Europe's 50 must see zoos

TeaLovingDave said:
Unfortunately, the amount of individuals lost before this was realised means that collections will be incredibly loathe ever to attempt keeping river dolphins again.
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Interesting - it's a shame there are no real success stories for this group as captive species and as you say, it would be difficult to justify bringing any new species into captivity. Imagine if Lipotes vexillifer could have been brought into a programme as a result of having learned something useful from another species. Whilst educating some of my Chinese (and other international) students during a project on saving endangered species from their own countries, none of them had even heard of it.
 
There have been quite a few surprises on the list so far; some of them pleasant and some of them thought provoking. I think Duisburg is the first zoo that I flat-out disagree with. I just don't think one individual animal can elevate a thoroughly middle-of-the-pack zoo into the top 50. There are too many examples in Europe of other 'lone survivors' to make it a workable principle of inclusion. Maybe if they had a breeding group, or if they still held tucuxi and beluga as well it'd be different.
 
There are other last survivors, but Baby and the Eastern gorilla are certainly the pre-eminent examples. Which, come to think of it, does rather imply that we are a bit more ABC-oriented than we might think.

Lintworm’s concept is the ‘must see zoos’ that should provide a structure to a major European zoo trip. Having recently done possibly the biggest single such trip, Duisburg certainly *did* meet that criteria, and that was purely because of the dolphin.
 
FunkyGibbon said:
There have been quite a few surprises on the list so far; some of them pleasant and some of them thought provoking. I think Duisburg is the first zoo that I flat-out disagree with. I just don't think one individual animal can elevate a thoroughly middle-of-the-pack zoo into the top 50. There are too many examples in Europe of other 'lone survivors' to make it a workable principle of inclusion. Maybe if they had a breeding group, or if they still held tucuxi and beluga as well it'd be different.
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I never expected everybody to agree with all my choices, but I think the Boto, more so than the Eastern gorilla, is the one animal that every zoochatter kind of tries to see before it dies. There are enough examples of people whose first continental zoo trip includes Duisburg just because of the Boto. That doesn't make it a top zoo, but certainly a must-see one.

@Brum, have you found the mystery establishment yet, it will be the zoo after the next ;)
 
Well the next conventional choice is presumably Frankfurt (unless Erfurt is more notable than I thought?). And Hamburg would be a good bet too. Does that narrow it down?
 
Germany - Zoo Frankfurt

Founded: 1858
Size: 11 hectares
Species and subspecies (including domestics):
Mammals 86
Birds 83
Reptiles & amphibians 89
Fish 169

Though the days of Solenodons and Tarsiers are over, the Grzimek house should still feature on the list of obligatory zoo pilgrimages. The Grzimek house is still the largest nocturnal house in Europe and considering that the nocturnal section, makes up only half of the house, give a sense of scale. About 40 small mammal species, a few birds and Komodo dragons, are displayed in over 40 different exhibits. Though the house shows its age, downsizing the size of its inhabitants has enabled proper housing for most of the species kept. The current highlights are Aye-Aye, Black-and-rufous Sengi, Quoll, Slender lorises and a colony of 700 bats, so nothing to be ashamed off. The rest of the zoo is a mix of old and new. The Borgori house, for Bonobo, Orangutan and Gorilla is possibly the best great ape house in the world when it comes to the indoor enclosures. The cat house is also spacious indoors, but less so outdoors. Then there is a range of hoofstock and canids displayed in perfectly fine paddocks, with rarities like Klipspringer and Yellow-backed duiker. Then there is an old monkey house, with more cages for Yellow-breasted capuchin than any other zoo. Though impressively ugly, it is fine for the inhabitants as most species have been phased out. The bird house also shows its age with many small glass-fronted aviaries, but now without the rarities like Picathathes and Wattle-eye. Frankfurt is struggling to get from the 70ies to the 21st century and without the Grzimek house and rarities still dotted all over the place, it would have much less to show for itself. Currently it is a very enjoyable city zoo that has a lot of diversity on a relatively small area and most new enclosures are very good indeed, though may feel oversized for the zoo.

