Europe's Top 100 Zoos and Aquariums?

I’d say Dublin is a top zoo whilst not necessarily being a top collection if that makes sense.

It’s a lovely site to stroll around and there are some great enclosures. Definitely a very rewarding experience for the casual visitor and hard to miss anything out due to a user friendly layout. But it’s very ABC mammal heavy.
 
Thinking further.....

Penshet said:
  • Océanopolis, Brest (France)
  • Nausicaa, Boulogne-sur-Mer (France)
  • Marineland, Antibes (France)
  • Dolfinarium, Harderwijk (Netherlands)
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Although I have not visited any of these four - and know little about all but the last - I think that at least one or two of the "dolphin park" type collections could safely be dismissed in favour of somewhere like one of the collections cited by @lintworm below, or indeed Aquazoo Dusseldorf (one of my suggestions).

lintworm said:
Given that aquaria are given so much sway, imo more than they are worth, I find it surprising no one has mentioned Poema del Mar on the Canary Islands, nor Aquatis Lausanne, which is Europe's largest freshwater aquarium.
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Again, two collections I know little to nothing about :) and it is nice to know you agree with me with regards to people giving aquariums more sway than they perhaps merit!
 
Penshet said:
  • Haus des Meeres, Vienna (Austria)
  • Den Bla Planet, Copenhagen (Denmark)
  • Océanopolis, Brest (France)
  • Nausicaa, Boulogne-sur-Mer (France)
  • Marineland, Antibes (France)
  • Dolfinarium, Harderwijk (Netherlands)
  • Oceanario, Lisbon (Portugal)
  • Living Coasts, Torquay (UK)
  • Oceanografic, Valencia (Spain)
  • The Deep, Hull (UK)
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I would replace maybe Oceanopolis with Acquario de Genova, it is a fantastic aquarium and one of the only collections in Italy I found worth visiting :)

Penshet said:
  • Zoo Ostrava
  • Parc des Oiseaux, Villars-les-Dombes
  • Montpellier Zoo
  • Zoological Park of Mulhouse
  • Zoo d'Amnéville
  • Thoiry ZooSafari
  • Zoo La Palmyre
  • Zoological Park of Plaisance du Touch
  • African Reserve of Sigéan
  • Zoo Duisburg
  • Zoo Dortmund
  • Zoo Krefeld
  • Opel Zoo, Kronberg
  • Zoo Chemnitz
  • Zoo Dresden
  • Zoo Magdeburg
  • Niendorf Bird Park, Timmendorfer Strand
  • Sosto Zoo, Nyiregyhaza, Hungary
  • Fota Wildlife Park, Foaty, Ireland
  • Lagos Zoo, Portugal
  • Faunia, Madrid
  • Zoo Madrid
  • Barcelona Zoo
  • Zoo Santillana del Mar
  • Cotswold Wildlife Park, Bekesbourne
  • Colchester Zoo
  • Twycross Zoo
  • Hamerton Zoo Park
  • Newquay Zoo
  • Longleat Safari Park, Warminster
  • Yorkshire Wildlife Park, Branton
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Amneville certainly belongs on there despite having its EAZA accreditation stripped (the zoo started a Tiger Circus-style show). Mulhouse is also a good zoo. La Palmyre and Thoiry are also very good collections. Hamerton is very interesting and probably should be on the list. Colchester is not fantastic but decent - however nothing is really special as is the case with Hamerton. Madrid and Barcelona have fantastic ABC collections for those who are interested in such things, but I got rather bored in these establishments - there weren't any species in either of them that I hadn't seen before I don't think. YWP has very good enclosures for a few of its animals largely because they have lots of space and raw materials. Lagos is not a great zoo - it now has no more pygmy hippos which were their main attraction species (they have all been shipped out to Beauval I believe). Most of the German zoos in that list are unremarkable and in essence Chester dumbed down. The only one I would consider taking a trip to would be Duisburg uniquely for Baby of course.

Of those, if I had to choose, I would go for Amneville, Thoiry, La Palmyre, Mulhouse, Hamerton, Colchester, Faunia Madrid, Zoo Madrid, Zoo Barcelona, YWP, Duisburg, Montpellier, Ostrava, Longleat, Newquay and Santillana del Mar.

However, there are also zoos like Bratislava which probably should be there and I think Antibes Marineland and the Dolfinarium in Harderwijk should be replaced with the Genova Aquarium and maybe Aquatis Lausanne as @lintworm suggested :)
 
amur leopard said:
Madrid and Barcelona have fantastic ABC collections ...... there weren't any species in either of them that I hadn't seen before I don't think.
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Really? You've presumably seen *dozens* of Iberian Lynx and Montseny Newts then.... ;) :p

amur leopard said:
However, there are also zoos like Bratislava which probably should be there
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Although it's said to be the best Slovakia has to offer, I'm given to understand it isn't actually all that good?
 
