'Big 5'

aardvark250 said:
Agree with the 4 inclusion for aquarium, but maybe Nagoya Port Aquarium for Aquamarine Fukushima?
For zoos, I too agree with the 4, I don't know much about Asa Zoo, but maybe Saitama? They recently join WAZA and get a lot of cool species. Or maybe Adventure World with their safari and pandas.
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I haven’t been to Aquamarine Fukushima yet but from the online videos and JAZA’s lists it has many more rare fish and invertebrates species, especially cold-water and deep-sea, than Port of Nagoya. Aqua World Oarai is up there too, with a lot of small shark and ray species, but again I haven’t been, so I can’t judge it too well.
 
amur leopard said:
I assume by the 2 you think merit a place in the top 5 in reality you mean Edinburgh and Chester?
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No, Bristol and Chester :)

amur leopard said:
My European Big 5 would replace London with Vienna but other than that exactly the same, and then my UK Big 5 would be identical.
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Yeah, Vienna should definitely be in the Europe Big Five (as opposed to Top Five) - though maybe swapped with Pairi rather than London. My thinking is based on how famous or well-known the zoos are, and I'm not sure how much Pairi counts outside our relatively specialised field of reference :p
 
@amur leopard No it is NOT easier for USA. There are too many good choices. Lots of people - including the esteemed and well-travelled @snowleopard - include Henry Doorly Zoo in their top five. I have never been (so I suppose I shouldn't judge) but based on what I have seen online I don't get it. I certainly have no desire to go and I do know one prominent ZooChat member who has been and who agrees with my assessment that it is over-rated.

Of course the difficulty is separating what could objectively be called Big Five or Best Five from what would be our personal Favorite Five. As @TeaLovingDave points out these two lists will inevitably be different (and I think there is a thread already for personal favorites). I will give a try at a USA list:
San Diego Zoo
Bronx Zoo
Dallas Zoo
Columbus Zoo
Woodland Park Zoo

(Honorable Mention to Philadelphia Zoo)
 
Arizona Docent said:
Of course the difficulty is separating what could objectively be called Big Five or Best Five from what would be our personal Favorite Five. As @TeaLovingDave points out these two lists will inevitably be different (and I think there is a thread already for personal favorites)
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Well, I was more pointing out that Big Five and Best Five are probably two different lists :P Favourite Five would be a third.
 
I was going to argue that I don't think Edinburgh should be on a UK 'Big 5', but then I started listing its special attractions like the pandas, koalas, penguin pool, and Budongo trail and yeah, I guess it probably does. I think being the only 'major' one in Scotland probably helps it stand out quite a bit. Personally I think somewhere like Paignton has a much more impressive collection overall, and there's probably more English ones I haven't been to that beat it out in the 'Best' department, if not as well known.

(I briefly and jokingly considered a quick 'Scottish' Top 5, but there's barely 6 noteworthy institutions in the country these days lmao I would feel bad leaving one out)

@TeaLovingDave Out of interest, what would your UK best 5 and favourite 5 be?
 
Scottish Wildcat said:
@TeaLovingDave Out of interest, what would your UK best 5 and favourite 5 be?
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Well, the top spot for both is Chester.... but otherwise I think the following is fairly plastic, changes with my mood and is in no particular order:

Best:

Chester
Bristol
Colchester
HWP
Paignton

Favourite:

Chester
HWP
Cotswold
Hamerton
Bristol

If asked last year, Living Coasts would have been in the latter list, and Cotswold probably wouldn't.
 
One thing I would like to mention is that with the Singapore zoo, Berlin zoo/aquarium, and SDZ complexes, they should probably be considered together. IMO the safari park is an extension of the San Diego Zoo
 
ChunkyMunky pengopus said:
Berlin zoo/aquarium
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Only this one from the ones you mentioned is generally considered to be ‘together’ to use your wording. The rest are more separate as entities - I know this isn’t always a great measure of identity, but for example, SDZ and SDZSP have separate social media accounts but Berlin Zoo and Aquarium do not since the aquarium is essentially part of the zoo. Hope that explains it :)
 
We could all come up with different lists and that's what makes these exercises fun. Here are some choices from me:

Big/Best 5 Zoos in North America:

