I visited Warsaw Zoo two days ago and it is a rather strange place. It has none of the size limitations that many city zoos have and it has plenty of empty space to expand animal enclosures. It has a traditional taxonomically ordered lay-out with a bird house, reptile house etc. But the zoo is a pain to navigate as there is no clear route and a lot of backtracking is necessary. It is however very nice to have a zoo where there is a surprise around every corner and there is none of that annoying cultural theming and hardly any fake mock rock.
Collectionwise it is a zoo that has basically all ABC species + rarities for zoo nerds and many of the older enclosures are relatively spacious for their age and some of them are much larger than what other zoos have built in recent years, e.g. for the Lions and Grey seals. There are however still a few spots where the zoo is quite badly outdated like the Polar bears, the Primate house and most raptor & owl cages. It is however shocking that some of the newer developments/ renovations are quite inadequate like the Elephant house and the Hippo enclosure, especially outdoors. Both the bird and reptile house need renovations and here the zoo will need to move away from showcasing as many species as possible, but focus on less species in adequate enclosures... Given the space available there is however no particular need for reducing the number of species, but the available space needs to be used better.
I was surprised to find hardly any reference to the role the zoo played in hiding jews in WW2, even though there are commercial opportunities, especially after the recent movie The Zookeepers wife.
Overall this zoo lacks behind the huge improvements I have seen in the Czech Republic, but it certainly is not a bad zoo. It lacks a star attraction and some real rarities outside the bird department to justify a specific trip to Warsaw.
