New Zooguidebooks

Z

Zebraduiker

Well-Known Member
:)I think, it would be helpful for every collector to know which zoos have published a new guidebook.With new I mean 2007 and 2008.

So I:) will start with germany, following zoos has new guidebooks :

Berlin Zoo 2007 ( Hippo )
Duisburg 2007 ( ring tailed lemur )
Frankfurt 2008 ( Black rhino )
Gelsenkirchen 2008 ( Lion,Orang,Polar bear )
Halle 2008 ( Green Iguana )
Hannover 2008 ( asian elephant )
Hodenhagen 2007 ( White Tiger )
Holte-Stukenbrock 2007 ( White Lion )
Krefeld 2007 ( Tree-Kangaroo,Black Rhino )
Kronberg 2007 ( moose )
Leipzig 2007 ( gorilla)
Mannheim 2008 ( park landscape )
Nindorf 2007 ( wolf )
Nordhorn 2008 ( chimp )
Nürnberg 2007 ( european otters )
Pforzheim 2008 ( racoon )
Saarbrücken 2008 ( jaguar )
Straubing 2007 ( tiger )
Stuttgart 2007 ( indian rhino )
Stuttgart 2008 ( polar bears )


Some of these zoos will publish new guides later this year.

So I'm looking forward to your lists. Do has yet the Bioparco Valencia a guidebook ? And what about Emmen, Harderwijk and Rotterdam, do they have 2008 edition guidebooks ? And if yes, whats on the cover ?
 
Last year the English version of Berlin's guide book had a photo of Knut on it. The German version was the hippo one you mention. Do they always have different covers on the German and English ones?
 
Not always. In 1992, the Zoo published an international version with a serval on the cover, the german guidebook from the same year has a night monkey on the cover, in the year 2000 they used a gorilla for the international and polar bears for the german version as cover.

In the years before 1992, they used in 1964 spectacled bears for both versions, I think, the 1964 edition was the first english spoken gudiebook of the Berlin Zoo.

In 1969, they used also for both versions the same cover, but in 1972, they used musk oxen as cover, which was the cover for the 1971 german edition. In 1972, bongos were the coverstars of the german version.

They done the same with the 1977,1984 and 1988 english editions.
 
Thanks for that zebraduiker. I have the international guides for 1984; 1992 (the serval one you mention); and 2000 (the gorilla). I also have the 2007 guide, because we visited Berlin for the first time last year. We really enjoyed the visit, and are planning to come back as soon as we can afford it.:)
 
Both London Zoo and Whipsnade have their annual new guides this year - featuring, respectively, a tiger and a cheetah on the front cover. The content is as shockingly poor as ever, I'm afraid.
 
Yes, I've got both guides a few weeks ago, boring cover ( most of the zoos has only big cats, apes, monkeys or elephants on the cover) and the content is the same as the year before. The older guidebooks of both zoos were much better !

Most of british zoos and aquariums publish every year a new guidebooks, last week I've got the 2008 edition of Longelat, with a, of course, tiger on the cover.....

It's sad, that chester does not publish guidebooks anymore, why ?
 
I think Chester's policy of producing quite a substantial free map (and 'guide') may be to blame for the lack of a guidebook. A great pity, as you say, Zebra Duiker.
 
We have in germany the same problem with Hagenbeck(last guide in 2005 ), they stopped the guidebook, because the vistors didn't buy them anymore( who belives that ? Not me), and for the same reasons, Cologne(last guide in 1998 ! ),Magedeburg(last Guide 1998 ) and Osnabrück ( last Guide in 1999) has stopped publish guidebooks also, these are all big Zoos, and they have only maps for the visitors. Its a shame for these big and famous zoos, Hagenbeck has published guidebooks since his opening in 1907, and has published almost every year a new edition, and now that.

Osnabrück has now a new director, maybe she will publish a guidebook, often after a director change, the zoos publish again guidebooks, but I think, maybe it will took two or three years, because they will start with the construction of a new africa section next year.
 
Rotterdam zoo has recently started selling new guides as well. It has a polarbear on the cover. It's the same size as the last guide (the one with the elephants on the cover). This guide, as well as the previous one, is different from the ones before that. Different size, set-up etc. To me it seems they have less info about the animals, luckily the info on conservation, educatie etc is still there.(btw guides in blijdorp are not annualy different)

The map you get is very simple. There are some icons for the main animals like elephants, lions, kangaroos, okapi, etc ect but not all enclosures are on it. So if you're looking for a small, not so popular, animal, you will not find it on the map... I preferred the old-style maps where every single enclosure had its own number with a corresponding legend saying what species can be found at a certain place.
 
