Allen Nyhuis, the co-author of America's Best Zoos, is a great friend of mine and we exchange long emails about once a week. He absolutely raved about this zoo when he toured it a couple of years ago, and it certainly appears to be incredibly spectacular. There has been criticism of the fact that there are only African animals in the collection, and there is a focus on providing exhibits perhaps more for the visitors than the animals (like the case with the mixed-species Lowland Gorilla habitat) but the photos make it seem to be an amazing zoo. I suspect that I would personally be a major fan, and it is certainly better than the zoos that have an affinity for grey, drab cement.
Bioparc has the advantage of having been built from scratch, so there is a high level of consistency in the design and quality of exhibits. It has some of the best mock rock that money can buy. But as others have mentioned, it perhaps places too much focus on creating aesthetically-perfect exhibits and this may neglect the animals' real needs. And it is odd that designers go to such great lengths to create fantastic, wild-looking landscapes only to put in incongruous manicured turf. But I nitpick, and it is still an incredible facility.
