List and Rank The North American Zoos You Have Visited!
- Thread starter geomorph
- Start date
Was the old elephant exhibit right by the pandas? I saw some in the distance when we were by the pandas, which was a really cool experience, but we were so low on time. I know National has a bad reputation on here but I'd love to go back.
Seeing this list reminded me of the thread I started of me ranking the zoos I visited. Due to a combination of insecurities and procrastination I did not really finish that thread. But seeing this thread I feel like I can narrow
Bronx Zoo
Brevard Zoo
St. Augustine Alligator Farm
Jacksonville Zoo
South Carolina Aquarium (My favorite aquarium gotta make it to the top five)
ZooTampa of Lowry Park
Turtleback Zoo
Central Park Zoo
Prospect Park Zoo
New York Aquarium
Queens Zoo
SeaWrold Orlando
Santa Fe College Teaching Zoo
Mystic Aquarium (I was too young to remember details this visit)
Bronx Zoo
Brevard Zoo
St. Augustine Alligator Farm
Jacksonville Zoo
South Carolina Aquarium (My favorite aquarium gotta make it to the top five)
ZooTampa of Lowry Park
Turtleback Zoo
Central Park Zoo
Prospect Park Zoo
New York Aquarium
Queens Zoo
SeaWrold Orlando
Santa Fe College Teaching Zoo
Mystic Aquarium (I was too young to remember details this visit)
Since I posted this ranking, I have visited another eight zoos. I've also re-visited some of the zoos on here, which can change my rankings of them (in at least one case I had a drastically different impression on my most recent visit). Without further ado, here's the newly updated list:
22. Animal Adventures Family Zoo
21. Aquarium of Niagara
20. The Seas Pavilion at Epcot
19. Boston Museum of Science (only judging the animal components- as a whole this museum is an incredible institution)
18. Hawk Creek Wildlife Center
17. The Wild Animal Park
16. Capron Park Zoo
15. Elmwood Park Zoo
14. Southwicks Zoo
13. Disney's Animal Kingdom Lodge
12. Utica Zoo
11. Philadelphia Zoo
10. Mystic Aquarium
9. Stone Zoo
8. Bird Kingdom
7. Buttonwood Park Zoo
6. Franklin Park Zoo
5. Rosamond Gifford Zoo
4. Disney's Animal Kingdom
3. Buffalo Zoo
2. Roger Williams Park Zoo
1. Cleveland Metroparks Zoo
Out of curiosity, what made you rank DAK so low? Given the zoos you’ve put ahead of it, it seems like most zoochatters think of DAK more highly than you do.
It's still pretty much right by the Panda, it is across and up a small incline from them.
For me it is not that National is bad, not by a long shot, it just struggles to compare to places like NC, SDZ, Columbus, and other zoo world heavy hitters. At one time it was unique with panda and dragons, but now dragons are everywhere but panda are still unique.
I have a soft spot for National for additional reasons as well, including their innovation with things like the O-Line, as well as the zoo’s strong emphasis on science and research. Elephant Trail and Asia Trail are also both incredible exhibits.
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Aardwolf
Well-Known Member
The following rant is not directed at any one individual.
I'll be honest, I'm sometimes kind of irked by the tendency of folks on here to trash talk so many zoos and the need to put down other facilities in order to boost those that they prefer. It may be because I've worked at some of the institutions that sometimes get slammed, or have close friends who work at others, but it just never sits right with me. Especially when within the space of a day I'll see folks relentlessly mock a facility which may not be half bad at all, and then cheerful go to another, far worse facility with much worse animal welfare and prop it up with their admission money just so they can add one more facility to their list of places visited.
Rant over.
I'll be honest, I'm sometimes kind of irked by the tendency of folks on here to trash talk so many zoos and the need to put down other facilities in order to boost those that they prefer. It may be because I've worked at some of the institutions that sometimes get slammed, or have close friends who work at others, but it just never sits right with me. Especially when within the space of a day I'll see folks relentlessly mock a facility which may not be half bad at all, and then cheerful go to another, far worse facility with much worse animal welfare and prop it up with their admission money just so they can add one more facility to their list of places visited.