San Diego
Omaha
Saint Louis
Bronx
Columbus

(The top 4 are quite secure in my mind, with Columbus as the wild card)

Big/Best 5 Aquariums in North America:

Shedd
Georgia
Monterey Bay
Tennessee
Baltimore

Big/Best 5 Zoos in Europe:

Berlin
Chester
Prague
Vienna
Pairi Daiza

(Some zoo nerds could easily swap one of the 5 for Zurich, Beauval or another zoo)

Big/Best 5 Aquariums in Europe:

Valencia (Spain)
Lisbon (Portugal)
Den Ba Planet (Denmark)
Nausicaa (France)
Moskvarium (Russia)

(Genoa, in Italy, could be another option)

Big/Best 5 Zoos Worldwide:

San Diego
Berlin
Singapore
Omaha
Chester
 
red river hog said:
For the US, I'd say my big five for zoos (in no particular order) is:
San Diego Zoo
Omaha's Henry Doorly Zoo & Aquarium
Saint Louis Zoo
Columbus Zoo & Aquarium
Bronx Zoo
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snowleopard said:
San Diego
Omaha
Saint Louis
Bronx
Columbus
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I think these are spot on for the US. They are among the largest zoos in the country in terms of attendance, species count, number of rare species, conservation efforts, and adding new innovative and well made exhibits (Bronx is the odd one here but their exhibitry is consistently good even in their older buildings).

Plus if you were to ask a random American to name any zoo it would probably be one of these five. Name recognition is important for this "Big 5"
 
Echobeast said:
I think these are spot on for the US. They are among the largest zoos in the country in terms of attendance, species count, number of rare species, conservation efforts, and adding new innovative and well made exhibits (Bronx is the odd one here but their exhibitry is consistently good even in their older buildings).

Plus if you were to ask a random American to name any zoo it would probably be one of these five. Name recognition is important for this "Big 5"
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I agree, and @Echobeast named all of the important components to what I initially meant/what is commonly meant by a 'big 5'. They are also nicely spread across the country.
 
birdsandbats said:
I imagine it would probably be either San Diego or DAK.
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I'm not sure if the average American would call DAK a zoo. They'd probably group it in with the rest of Disney as a theme park even though in reality it's just a well funded zoo built by Disney. But I agree that SDZ has done a wonderful job marketing themselves as world famous and it probably would be the first one mentioned by most people.
 
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Echobeast said:
attendance, species count, number of rare species, conservation efforts, and adding new innovative and well made exhibits
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Starting from this thread: European zoo attendance the 5 biggest zoos attendance-wise would be Berlin, Moscow, Lyon, Munich and Pairi Daiza.
I think it's fair to say that Lyon is disqualified because it's really fairly small. Moscow on the other hand gets disqualified because its husbandry standards are quite clearly below those of Europe (as well as only marginally being part of Europe). Munich, whilst having a large attendance and good enclosures, loses out because it lacks the species count, rare species, and innovative exhibits.
That would then make my somewhat-but-not-really objective big 5: Berlin, Pairi Daiza, Vienna, Chester and Leipzig. I think that's not a bad list - all are world-class zoos with comprehensive collections and a decent amount of rarities. Conservation efforts vary, but as far as I know Vienna, Chester and Leipzig make significant contributions, and I suppose both Berlin and PD also contribute a fair bit.
However, personally, I don't like PD very much. I'd much rather replace it with a zoo that has everything PD has, but has more innovative exhibits and a higher husbandry standard. I suggest looking a bit lower on the list, at either Zurich or Burgers. These two are more deserving of PD's spot, I think. Between those two, Zurich takes the cake with a larger and more comprehensive collection, and a larger attendance (and also a larger contribution to conservation?).
So my final objective-but-not-really Big 5 list would be:
  • Zoo Berlin
  • Tiergarten Schönbrunn (Vienna)
  • Chester Zoo
  • Zoo Leipzig
  • Zoo Zürich
 
Penshet said:
Munich, whilst having a large attendance and good enclosures, loses out because it lacks the species count, rare species, and innovative exhibits.
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I bet to differ on that one :P it is a pretty large and speciose collection, has a fair few rare or uncommon species, and it literally pioneered the concept of the geographically-themed zoo!

I wouldn't call Pairi Daiza world class, either!
 
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