Thanks for the info. Do Rotterdam publish his new guides in diffrent languages as they have done it before ? I have the last 2006 edition with the elephants on the cover only in dutch.

It sounds not good with this "primitive"map, but what canw e do ? Nothing. I don't like this easy maps. I agree with you, the old maps with each enclosure on it and the legend are much better, unfortunately,a lot of the maps of german zoos are in a modern style now and very bad.

Do Emmen, Amersfoort and Harderwijk have 2008 guidebook, if yes, whats on the covers ? Thanks in advance for your help.

Today, I've got the 2008 editon of Giveskud zoo, with lions and a child on the cover. Its a very nice guidebook, very informative with a good map.
 
On the theme of zoos not bothering to produce guidebooks....
I think it's an easy thing to say that people don't buy them any more. The problem is that too many zoos haven't made any effort to sell them. We've all been to zoos where it's an effort to find the guidebook, or even where we've missed that one is for sale. If the person on the entrance desk was on a commission for every guide they sold, if every group who came in were asked if they wanted to buy one, they'd sell more easily, i'm sure.
Guides are so important - not just for people like us. They set the tone for a collection, they're great advertising, and they foster an interest in the idea of the zoo. But I'm sure I'm preaching to the choir here.
 
its a shame that some zoo's dont print guide books cant believe that chester has stopped thats such a shame its the first thing i look for when i get to a zoo. Went to Edinburgh in June and they only had like a history book of the zoo:(
 
Got today the 2008 edition of Rhenen Zoo, Netheralnds.

Do anybody knows if the Glady Porter Zoo Brownsville has a new guidebook ? I have only to guidebooks of this zoo, published in 1973 and 1983. This one was sold as I visited the Zoo in 2002 ! One employee told me they working on a new guidebook, unfortunately, the zoo does not answer my e-mails, so do they have now a new guidebook or not ?
 
Just a note on guidebooks. Many of you have been reading my thread "Snowleopard's epic road trip" and will have noticed that I've visited exactly 20 zoos and aquariums (and counting!!) on my huge holiday with my wife. In that entire time I've seen only 2 guidebooks. Two!! No one in North America seems to produce them any more. The Toronto Zoo and the Georgia Aquarium are the only 2 out of 20 institutions, and guidebooks appear to be a mainly European trend.
 
Zoo guidebooks are quite expensive to produce and must be produced in huge quantities to make it possible to sell them at a reasonable price. Another issue may be the fact that zoo collections are constantly changing for various reasons. If the zoo chooses to put species XYZ in a featured role and those animals die or are moved to another institution then there may be a problem for some visitors who are searching for this particular animal.
 
for the first time in 3 years, Chester Zoo has produced a guide book (I picked it up today).

It is 85 pages and contains lots of information about the zoo's history, the conservation projects, the major exhibits and the other notable animals. It isn't too child orientated and is a brilliant guide book (one of the best that I own). It costs £5.00
 
Wow, good news. Is it in the same stile like the other two guides before, and what is on the cover, a tiger, gorilla or a red panda ? But very expensive, do you think, the british people will but it ?
 
Zebraduiker said:
Wow, good news. Is it in the same stile like the other two guides before, and what is on the cover, a tiger, gorilla or a red panda ? But very expensive, do you think, the british people will but it ?
Click to expand...

No, the old style was a very narrow pocket guide book, this is a proper soft-cover book. The cover is green with an image of the elephants in their current paddock, an image of the zoo's first elephants (and their mahout), the gardens, a lion, a green tree frog and one of the zoo's lawns.

It is a bit expensive, but there is much more useful information than in previous editions and in my opinion, is good value for money. Previously the guides were sold on the entrance kiosks (and the cashier would often ask people if they would like to buy a guide book), but these new ones are only sold in one place and are not heavily advertised around the zoo, so I can't see many people buying one, unless they absolutely want to.
 
Thats great news about Chester doing guide books again i think that the guides are so inportant as they help people to understand more about the role of the zoo or at least the good ones do
 
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