Is this North America's best river hippo exhibit? The superb underwater viewing area is complemented well by this overhead image, and are there any other river hippo exhibits with underwater viewing that are missing from this list?
1- Saint Louis Zoo
2- San Diego Zoo
3- Toledo Zoo
4- San Antonio Zoo
5- Calgary Zoo
6- Disney’s Animal Kingdom
7- Sedgwick County Zoo
8- Busch Gardens
9- Granby Zoo
10-Adventure Aquarium
11-Ellen Trout Zoo
12-Memphis Zoo (2013?)
Yes, This is much better than Saint Louis's; their viewing is so much smaller and the view is a pool with a sand bank, then a rock wall with vegetation behind it. SDZ's is a lot larger and the smooth topography of the pool is so much better than the cliff surrounding the bank of the pool at River's Edge. I would even say that this exhibit is a lot more immersive.
I think that the best river hippo exhibit that I have seen is the main hippo exhibit at Disney Animal Kingdom. In terms of size of exhibit, herd size and complexity, and general recreation of habitat it is outstanding. It looks and feels like real hippo habitat. Their smaller underwater viewing exhibit is pretty good too, but I agree that San Diego Zoo's underwater exhibit is better.
Two aspects of hippo biology that are ignored by all of these exhibits are social groups and grazing on land. None of these supposedly outstanding hippo exhibits with underwater viewing are truly meeting the needs of the animals. I would forgo the chance to see hippos underwater if it meant seeing them in large social groups with access to lawns for grazing.
EDIT: Although DAK does keep a larger number of hippos which is good, they still lack the grazing.
Of the underwater hippo exhibits I have experienced I would rank them as this:
1. San Diego Zoo
2. Busch Gardens
3. DAK
4. Toledo
DAK's only has one male hippo at all times, and the hippo they have in there is not very active at all. The pool is also not as large as San Diego and Busch Gardens. Toledo has two middle-aged-elderly animals as well and the water seems a bit cloudy. I just visited Busch Gardens yesterday, and their hippo exhibit is spectacular. My only complaint is the glass is not continuous and there is a large portion of the underwater part that makes the hippos very difficult to see. San Diego has continuous glass, young animals even with a 6 month old baby, lots of vegetation behind the pool, and doesn't have an unnecessary amount of fish so overall San Diego gets my vote for best hippo exhibit. I have not seen St. Louis or San Antonio, but I hear the whole River's Edge area of St. Louis is spectacular.
Busch Gardens is good and so is San Antonio. They both have a land area behind the pool that hippos can walk on (not really graze), but it is too small. San Antonio has a fun daily hippo feeding.
San Diego is great for hippo fanatics because in addition to this exhibit they also have a separate pygmy hippo exhibit with underwater viewing. (And I have not seen any other underwater pygmy exhibits in my many zoo travels).
