Barcelona and Madrid - Which zoo to choose?

[manateacup]

Hi everyone!
We will be visiting Madrid and Barcelona I we the next week. If you had to pick one zoo to go to in these two places, which would it be?

 

[SabineB]

I have visited both zoos and would personally prefer Barcelona over Madrid. I guess from the standpoint of collection Madrid is the bigger zoo, so you get to see Giant Pandas for example or if you are into dolphins, they have a show there but I would always prefer Barcelona over Madrid, it is less 'show-y' and has interesting walks past pictures of the zoos history.

Madrid zoo is kind of 'outside' the inner city where as Barcelona zoo is smack in the middle.

 

[littleRedPanda]

Obviously it depends on what you want to see and how long you intend spending at the zoo ... and maybe the weather. I went to both last summer and didn't really enjoy Barcelona zoo, especially as it was periodically chucking it down throughout the day.

 

[Corby93]

Without a doubt Barcelona. So much better general collection, including species of birds and reptiles very difficult to see in captivity.

 

[TeaLovingDave]

Well, the first factor to consider is that Madrid contains several large collections whilst Barcelona has but the one. I don't really know enough about them to discuss the matter properly, but looking at ZTL the following oddities are present at each:

Madrid Faunia:

Adelie penguin
Andean cock-of-the-rock
Antillean manatee
Indian muntjac
Gray brocket deer
Chestnut mandibled toucan
Chinstrap penguin
Eastern quoll
Greenish acuchy
Hoffmann's two-toed sloth
Humboldt's night monkey
Nancy Ma's Night Monkey
Stellers sea lion

Madrid Zoo:

Addra gazelle
European mink (Mustela lutreola)
Iberian lynx
Iberian wild boar
South-east Spanish ibex
Spanish imperial eagle
Spanish red deer
Sumatran elephant
Taylor s moccasin
Wagler's temple pitviper
Western barred spitting cobra

Barcelona Zoo:

Addra gazelle
Amazon jaguar
Black-faced impala
Gade’s viper
Lesser grey shrike
Libyan barbary sheep
Lyle's flying fox
Montseny Brook salamander
Perez's frog
Red-rumped Putty-nosed guenon
Spanish asp viper

 

[agnmeln]

Hi everyone!
We will be visiting Madrid and Barcelona I we the next week. If you had to pick one zoo to go to in these two places, which would it be?

What are your main motivations for visiting, and what do you hope to get out of your trip?

 

[Kakapo]

Undoubtely Madrid. Far better than Barcelona in everything (species, enclosures, aesthetics, and the fact that you will be not giving your money to the most corrupt politics of Spain). And in Madrid you will be able also to visit Faunia (and save money buying online entries for both at same time), and if you have time, also Safari Park Aldea del Fresno, and if you're into insects, also an insect zoo at San Lorenzo del Escorial (tough the two latter are very far from the city). I've visited Madrid zoo three times, Faunia two times and Barcelona zoo two times.

 

[CGSwans]

Undoubtely Madrid. Far better than Barcelona in everything (species, enclosures, aesthetics, and the fact that you will be not giving your money to the most corrupt politics of Spain). And in Madrid you will be able also to visit Faunia (and save money buying online entries for both at same time), and if you have time, also Safari Park Aldea del Fresno, and if you're into insects, also an insect zoo at San Lorenzo del Escorial (tough the two latter are very far from the city). I've visited Madrid zoo three times, Faunia two times and Barcelona zoo two times.

Have you gotten your zoos mixed up? Alongside Osaka, Madrid is the most disappointing zoo relative to the size of its city's economy that I've ever been to. Barcelona is an unremarkable but more than acceptable zoo.

Whenever I make it back to Madrid I'll check out Faunia. But the zoo? Not a chance.