TeaLovingDave said:
Really? You've presumably seen *dozens* of Iberian Lynx and Montseny Newts then.... ;) :p



Although it's said to be the best Slovakia has to offer, I'm given to understand it isn't actually all that good?
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Oh...:eek: I forgot the lynx. I didn't get to see the newts for some reason...
But the point still remains, it is still a collection largely dominated by ABCs.

As for Bratislava, I understood from photos from the gallery that the enclosures aren't bad at all and their collection is quite good as well.
 
I rather like Madrid, and would argue that it does belong in a European “Top 100”. It has been derided for being “just” an ABC collection, but the days of such comprehensive collections being commonplace are long gone. To have Giant Pandas, Koalas, Bottle-nosed Dolphins, all in one place, is quite something. The 1970s architecture is fantastic, and while some exhibits are less than optimum they have been improved markedly. The aquarium is very good. And it’s a full day zoo.

My opinion is maybe altered by my loving Madrid as a city, and I’d certainly not argue this was the best zoo in Spain, but it is a good place...
 
So, to take up this challenge...

I have visited 351 European Zoos. A large number of these can be discarded straight away, either because they're now closed down (Prague Terrarium, Windsor Safari Park...), really tiny (Zoo am Meer, Bremerhaven; Bentley Wildfowl Park), or really awful (Pecs Zoo, Genk) - with some falling into more than one of those categories.

There are also a number of places I've not seen, which would have a good shout for inclusion in such a list - I've not been to Lisbon, to anywhere in Greece or Italy, to Berne or Gdansk, to any Baltic or Scandinavian zoos (apart from Copenhagen). In the former Soviet Union, I've only been to two zoos. In France, I've not yet made it to the Parc des Felins.

So, from the places I have been to, here are the 73 I would definitely include:

  1. Tiergarten Schonbrunn Austria
  2. Antwerp Zoo Belgium
  3. Paira Diaza Belgium
  4. Planckendael Zoo Belgium
  5. Jersey Zoo Channel Islands
  6. Brno Zoo Czech Republic
  7. Dvur Kralove Zoo Czech Republic
  8. Jihlava Zoo Czech Republic
  9. Ostrava Zoo Czech Republic
  10. Plzen Zoo Czech Republic
  11. Prague Zoo Czech Republic
  12. Zlin Lesna Zoo Czech Republic
  13. Zoo Ohrada (Hluboka) Czech Republic
  14. Copenhagen Zoo Denmark
  15. Bristol Zoo England
  16. Chester Zoo England
  17. Cotswolds Wildlife Park England
  18. Dudley Zoo England
  19. Hamerton Zoo England
  20. London Zoo England
  21. Longleat Safari Park England
  22. Slimbridge Wildfowl Trust England
  23. Whipsnade Zoo England
  24. Amneville Zoo France
  25. Jardin des Plantes, Paris France
  26. Mulhouse Zoo France
  27. Parc de Cleres France
  28. Valle des Singes, Romagne France
  29. Zoo Beauval, St Aignan France
  30. Zoo de Vincennes, Paris France
  31. Zoo Doue la Fontaine France
  32. Allwetter Zoo, Munster Germany
  33. Augsburg Zoo Germany
  34. Berlin Tierpark Germany
  35. Berlin Zoo Germany
  36. Cologne Zoo Germany
  37. Dortmund Zoo Germany
  38. Dresden Zoo Germany
  39. Duisburg Zoo Germany
  40. Frankfurt Zoo Germany
  41. Hagenbecks Zoo, Hamburg Germany
  42. Hannover Zoo Germany
  43. Heidelberg Zoo Germany
  44. Krefeld Zoo Germany
  45. Leipzig Zoo Germany
  46. Magdeburg Zoo Germany
  47. Munich Zoo Germany
  48. NaturZoo, Rheine Germany
  49. Nuremburg Zoo Germany
  50. Rostock Zoo Germany
  51. Walsrode Vogelpark Germany
  52. Wilhelma, Stuttgart Zoo Germany
  53. Wuppertal Zoo Germany
  54. Budapest Zoo Hungary
  55. Dublin Zoo Ireland
  56. Fota Wildlife Park Ireland
  57. Apenheul, Apeldoorn Netherlands
  58. Artis Zoo, Amsterdam Netherlands
  59. Blijdorp Zoo, Rotterdam Netherlands
  60. Burgers Zoo, Arnhem Netherlands
  61. GaiaZoo, Kerkrade Netherlands
  62. Opole Zoo Poland
  63. Warsaw Zoo Poland
  64. Wroclaw Zoo Poland
  65. Moscow Zoo Russia
  66. Barcelona Zoo Spain
  67. Carbarceno Natural Park Spain
  68. Fuengirola Zoo Spain
  69. Madrid Zoo Spain
  70. Valencia Aquarium Spain
  71. Valencia Zoo Spain
  72. Basle Zoo Switzerland
  73. Zurich Zoo Switzerland

