sooty mangabey
Well-Known Member
Thank you for this very interesting thread, Shorts. It's been excellent to, vicariously, join you on your travels to some of the best zoos in the world.
As someone who loves the Netherlands, and Dutch zoos, I'd like to add my two penn'orth.
The Netherlands is the only country that can rival Germany as being the best for zoos in Europe - France and the Czech Republic following up, with Austria, Belgium and Switzerland all in the few-but-what-are-there-are-very-good camp. That a country of fewer than 17 million people should have so many remarkable zoos is simply extraordinary - the UK is three times the size, and just doesn't come close. I think it's the variety to Dutch zoos that really stands out - they are all so different (or, at least, the large ones are - the Zodiac zoos are very good, but a little more homogenous).
Dutch zoos do seem to show the value of investment. They've spent a lot of money developing over the past two decades, but they do now get huge crowds - and this despite very high entrance prices (especially compared to those seen over the border in Germany).
The Arnhem or Rotterdam debate is an interesting one. I'd always have plumped for Rotterdam - certainly since the developments from the 1990s onwards. However, hearing about the decline of the collection is worrying. The director is clearly a man with a zoo interest - is the decline despite his efforts, or because of them? In other words, is he powerless to stop the desecration of the Rivierahall in the light of financial demands? Arnhem has always seemed to me to be very good - brilliant in places - but to lack the attention to detail that the truly great zoos have. As Johnny says above, there are bits to some of the new developments that are a little second-rate, while the 'old' zoo has been less than impressive. this is to quibble though: it is still clearly a top, top place, and I understand that much of the bad stuff is going (or has gone).
I don't think anyone has mentioned Aviafauna here, which is some ways is indicative of the brilliance of other zoos in the country - it's a perfectly decent bird place, that elsewhere would stand out. here, though, it is almost possible to forget it.
And on the subject of the Dutch themselves - it is, of course, dangerous and absurd to generalise about a nation, but having spent a fair bit of time in the country, and with many Dutch friends, I'd have to say that in my experience the Dutch possibly do lack humility - but then, they have every reason for this to be the case (and not just the quality of their zoos). Dutch school children can be a bit of a nightmare, but then something miraculous seems to happen as they get older, and they civilise markedly (a friend at Antwerp Zoo once told me that the staff at the zoo dreaded visits from Dutch schools, because the behaviour was markedly different from that seen from Belgian children). I don't think the Dutch are a people who have much time for the sort of polite niceties that we sometimes take for granted in the UK - strangers don't tend to smile at you very often, for example - but the Dutch that I know are very generous, good fun and highly educated, and I would suggest that such niceties are often rather superficial anyway. And everyone in the Netherlands is very tall as well!
As someone who loves the Netherlands, and Dutch zoos, I'd like to add my two penn'orth.
The Netherlands is the only country that can rival Germany as being the best for zoos in Europe - France and the Czech Republic following up, with Austria, Belgium and Switzerland all in the few-but-what-are-there-are-very-good camp. That a country of fewer than 17 million people should have so many remarkable zoos is simply extraordinary - the UK is three times the size, and just doesn't come close. I think it's the variety to Dutch zoos that really stands out - they are all so different (or, at least, the large ones are - the Zodiac zoos are very good, but a little more homogenous).
Dutch zoos do seem to show the value of investment. They've spent a lot of money developing over the past two decades, but they do now get huge crowds - and this despite very high entrance prices (especially compared to those seen over the border in Germany).
The Arnhem or Rotterdam debate is an interesting one. I'd always have plumped for Rotterdam - certainly since the developments from the 1990s onwards. However, hearing about the decline of the collection is worrying. The director is clearly a man with a zoo interest - is the decline despite his efforts, or because of them? In other words, is he powerless to stop the desecration of the Rivierahall in the light of financial demands? Arnhem has always seemed to me to be very good - brilliant in places - but to lack the attention to detail that the truly great zoos have. As Johnny says above, there are bits to some of the new developments that are a little second-rate, while the 'old' zoo has been less than impressive. this is to quibble though: it is still clearly a top, top place, and I understand that much of the bad stuff is going (or has gone).
I don't think anyone has mentioned Aviafauna here, which is some ways is indicative of the brilliance of other zoos in the country - it's a perfectly decent bird place, that elsewhere would stand out. here, though, it is almost possible to forget it.
And on the subject of the Dutch themselves - it is, of course, dangerous and absurd to generalise about a nation, but having spent a fair bit of time in the country, and with many Dutch friends, I'd have to say that in my experience the Dutch possibly do lack humility - but then, they have every reason for this to be the case (and not just the quality of their zoos). Dutch school children can be a bit of a nightmare, but then something miraculous seems to happen as they get older, and they civilise markedly (a friend at Antwerp Zoo once told me that the staff at the zoo dreaded visits from Dutch schools, because the behaviour was markedly different from that seen from Belgian children). I don't think the Dutch are a people who have much time for the sort of polite niceties that we sometimes take for granted in the UK - strangers don't tend to smile at you very often, for example - but the Dutch that I know are very generous, good fun and highly educated, and I would suggest that such niceties are often rather superficial anyway. And everyone in the Netherlands is very tall as well!
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