Fav. Exhibit

I agree with gentle lemur! Palace of the apes is a brilliant exhibit! And Cloud forest is ver good too!
 
I'm not looking for the largest, the most impressive, the most beautiful, etc. exhibit. I just like the small, and easy ones. Underneath you see an example of what I mean. This is a small exhibit somewhere between the trees and bushes of the Apenheul. Notice the rope which 'separates' the public from the animals (golden lion tamarins and white-faced sakis). You almost can feel the excitement of an explorer somewhere in the neotropics of Amazonia who finds a group of monkeys. No bars, no distance between you and the animals, no you nearly can tough them. This is the exhibit I like the most, and Apenheul has more of these.

PS: On December 29, last year, a white-faced saki was born in this enclosure.

2l8uo35.jpg
 
I haven't been to many (yet) but I paticularly liked Melbourne Zoo's 'Orangutan Sanctuary', Bristol's 'Gorilla Island' and London's Clore Rainforest Lookout
 
Some of mine:

UK's zoos (visited in 1999):

London Zoo's B.U.G.S
Whipsnade's Wolf Woods

American zoos (visited 80's to 2002):

Lowry Park's walk-through aviary
North Carolina Zoo's African area
Busch Gardens' tiger and African plains exhibits (I don't remember much else from my visits there, but those two stuck out of my mind the most)

Canadian zoos:

Toronto Zoo's African rainforest, Australasia pavilion and African savannah. Basically most sections of the zoo safe for the outdated exhibits.
Bird Kingdom's main aviary, small aviary and bat exhibit in the nocturnal section
 
i think this thread is interesting & worth reviving, so i'll add my 5 cents...

as my home zoo, zurich, has fair contenders for personal favourite in europe/world for each category, I have chosen to pick my favourites for "zurich", "europe without zurich", and "world without europe":

indoor mixed
(zurich): masoala (imho still unrivaled as *the* best indoor immersion exhibit in the world)
(europe): vogelhaus, schönbrunn (near perfect adaptation of a historic zoo building into a modern zoo exhibit) (etosha house in basel i also find an extremely well done small sized indoor mixed exhibit)
(world): kelp forest, monterey bay aquarium (...or the outer bay exhibit, I cannot decide? both are imho unmatched in their beauty by any other zoo exhibit I know) (... I would give planet penguin, loro parque, the crown for most distinctive/inventive indoor exhibit)

indoor single
(zurich): elephant house
(europe): hippo house, berlin
(world): jellyfish, monterey bay aquarium (proof that not only large mammals can draw crowds!)

outdoor mixed
(zurich): spectacled bear / coati
(europe): ???
(world): fragile forest, singapore

outdoor single
(zurich): snow leopard
(europe): "gamgoas" lions, basel
(world): orang utan, singapore
 
single exhibits:

singapore orangutans- free ranging and amazing
singapore proboscis- mixed proboscis, horn bill and barking deer. not huge but very well thought out.
reepark ebeltoft- cheetah. massive and looks great
Jurong- loryloft is the best avairy I have ever been in, has great oppurtunity to view birds flying at canopy level

House:

Bronx madagascar- great house with brilliant attention to detail
Burgers bush- great atmosphere, could spend all day in there but would move out the aardvarks! as don't fit?
Prague- Africa house for interesting species
 
Houses:

- definitely Africa from Near at Prague Zoo
- Indonesian Jungle Prague
- Grzimek nocturnal animal-house at Frankfurt Zoo
- Borgori-Wald at Frankfurt
- Nachtzoo at Saarbrücken Zoo
- Rio Negro at Duisburg Zoo
- ELE Tropenparadies at Zoom Gelsenkirchen
- Hippodom at Cologne Zoo
- Taman Indah at Rotterdam
- House of Oceans (?) at Rotterdam
- nearly all houses at Burgers' Zoo (Burgers' Desert, Burgers' Bush, Burgers' Ocean etc)
- African nocturnal animals house at Plzen Zoo

Mixed exhibits:

- African savannah at Prague
- Mountain Ungulates at Prague
- Spectacled bears/ Black-and-gold howler monkeys at Frankfurt
- African savannah at Amnéville Zoo
- African savannah at Zoom Gelsenkirchen
- Burgers' safari at, what wonder, Burgers' Zoo
- African savannah at Plzen Zoo
- Bactrian camels/ Blackbucks at Plzen Zoo

Single exhibts:
Too many to list all but the first I think off...

- Snow leopards at Karlsruhe Zoo
- Red pandas at Karlsruhe Zoo
- Matschie's Tree Kangaroos at Cologne
- Servals at Rotterdam
- Fossas at Duisburg Zoo
- Humboldt penguins at Amnéville
- Fossas at Frankfurt Zoo
- Strped skunks at Gelsenkirchen
- Polar bears at Gelsenkirchen
- California sea lions at Gelsenkirchen
- South-east asian elephants at Prague
- Red pandas at Prague
- South american coati at Prague
- Lions at Wuppertal
- Hausa genets at Plzen

I could name at least 20 or 30 more for each category, although I just visited 18 medium sized - big sized zoos. It's just amazing what some zoos built, are building and are going to build. :D
 
Exhibit buildings*:-

>Oceanium - Diergaarde Blijdorp
>Aquarium - Artis
>Crocodile River - Diergaarde Blijddorp
*I excluded Berlin Zoo's Aquarium because it's a separate attraction

Outdoor mixed:-

>Floodplain Savannah - Werribee Open Range Zoo
>Great Flight Aviary - Melbourne Zoo
>Spectacled Bear and Coati - Chester Zoo

Outdoor single:-

>Hippo River - Werribee Open Range Zoo
>Orang-utan Sanctuary - Melbourne Zoo
>Lions - Werribee Open Range Zoo


This should come with a disclaimer that Werribee Zoo only has a few exhibits but they're all of the highest quality.
 
Exhibit buildings:

- Etosha house (Basel)
- Monkey + bird house (Artis)
- Masoala (Zurich)
- Burgers Bush/Ocean/Desert (Burgers Zoo)
- Bird house (Vienna)
- All historical buildings (Tiergarten Schönnbrun)

Outdoor mixed:
- Ethiopian mountain (Zürich)
- Treetops walk (Apenheul)
- Gorilla island (Apenheul)
- Pinnipeds Yukon Bay (Hannover)
- Asian ungulates and monkeys (Burgers Zoo)
- Spectacled bear & Coati (Zurich)
- Malayan sun bear & Binturong (Burgers Zoo)
- Migratory birds aviary (Blijdorp) - does not exist anymore

Outdoor single species:
- Hyena (Leipzig)
- Wolverine (Gaiazoo)
- Naked mole rat (Emmen)
- Snow leopards (Karlsruhe)
- Playa Penguinos (Emmen) does not exist anymore.

Indoor enclosure:
- Kaen Krechan elephant house (Zurich)
- Africambo (Magdeburg)
- Sumatran orang utans (Frankfurt)

I am probably forgetting some exhibits worth mentioning....
 
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