Rant over.
I don't dislike Disney's Animal Kingdom, but I do think from a zoological perspective, not a theme park perspective, there're a lot of areas in need of improvement. My list also likely looks different from those of other zoochatters as I don't consider Zoo size as a major factor in ranking zoos, and would prefer zoos will high quality exhibits and a unique collection, even if slightly smaller than a DAK.
Here are my big problems with DAK, however:
1. Limited viewing opportunities on Kilimanjaro Safaris (as I discussed on the overrated exhibits thread) are a big one. There are some really unique aspects of the safari, such as being one of the only zoos with a large enough bloat of hippos, and it's a shame visitors can't spend more than a minute looking at the hippos. Same with a lot of the other ungulates, nowhere near the amount of time I'd wish to spend seeing some of these animals, and re-riding isn't really an option with how long the lines are, which brings me to
2. Often overly crowded, as someone who is not a fan of crowds, this was one of the big things about DAK I wasn't a fan of. Big crowds also translate to big lines, and while I don't necessarily care for all the ride components of the park, these lines include lines for the Safaris ride, which is the only way to see a lot of the African animals in the park.
3. One of the areas I'm really interested in/passionate about is the educational value of Zoos. From an educational perspective, I find a lot of areas that DAK could improve upon. Signage is sorely lacking on some of the trails, and there's just not a very large focus on education, except for the Wilderness Explorers program- which pretty much only targets one age group. Many traditional zoos do a much better job of focusing on conservation education which is one of the reasons I'm not as big of a fan of Disney as some of the other zoos. This lack of educational focus also was really obvious in the bird show- in which the focus was clearly on providing a funny/entertaining show and not on teaching people about how incredible these birds are. I understand that exposure to animals can go a long way to help people appreciate nature and wildlife, but I don't think this is truly enough to cover a zoo's goal of education, which should be central to any zoo, especially an AZA one.
4. Collection Diversity. The diversity of a collection is something else I view of as really important, and this is another area I feel DAK could use improvement. There's very little in terms of a reptile collection here, with only a few 'ABC' reptiles (komodo dragon, galapagos tortoise, crocodiles), and a handful of rather standard terrariums up at the Planet Watch. Smaller mammals are also underrepresented at DAK, as despite having an excellent line-up or ungulates, big cats, larger primates, etc., there are very few smaller mammal species represented, with only naked mole rats, meerkats, cottontop tamarins, tammar wallabies, angolan colobus, and malayan flying foxes. I would've loved to see the zoo, especially since it has so much space available, truly take advantage of this space by exhibiting a diverse collection, rather than focusing on just a few taxonomic groups. At least DAK does have a good bird collection, with quite a few waterfowl species in the oasis/discovery islands and a large walk-through aviary on both walking trails.
That being said, there is a lot about Disney's Animal Kingdom that is deserving of praise, and I will acknowledge the good in addition to the bad. DAK provides some of the largest gorilla and elephant enclosures in any zoo, and also keeps hippos in a much larger social group than what most zoos provide. These are all things deserving of praise, but weren't enough for it to crack my top three zoos.
Lincoln Park is a consistently high-quality facility with almost uniformly stellar exhibits with only one exhibit left that is dated. They have eliminated every stain on their reputation as if it never existed with shocking ease. It is also free and accessible to the public. The other two facilities benefit immensely from having larger collections and more rarities but are lacking in truly great exhibits, save Milwaukee's well-regarded bird house.
Most of the times I recall it being referred here, it seems to be suffering unfavorable comparison to other major facilities based on the expectation that as the National Zoo it should be superior to them. I realize that a lot of times this is perhaps meant in a 'it's good but could be better' way but when that is a go-to line for your facility it suggests disappointment to me. I have seen one or two comments to the effect that all they have good is pandas and those are definitely not in the mainstream but don't help.