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@FunkyGibbon , Exotarium with Seal exhibit in front

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@Goura , Bird house

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@lintworm , Grzimek house night section

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@lintworm , Part of the Bonobo indoors in the Borgori house

Zoochat gallery:
Zoo Frankfurt | ZooChat

www.zoo-frankfurt.de

Zoo map:
https://www.zoo-frankfurt.de/fileadmin/redakteure/allgemein/PDF/Zoo-Plan/Zooplan_2016.pdf
 
Frankfurt has always fascinated me from looking through the photos on here, especially for the tantalizing Grzimek house. One of those exhibits I've long dreamed of visiting. Other than that, it strikes me as an interesting (if sometimes for less than ideal reasons) time capsule of mid-century zoo design, from very geometric architecture to nasty bathroom tiling to somewhat eccentric enclosures like that big indoor shoebill exhibit in the bird house. (I'm also kind of in love with that tacky giant bat outside the Grzimek house. I hope they keep that :p) Quirky bits of history like that intrigue me as a naive American zoo-goer. I'm really happy to see modernized improvements like the ape house and maned wolf exhibit, though.
 
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Random guess for the upcoming surprise zoo: Görlitz Tierpark?

Edit: Scratch that, Görlitz does have a (very rudimentary) gallery.
 
Hvedekorn said:
Random guess for the upcoming surprise zoo: Görlitz Tierpark?

Edit: Scratch that, Görlitz does have a (very rudimentary) gallery.
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The surprise zoo is supossed to be one without gallery here?

*Excitement level rising*
 
Germany - Tierfreigelände I des Nationalparks Bayerischer Wald, Grafenau

Founded: 1975
Size: 200 hectares
Species (including domestics):
Mammals 12
Birds 26
Reptiles & amphibians 0
Fish 0​

Wildparks (“game parks”) are a common feature throughout Europe, often focusing on European wildlife, mammal-heavy and with spacious and wooded enclosures. the Tierfreigelände at the National Park information center Lusen, near Grafenau, is no exception. The Tierfreigelände was founded by the Bavarian Forest National Park to show some of the animals (originally) occurring in the park. This zoo sets itself apart by having even larger enclosures than most wildparks and having multiple large aviaries, mostly walkthrough, for native birds. Set in a hilly forest many enclosures are several hectares in size and are perfectly suited to their inhabitants, as they are basically the natural habitat of these species. So some of Europe’s best enclosures for European lynx, Brown bear, Wisent and others are located here. The mammal line-up is maybe not spectacular with European otter, European bison, Pine marten and Brown bears as highlights. The bird collection is more interesting with species as Hazel grouse, Capercaillie, Black kites and European honey buzzards. With some luck Ural owls can even be observed in the wild, as several of these animals have been re-introduced into the National Park, but still return from time to time to the zoo. Though visiting this zoo might sometimes feel as a good walk through the forest with long stretches between the relatively few enclosures, this is still very much a zoo and possibly the best in what it is trying to be.

There is no gallery of this zoo at Zoochat, all pictures were made by uli1001 from the German Zoofreunde Forum and are shared here with her permission. There is an extensive walkthrough of this collection in the Zoofreunde forum by her as well.

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Black grouse and songbird aviary

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Part of Lynx enclosure

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Wisents in a clearing in their enclosure

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Bear enclosure

Tier- Freigelände im Nationalparkzentrum Lusen - Internetangebot

Zoo map:
Tier- Freigelände im Nationalparkzentrum Lusen - Virtueller Rundgang - Internetangebot
 
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I haven't heard about grafenau until the post and all i can say is it looks really nice

What I wanted to say about Frankfurt is that
I feel they did very well at creating realistic and representive exhbits on a smaller scale since they had to keep the classic taxonomic theme lacking space to built bigger geozone themed areas and are therefor very much on the top with just a very few comparable
 
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Ortolan bunting said:
out of curiosity does any swedish zoos appear on this list
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There are certainly enough candidates, but you will find out soon enough once we get there :p

Pleistohorse said:
Well, I was close...
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You were indeed close and Gangelt is also an excellent wildpark, the same can be said of Bad Mergentheim, Anholter Schweiz and more. But I feel Grafenau has something extra, which the others can't/fail to replicate.
 
lintworm said:
You were indeed close and Gangelt is also an excellent wildpark, the same can be said of Bad Mergentheim, Anholter Schweiz and more. But I feel Grafenau has something extra, which the others can't/fail to replicate.
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I’m thrilled that a Wildpark made the cut. The enclosures at Grafenau look beautiful from the photographs.
 
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