THAT'S ALL FOLKS AND CONCLUSIONS
When I began the reviews and visit all these zoos (in the past I've visited other french zoos but without the vision you have when you work in a zoo and you see the part both the commercial and animal welfare vision), I said that in Spain you hear a lot in the guild that "France is better than Spain for the zoos because there is more park culture", and after visit small, medium, big, general, specialized, in winter, in summer, in cloudy, runny and sunny days... I must say THAT'S NOT TRUE.
Obviously if you see a park like Beauval you are going to see it plain of public or with at least 200-300 visitors in the show's performance area (a good trick to know the success or not of a park is go to the bird, dolphins, sea lions... shows and see how full is the stadium), including a rainy day, you are going to say "holly s... french love visit zoos" but when you visit the other zoos in the same conditions and you see that in the park you're alone or practicelly alone, you see the reality. The french public is exactly the same than the spanish (or the country you prefer) public. If it's a cool place and you have lots of wonders to see the park is going to be more filled than a small one or than a shabby one.
And I must say that if AFDZA zoos are filled (or with acceptable numbers) is not because the medium visitor see "zoo" or "aquarium" and goes automatically, it's because the director/owner/CEO has made a good job.
"But, the french tourist prefers more see animals, here in a touristic place, a park is not always filled even if there are lots of tourist". Well, I'm going to give an example. I've work in bird shows, and what I've seen is that not all the shows don't deserve to be filled. One show I worked in Spain, was in a terrible bad area for tourism, and, as the show was well designed and developed, the park had good numbers of visitors, IN AN AREA WITHOUT ANY OTHER TOURIST ATTRACTIVES. In French, I visited a park with a bird show (is curious how memory works when you want to critice, I've forgotten the name of the place) that was near a touristic area, plain of tourists. According to the theory, the park should be plain of tourists seeing the bird show, but how the show was bad and without a good "mise en scène", there wasn't so much public. Is that because the french hates the spectacle or shows? Absolutely not (you've only to see how much fill "les maitres des airs" from Beauval or "le bal des oiseaux fantomes" from Puy du Fou), that's because you don't give the public what they want.
Other commentary I've heard lots of times in Spain, you can't have rare animals like hornbills, okapis... because the spanish public don't appreciate it... And WHAT SURPRISE! when french normal visitors go to french zoos, they don't lose their a... for search or fight for see the okapis, babyrousas or other species like that. They want to see lions and pandas.
About the shows, in Spain I've heard lots of times "public don't like anymore the shows". When I was a child, I remember go to see bird shows to big zoos and see how public would start clapping until their hands hurt, how they stay with the mouth open seeing the flight of vultures and bald eagles, how music made the hurt get excited. I've seen the shows in these same zoos once years have passed and see how the show has been downgraded and that public was like "ey one bird, ey another bird..." That's because public don't like them? not, it's because you don't give quality (There is just to see bird shows like Puy du Fou, Beauval or Tierra Rapaz to see how a good show makes a different sensation in the public)
And for last, I've to finish about the commentaries about the visitors. When you hear spanish people from zoos talking about french visitors, practicelly you belive that they go by the park fixing everything they found and that every children is like a small angel. It's true that french are so much quiet than spanish public, and that, in general, the adults are quite more respectfull, but I can't say the same of the children. I've work 15 years with children and without any doubt I can say that children are children in Spain, France, Germany and all over the world, and that (sometimes without bad intention, sometimes with real intention) are going to make exactly the same foolishness that when we were children too. And that's not bad! They have the same curiosity everywhere (for example, practicelly every zoo I visited and there was a group of schoolchildren, at least one of them asked why I made photos of the zoo). I think that this part there is a big part of romanticism towards the French public (I don't know if the french zoochaters can agree with me in that part)
So, why there are lots of french zoos? Why french zoos are more appreciated and visited than spanish zoos. The answer is simple. In Spain if you go by the street and there are 5 bars, and from these, 3 are completely filled and the other 2 not and if you go inside the 5 and you compare the service of the 5, you understad that the 3 gives a good service and the other 2 are plain of s... That's exactly the same for the zoos.
If your zoo shows animals in ugly, small exhibitions, public is not going to appreciate it, if your zoo doesn't have good educational talks or good bird shows (when I talk about bird shows, I talk about REAL bird shows where animal develope natural behaviour, there is a good education level and the importance of conservation, not the circus show where you see, for example, a macaw in a bike), people (and specially children) are going to be bored, if your education and investigation level is a s... evidently the scientific community are not going to take you in serious... and I could be talking like that all the day.
Other real important part, is that I've the impression that, in Spain, in the guild, we've forgot our past and where we came from.
Lots of times, I've seen spanish zookeepers and other staff that, when you talk with them, and you talk about biology, behaviour, diet... of the animal they care, is like you're speaking in latin and the real impression is that what they care is not a complex animal, and is just a munch of beef. And of course, if you ask them about the fathers of the conservation and animal behaviour, they don't know anything about them. I'm not going to pay a spanish zookeeper how knows all the good zoos directors or all the societys, but, how can be possible we've forgotten the figures of Jean Delacour or Gerald Durrell? How we can keep of endangered species without know how all the spirit of conservation arrived? How we can talk about education, investigation and conservation if we don't real care about that? I've talk with spanish directors that with proud they say "ey we have 25 endangered species and we participate in 7 conservation programs". When you ask about how many animals are bred every year or how many young animals sourvive they say 0, when you ask how many ONGs or local populations they found, they say 0. When you ask them about which food prefer the animal or the behaviour during courtship or wharever will be the information you need about the species, the answer is "I don't know". When you ask them how many times they develop campaigns to make understand public the work of zoos, they say 0. But "ey, we educate, we investigate, we conservate". There are, of course, exceptions of spanish zoos that every year are making news, that have good enclosures, that the collection is all an example, that are renewed and that the director or the staff know perfectly the behaviour of the animal or the conservation work, but there are lot of work to do.
I don't know if this post is going to be read by spanish zookeepers, educators or simply freaks, but men, it's time to stop romanticizing. If France is good for the zoos it's because French do two things very well, "le haute cuisine" and the zoos and in Spain we do the first very well so it's time to change the second one and begin to make real good enclosures, shows or simply customer service.
To the rest, I must say, I've really enjoyed France, if there is any staff or director of the zoos I've reviewed, simply give you the congratulations. It's good to take your work as example and make stop the excuses.
