 1999/22/EC.
https://www.gesetze-im-internet.de/bnatschg_2009/__42.html
The role of zoos in the conservation of biodiversity
Wie ist der Begriff Zoo definiert? | zoosmedia
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Batto can you present the most important message from this links, because I don't speak German, unfortunately. I can use tool Google translate but...
Or it is just all that based on the said Directive? I have read it on English.
 
If you don't mind me asking Nikola, what are/were the six zoos in Northern Ireland.
 
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squirrelmonkey said:
If you don't mind me asking Nikola, what are the six zoos in Northern Ireland.
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I don't mind, not at all, squirrelmonkey. I saw these on Zootierliste (and one of the was closed in 1995):

Antrim (Causeway Safari Park - geschlossen 1995) [UK/Northern Ireland]
Belfast (Zoo) [UK/Northern Ireland]
Comber (Castle Espie Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust) [UK/Northern Ireland]
Newtownards (The Ark Open Farm) [UK/Northern Ireland]
Portaferry (Exploris Aquarium - vorübergehend geschlossen 2014 bis 2016) [UK/Northern Ireland]
Randalstown (World of Owls) [UK/Northern Ireland]

What are your thoughts on these zoos?
One seems that's only a farm?
 
Nikola Chavkosk said:
I don't mind, not at all, squirrelmonkey. I saw these on Zootierliste (and one of the was closed in 1995):

Antrim (Causeway Safari Park - geschlossen 1995) [UK/Northern Ireland]
Belfast (Zoo) [UK/Northern Ireland]
Comber (Castle Espie Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust) [UK/Northern Ireland]
Newtownards (The Ark Open Farm) [UK/Northern Ireland]
Portaferry (Exploris Aquarium - vorübergehend geschlossen 2014 bis 2016) [UK/Northern Ireland]
Randalstown (World of Owls) [UK/Northern Ireland]

What are your thoughts on these zoos?
One seems that's only a farm?
Click to expand...

Causeway Safari Park i know was very popular when it opened but didnt have that many species. Possibly only six.
Belfast is of course the main zoo in N.I with great history and a great collection but is lacking and new development. With the newest enclosure being the moloch gibbons in 2004.
Comber i have never heard before and have no idea where it could even possibly be.
Ark farm i have heard of but never been as it is pretty much just a farm with barely any exotic animals. I actually work at an unopen exotic farm which would have a much more impressive collection which is saying a lot.
Exploris Aquarium i have been too recently and is nice but is quite dated and only has fish found in the coast of Northern Ireland and Ireland so nothing too spectacular apart from a bull shark.
World of Owls is more a rehabilitation center with a collection of owls. I applied for work experience here but they never replied so i don't like them:D

So out of all i would count only three as being counted as a zoo and one of them is closed. Sorry if any information is wrong, all off the top of my head.
 
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squirrelmonkey said:
Comber i have never heard before and have no idea where it could even possibly be.
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I struggle to believe that you have never heard of this given that its correct name is Castle Espie WWT,whilst not the largest of captive collections it is certainly a place that does some series breeding for the size of the collection,and its wild reserves are probably my favourite to visit out of all the WWTs!

squirrelmonkey said:
Ark farm i have heard of but never been as it is pretty much just a farm with barely any exotic animals. I actually work at an unopen exotic farm which would have a much more impressive collection which is saying a lot.
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Yes it is pretty much a farm but it has a good number of exotics,and from having visited collections in the UK that would be similar to this place I can say that it is far better than what you think it is,whilst not the biggest of collections it is still very good but you really also need to visit the encounters barn up stairs to see the best bits!


squirrelmonkey said:
Exploris Aquarium i have been too recently and is nice but is quite dated and only has fish found in the coast of Northern Ireland and Ireland so nothing too spectacular apart from a bull shark.
Click to expand...


Now if they have a Bull Shark I need to get over,but I would suggest what they actually have is a Bullhuss also better known as a Nursehound!
 
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