I'm usually not one for rankings as every zoo is so vastly different, but I have a pretty strong idea of the order of zoos I enjoyed the most. I've been to a total of 44 North American collections, but I'm just ranking the traditional zoos and aquarium I've visited. Specialist facilities are so different in their focus that they become rather tricky to rank, although my favorite is definitely the International Crane Foundation. I will add that my one and two picks are extremely close and switch depending on my mood so a revisit to both would be probably be required to cement their placements.
Zoos:
1. Omaha's Henry Doorly Zoo
2. San Diego Zoo
3. San Diego Zoo Safari Park
4. Saint Louis Zoo
5. Zoo Miami
6. Minnesota Zoo
7. Lincoln Park Zoo
8. Brookfield Zoo
9. Detroit Zoo
10. Zoo Tampa
11. Busch Gardens Tampa
12. Milwaukee County Zoo
13. Indianapolis Zoo
14. Brevard Zoo
15. Palm Beach Zoo
16. Henry Vilas Zoo
17. Como Park Zoo
18. Racine Zoo
19. Cosley Zoo
20. Miller Park Zoo
21. Summerfield Zoo
22. Phillips Park Zoo
Aquariums:
1. Shedd Aquarium
2. Florida Aquarium
3. Sealife Minnesota
4. Florida Oceanographic Coastal Center
5. Clearwater Marine Aquarium
6. Tarpon Springs Aquarium
Zoos:
1. Omaha's Henry Doorly Zoo
2. San Diego Zoo
3. San Diego Zoo Safari Park
4. Saint Louis Zoo
5. Zoo Miami
6. Minnesota Zoo
7. Lincoln Park Zoo
8. Brookfield Zoo
9. Detroit Zoo
10. Zoo Tampa
11. Busch Gardens Tampa
12. Milwaukee County Zoo
13. Indianapolis Zoo
14. Brevard Zoo
15. Palm Beach Zoo
16. Henry Vilas Zoo
17. Como Park Zoo
18. Racine Zoo
19. Cosley Zoo
20. Miller Park Zoo
21. Summerfield Zoo
22. Phillips Park Zoo
Aquariums:
1. Shedd Aquarium
2. Florida Aquarium
3. Sealife Minnesota
4. Florida Oceanographic Coastal Center
5. Clearwater Marine Aquarium
6. Tarpon Springs Aquarium
Out of curiosity, was that the "old" aquarium on the main street (Dodecanese Blvd) in Tarpon Springs by all the Greek restaurants, or the new one they opened a couple of years ago?
I visited both the old and new location, but no matter which one it would still be the weakest aquarium I’ve seen so far. The new aquarium was much nicer of course, although I recall it being ridiculously overpriced.
Good to know, I have never been to the new one....even though I live only around 20 minutes away the price keeps me from doing so. I am a member at the FL Aquarium, so I have found little reason to go there. We used to go to the other one when I was a kid, usually my parents would let my brother and I go to it while they waited for a table at one of the restaurants across the street. That was an advantage of that location for sure - there was foot traffic that the new one will never have.
*Edit*
I see your pics in the gallery now, thanks for posting those (of both locations)
This is not knocking on anyone's opinion because clearly I'm in the vast minority here, but after finally seeing the Safari Park myself I'm shocked to see it rated so high. It did not live up to the hype that I so heavily see regularly. I'll release an updated list eventually when I've visited more zoos and expand on my reasons (in video form) but so far the Safari Park doesn't even crack my top 10.
I'm still shocked to see so many people rank Lincoln Park above Brookfield!
I'd have said the same thing a year or two back so believe it or not I do understand. My thoughts and feelings on both facilities have shifted a lot in the last year. It doesn't help Lincoln Park Zoo has had enough funding to make up for lost ground in the last decade while Brookfield is making positive more changes in the next year than they have in most of the last twelve.
Pleistocene891
Well-Known Member
How many more zoos do you plan on visiting until you make an updated list?