In response to the discussion, above, about the inclusion of 'mainstream' collections that aren't of the world class quality of a Berlin, Prague or Zurich.... I think @FunkyGibbon is being a little unfair to, as an example, Heidelberg Zoo. Heidelberg is not an 'international' zoo. Apart form Nerds Like Us it's not going to attract people coming to the city specifically to see it, in the manner of a San Diego, Chester or Paira Diaza, nor does it have the quirky specialism of some other mentioned zoos, but it is, nonetheless, an excellent establishment, a really good zoo, with a number of really good exhibits, and I would eb really delighted to be able to visit it, again and again. Opole, in Poland, is another such place - nothing earth-shattering nothing exceptional, just a really good zoo that it is an absolute pleasure to visit. I'd give my right arm to have such a place - or Wuppertal or Krefeld or Brno - as a 'local' zoo.
 
It's pretty difficult to do a list of the 100 best zoos in Europe (which is slightly smaller than America), also because there are a lot of mediocre/bad/terrible collections.


Parco Natura Viva in Italy is pretty good tho.
 
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sooty mangabey said:
A large number of these can be discarded straight away, either because they're now closed down (Prague Terrarium, Windsor Safari Park...), really tiny (Zoo am Meer, Bremerhaven; Bentley Wildfowl Park), or really awful (Pecs Zoo, Genk) - with some falling into more than one of those categories.
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Bowmanville zoo in Canada impressively completed the accolade of falling into all of those categories a few years ago when it closed down :D
 
amur leopard said:
Visiting Chester and then Krefeld would be disappointing because Krefeld is essentially a less good repeat of Chester.
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Having visited both collections within a span of a few weeks back in 2018 I'm struggling to think of much of any cross-over species between the two collections :confused:

As for Madrid, I find the Iberian section to be mostly pretty great (and definitely filled with several oddities) but after not I can't say much of the zoo impressed me. Their flight show area was pretty cool (and also filled with various rare zoo species :p) and it was neat to see dolphins in a zoo (a first for me at the time) but many exhibits aren't the zoo I found to be downright awful. Several of the pinniped exhibits, the baboon enclosure, the horribly overcrowded Barbary Sheep enclosure... The big cat and bear enclosures I found to be ok for what they were, but nothing stellar either. The African area, particularly the savanna, was good, though. In general I'd call Faunia a better zoo and more worthy of inclusion on a top 100 list than Madrid.

~Thylo
 
Ive been to all the zoos on Sooty`s list bar Valle des Singes...and only Fota and Ohrada genuinely surprise me as contenders.Off the top of my head personally i would add Bern,Parco Natura Viva, Sosto,Chomutov,Odense,Belfast, Attica,Loro Parque....there will be others if i gave it a good think . Aquariums?...Genoa,Brest,Nausicaa,Stralsund perhaps .Then there is the nature of any book..it would be bound to have a personal element - historical significance too - thats the reason we included Central Park in "America`s Top 100" given that it is arguably the U.S.A.`s first zoo...and for same the reason i would leave Cleres and Dudley on the list,and think hard about Rome and Avifauna too.
Crocodile zoos... no,not for me im afraid(Protivin would be a candidate for ugliest facility) and there are much better all-round reptile zoos.
Things change too - what was great 10 years ago,might not be that good now -for a book its important to be relatively up-to-date. I went to Aalborg Zoo in 1971 ,and ive no doubt its pretty good these days but i wouldnt dare consider it until ive been again.
Finally,and rather off-topic..Amur Leopard`s assessment of Bowmanville Zoo in Canda being both tiny and really awful...it was neither of those things when i was there a couple of summers ago.True, it was in the process of closing down,but ive seen much,much,worse over the years - in fact i was surprised how decent it was given all i`d heard.
 
Tim Brown said:
Finally,and rather off-topic..Amur Leopard`s assessment of Bowmanville Zoo in Canda being both tiny and really awful...it was neither of those things when i was there a couple of summers ago.
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And I went there in 2016 and it was a horrible, fetid place. I understand it was much worse forty years ago when they gave the children caramels to feed the animals.
 