 

[Merintia]

For me, Barcelona is by far better than Madrid: more unnusual species, very nice terrarium and aviary, no circus-style shows and, despite of their very low budget, improvement of their enclosures and work on many conservation and reintroduction programs. On the other hand, Madrid Zoo have an aquarium, Iberian Lynx and Spanish Imperial Eagle, two species you only can see in Spain or Portugal. All depends on what are your main interests.

Madrid Zoo:

Addra gazelle
European mink (Mustela lutreola)
Iberian lynx
Iberian wild boar
South-east Spanish ibex
Spanish imperial eagle
Spanish red deer
Sumatran elephant
Taylor s moccasin
Wagler's temple pitviper
Western barred spitting cobra

Sadly, Madrid don´t have terrarium anymore so the snakes are out of the list...

 

[Kakapo]

Have you gotten your zoos mixed up? Alongside Osaka, Madrid is the most disappointing zoo relative to the size of its city's economy that I've ever been to. Barcelona is an unremarkable but more than acceptable zoo.

Whenever I make it back to Madrid I'll check out Faunia. But the zoo? Not a chance.

Then you must have been only at Madrid, Osaka and maybe a superzoo like Berlin or San Diego, and for sure not Barcelona. It would be the only thing that explains why you prefair Barcelona (that is disappointing in species (nothing too rare, unique and spectacular), exhibits (dry hot dirt for most, small cages for not so small primates...) and aesthetics (signage, horrible animal caricatures...) as I already said) over Madrid zoo (that is better than average zoo). Madrid have 284 taxa in Zootierliste, and Barcelona 275 (this surprises me a lot, as I always tough by my visits that Barcelona have MUCH less species). On average, animals are easier to photograph at Madrid. The only thing that Madrid lacks is an aviary for smaller birds, that Barcelona have (but that it's very dark for photograph, and even maybe for the welfare of the birds). Of the zoos that I've visited in my life, 9 were worst than Madrid (including Barcelona zoo), 8 were better than Madrid, and the rest were more or less the same quality than Madrid.

If that's just a question of Barcelona having improved very much since my last visit, and now Barcelona is much better than then, I will eat my words... certainly my last Madrid visit was much more recent.

 

[CGSwans]

Then you must have been only at Madrid, Osaka and maybe a superzoo like Berlin or San Diego, and for sure not Barcelona. It would be the only thing that explains why you prefair Barcelona (that is disappointing in species (nothing too rare, unique and spectacular), exhibits (dry hot dirt for most, small cages for not so small primates...) and aesthetics (signage, horrible animal caricatures...) as I already said) over Madrid zoo (that is better than average zoo). Madrid have 284 taxa in Zootierliste, and Barcelona 275 (this surprises me a lot, as I always tough by my visits that Barcelona have MUCH less species). On average, animals are easier to photograph at Madrid. Of the zoos that I've visited in my life, 9 were worst than Madrid (including Barcelona zoo), 8 were better than Madrid, and the rest were more or less the same quality than Madrid.

If that's just a question of Barcelona having improved very much since my last visit, and now Barcelona is much better than then, I will eat my words... certainly my last Madrid visit was much more recent.

I visited both in March of last year. Admittedly the weather was better in Barcelona - a nice sunny day where I eventually moved on to the beach, as against dismal cold in Madrid. That aside, I found Madrid to be a boring collection of run of the mill large mammals, mostly contained in at best adequate and often sub-standard exhibits - elephants and sun bears being among the most notable examples. The tropical house was shuttered, the bird collection effectively non-existent, the aquarium looked 20 years older than it was and the whole place felt half-forgotten. All in all, it was an example of when privatisation goes badly wrong: I don't doubt the crowds roll in during better weather, but the revenue wasn't being invested back into the zoo at all.

Barcelona, by contrast, has a balanced collection of mammals, reptiles and birds. When I was there development work was underway on several key exhibits including dolphins and elephants. With a year's hindsight I cannot think of anything that I felt was a significant failing - faults, to be sure, but on the whole Barcelona was a perfectly normal, standard European zoo.