Perfect zooguidebook

T

Tarsius

Well-Known Member
What do think is the perfect guidebook ? Which format is the best ? Is a guidebook without a map a guidebook ? What do you think of sprial bounding ? Is a leaflet with map and desprition of mayour exhibits a guide or not ?

I curious to your anwers of these questions. I collect guidebooks since almost 25 years, but i can't tell you, which is the"perefct"guidebook.

What do you think about the covers ,all the time the same animals on it ? Tigers,Lions,Red pandas, Gorillas...:mad:
 
For me a good guide book should have information about the animals in the zoo and not just like where they come from but if they have breed and things like that. good pictures to not drawings and also to contain a map of the park and a new guide each year or couple of years so many guide books in the uk just seem to change the cover picture but all the info inside is the same with maybe the pages mixed up a bit
 
I find it interesting to look at old zoo guide books (1960s and earlier) which seem to be a general mini-encyclopedia of animals.

I guess it reflects postage stamp collections with often poor mortality rates so they could never be sure what would be on display.

I've seen some pretty poor guidebooks recently, including ZSL - although last week I noticed they had a new one for sale but forgot to buy one.

As long as I have a decent map I don't really use the guidebook at the zoo but like to keep them to look back at later on.
 
yes i never use the guide at the zoo but always keep them and read them when i get home. i have seen the new london and whipsnade guides on there website but i wonder if they are different inside to other years
 
I like a zoo guidebook, to be what it says on the tin, a guide to the zoo, not some sort of simplified animal encyclopedia.
My favourite guide across the years has been the guide to zoo Berlin, and the similar one for the Tierpark, both take you on a guided route through the collection, from location to location, rather than a taxonomic guide.
 
The new Whipsnade guide is very good, though the map comes seperately. If only the same could be said for Marwell's. :(
 
The guidebooks to Berlin Zoo and Tierpark Berlin er absolutely brilliant. Like kiang said they provide a map, a suggested route through the zoo and lots of information on both species, the individuals at the zoo and the history of the exhibits.
 
Having been a collector of zoo guidebooks for 15 years, more or less, but not longer, I guess I could go on and on here. The most essential thing is that a guidebook should be a guide to the property, not a small book about animals in general. Don't just tell me what lions eat in the wild, tell me what they eat in the zoo, why, how often, etc. And tell me please what comes after the lions! :)
 
Baldur said:
Having been a collector of zoo guidebooks for 15 years, more or less, but not longer, I guess I could go on and on here. The most essential thing is that a guidebook should be a guide to the property, not a small book about animals in general. Don't just tell me what lions eat in the wild, tell me what they eat in the zoo, why, how often, etc. And tell me please what comes after the lions! :)
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I totally agree with you in this point Baldur, I want to known "the zoo" and the tasks with their animals, not the animals life in the wild, because I'm in a zoo now, not in the wild.
 
Got today the new London and Whipsnade Guidebooks, unfortunately, there is no map anymore in the guide. Are they missing in my copies, or is the zoo selling the maps sepertaley ?
 
They have a leaflet-style map with event information that is updated on a regular basis. These are availble for free at the entrances.

Send me a PM if you would like me to send you a London Zoo map, I go there quite often but can't easily get to Whipsnade.
 
are the London and Whipsnade guide for this year different than from the other few years
 
I haven't seen the Whipsnade guide yet (I assume they both have a similar format) but the London Zoo guide is quite different to anything I've seen before. It's actually quite good with lots of information about the zoo, the animals, the buildings and their history, even some individual keepers. Considering it's aimed at the general zoo visitor it's quite detailed.

It's attractive to look at and the quality of paper is very nice. I was pleasantly surprised.

One thing I didn't like it has information about the discovery of okapis by Western science under the heading 'A New Breed'. This just adds to the general public's ignorance of the difference between a breed and a species.
 
Glad to hear about the new London book. I will be there this September and will pick up a copy (if I have time to go to the zoo, since I will only be in London itself one or two days).

I agree with what others have said about a guide to the zoo, not about the species in general (although brief general info is expected). Unfortunately, American zoos for the most part do not publish guidebooks. San Diego (both zoo and animal park) always have an excellent one, updated every few years. But I have only seen five or six other books from the dozens of zoos I have visited - and most of these are small format and not that great. This is one area where we could learn a lot from our colleages in Europe.
 
Got the new Whipsnade and london guides books today and they are both really good books much better than other years loads of information and its nice to have some keeper input to. the only thing i would say about them is that you dont get to know what all the animals they have but then i guess if you have walked round the zoos your know any how. all in all a really good read
 
zooman1 said:
the only thing i would say about them is that you dont get to know what all the animals they have but then i guess if you have walked round the zoos your know any how.
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Not really a guide book in the truest sense then.:)
 
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