Since I've had some time spare today I decided to give my top 100, but I still haven't got to the magic milestone yet. Some of these are definitely not amongst "the best" but would probably feature on a zoo trip due to proximity to other collections or prime places to stay. Examples of those collections are probably Dublin, the two Paris collections, London, Edinburgh, and probably both Madrid collections as well. Also note that I've included specialist collections where I deemed them appropriate as well.

UK
Bristol Zoo
Cotswold Wildlife Park
Chester Zoo
Colchester Zoo
The Deep
Edinburgh Zoo
Highland Wildlife Park
London Zoo
Whipsnade
Living Coasts
Twycross Zoo (Shocker, but I was suitably impressed by recent developments)

Ireland
Dublin

The Netherlands
Artis
Rotterdam Zoo
Burger's
Ouwehands
Apenheul
GaiaZoo
Delfinarium Harderwijk

Belgium
Antwerp Zoo
Plankendael
Pairi Daiza

Spain
Cabarceno
Bioparc Valencia
Valencia Oceanografic
Barcelona Zoo
Madrid Zoo
Faunia Madrid
Loro Parque

Portugal
Lisbon Zoo
Oceanario de Lisbon
Vasca Del Gama

Denmark
Den Bla Planet
Copenhagen Zoo

Jersey
Jersey Zoo

Greece
Attica Zoo

Italy
Parco Natura Viva
Bioparco Di Roma
Aquarium Of Genoa

Austria
Haus Des Meers
Tiergarten Schonbrunn
Alpenzoo Innsbruck
Salzburg

Hungary
Budapest
Sosti

Czechia
Prague Zoo
Plzen Zoo
Dvur Kralove
Zlin Zoo
Ostrava

Poland
Wroclaw Zoo
Warsaw Zoo
Poznan Zoo Nowe

Switzerland
Tierpark Berne
Basle Zoo
Zurich Zoo

France
Oceanapolis
Marineland Antibes
Nausicca
La Vallee De Singes
Paris Menagerie
Zoo De Vincennes
Doue La Fontaine
Beauval Zoo

European Russia
Moscvarium
Moscow Zoo

Estonia
Tallinn Zoo

Finland
Helsinki

Sweden
Boras Djurpark
Kolmarden
Norden's Ark

Germany
Aquazoo Dusseldorf
Berlin Zoo
Berlin Tierpark
Leipzig Zoo
Madgeburg Zoo
Tierpark Hellabrun
Nuremberg Zoo
Wilhelma Zoo Stuttgart
Hanover Zoo
Tierpark Hagenbeck
Walsrode
Cologne Zoo
Duisburg Zoo (but probably only until Baby dies)
Wuppertal Zoo
Frankfurt Zoo
Zoom Gelsenkirchen

By my reckoning that should be close to ninety collections.
 
amur leopard said:
Yes, you have 13 more spaces. In them I would probably include more French collections (La Palmyre, Amneville, Thoiry etc..)
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I thought about including CERZA from France, Fota from Ireland, Hamerton and Paignton from the UK, and Dortmund, Dresden and Heidelberg from Germany but wanted to make sure I had enough space for what I considered to be the essentials. Bratislava nearly got included because it's the only zoo of note in Slovakia but it just wasn't good enough, and I couldn't think of any Norwegian collections that definitely should be on there either...
 
Basically there`s only one zoo as such in Norway i think..I dont think a book on the top 100 can take a nation-by -nation geographical bias. For instance,i would be slightly dubious about including Attica even though i suggested it initially almost because its Greece`s only major zoo,and i thought Bratislava to be very dull three years ago - there are lots of places better than that particular facility ...
 
Bojnice used to be the better of the two main Slovakian zoos, but the zoo doesn't seem to be improving in recent years and focus mostly on collecting species. It has a picturesque location next to a castle and the hoofstock area is high quality though.
 
Finally.. and we all have a different yardstick,granted but Bowmanville ..well,amur leopard, its as if we went to different zoos. For "fetid" read "smelly" and it certainly wasnt that - or tiny for that matter,perhaps it had been tidied up with closure looming.Personally i would go for the old Knaresborough Zoo to fit that category..with a place in Qatar near Al Wabra i cant remember the name of, winning the category of "world `s worst zoo".And,back to topic..no-one`s mentioned Karsruhe in Germany - for sure better than some on either Sooty`s or Brum`s lists? Marineland Antibes? not for me, although i had a great day there,as i did along the coast at La Barben and Montpellier both of which could qualify(Monaco`s Aquarium too..unbeatable for Mediterranean fish).
 
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