Anyhuis,
I truly love your way of thinking, maybe i can relate to it way too much. The debate will go on, and the sometimes unnoticed downgrading comments of both parks in this forum will continue, you are 100% correct and i understand in detail what you mean, one way or another you will allways find people who do not understand.
My point mainly to you is that the reason why this two parks and especially DAK are so underappreciated, is due to the lack of understanding by the forum visitors of what they are about, just look at some of the responces you have gotten, totally out focus, without any just cause or valid justification. But i will get back to this in a second, let me answer Blackrhinos post:
Blackrhino you are correct in including this parks in your zoos ranking lists if you choose to, it is your choice indeed, and i understand about your experience at BGT, when one of the employees told you that they are consider a world class zoo, who am i to denied them this, my point was that their attention to detail when building an exihbit has to take so many other things into consideration that a regular zoo has not to worry about, their budgets are completely different and what you get out of the experience might as well be, so much more going on than in a traditional zoo, so much more complex, and lets not forget to validate your answer even more than BGT was originally a zoological park before becoming well........A world class zoo with rides maybe..either way i understand what you mean about this park at least, if they call themselves an apple, why should we call them an orange.
The other park in discussion is much more different than that, in fact is the complete opposite, Disney's Animal Kingdom, has never called themselves a Zoo, as a matter of fact they have allways try to put distance from that word along, they like to be consider a species of theme park that deals with live animals, i'm sure you have seen the documentary as well, but much more important than that is the opinions of the employees and managers of the park grounds, and this are the ones that i go after every time i visit,
The last visit i had a very interesting conversation about Pandas, and their possible future in this park, their omission in the present is not due to lack of funds, "i would expect for you to know as much as that" was the direct qoute of an employee, but more with fitting. See when DAK built something, they built a whole story, a town an enclosure a message around a certain area or idea, the concept sounds familiar to the one done in a Zoo but so much different than that, they have to include in their plans so many more things, so if let's just say they had an agreement with China for 6 giant pandas in the future, you wouldn't know about it until the actual construction of the theme area began, because it would not be just an enclosure or they would have done it by now a hundred times over. When and if a zoo can afford giant pandas, they will do anything they can to bring them as quick as possible, they will not miss an opportunity like that, just ask Atlanta Zoo, they will pretty much built an enclosure in half the time frame so they can display the species.
This is not the case with DAK, they built walls, moats, animal houses, gardens along with villages, towns, complete areas of a particular location.
Just an example, and i will use one that i'm very familiar with, When judging gorilla enclosures, it seems that the sacred grail of the Zoo world is Congo located in the Bronx Zoo, and one gorgeous and spectacular looking exhibit that i'm very familiar with, despite all the awards, the merits and the success, this exhibit was a real difficult task to undertake, one that almost became at one point impossible by employees first hand accounts, the exihbit itself took so much longer than anticipated and they runned into so many unexpected obstacles, so many barriers they had to get over, almost nothing came as originally planned, but with determination, with love and a constant message of we will not give up, a multiple award wining exhibit and a flagship for gorilla conservation was forever born.
Now jump to DAK, their Gorilla exhibit goes almost unmetioned in the same category, and not only is just as spectacular, but it just happens to be the real deal, and in terms of cost, realism, and extreme attention to detail it is the realm and premier gorilla exhibit in the world, Disney did not say, well let's try to built the best possible gorilla exhibit that we can based on available funds, resources and weather, they actually went to the African continent, carved out a piece of the Congo Basin and shipped it back to Orlando, from every plant, to every stone, to every single piece of the landscape this Gorilla exihbit was planned and built with one single item on their minds, the animals original home. But there is many reasons why zoo enthusiasts will not recognise this exhibit as the premier gorilla enclosure outside of Continental Africa, and plain old jealousy is not one, at least not in this forum, let's hope not, instead i lean towards, the particulars of an individual and the many things he expect to see when viewing an exhibit and maybe not finding them here, maybe it is too natural, but this is not DAK"S fault.
They concentrate in building an exihbit that is exactly alike the animals home, not close, exactly alike. Funny thing in one of the meetings leading up to the construciton of Amazon and Beyond in MMZ, one of the board members pleaded that the attention to details in the landscape should be of great consern, that the plant species should be accurate by region, and onether of the members responded, well is not DAK, we can allways use local plants, the average visitor will not know the difference.
Exihbits like, Congo, Tiger riger, Artic Ring of Life, Desert Dome, Range of the Jaguar, they are all spectacular and have elevated their respective zoos to high levels, but at one point they all tell you that you are still in a Zoo, and this is good, since that is the point when i visit this zoos, i want to be in a zoo, in a great zoo, with lots of info, a living animal museum, i love this feeling second to none. But when i visit DAK that feeling is gone, i have the feeling of taking in every detail, sorround myself with that wild place in the world, and know that i'm standing in the world closest replica to it, from the building facades, to the signs and posters, to the animals indeed, and if some state of the art zoological viewing choices are design so i can have a better look at the animals, then i will not complain.
So my point is why rank them in the same category if they are completely different, only because they both hold animals?
