Snowleopard's 2022 Road Trip: Denmark, Sweden & Norway

[lintworm]

I knew next to nothing about Scandinavian zoos before I read this thread, but the thing that stands out to me about them the most is that many of these zoos appear to have extensive tropical animal collections despite being located in a part of the world with such horrible winters. I find it impressive that many of these zoos would invest so much money and space towards exhibits for animals like giraffes, rhinos, chimps, and elephants, even though these exhibits are probably empty for many months out of the year. I wonder how many of these zoos also provide indoor winter exhibits for their cold-intolerant animals, or if many of these animals are just completely off exhibit all winter long.

In the past, when I thought of northern zoos, I would think of the places like the Minnesota Zoo or the Alaska Zoo, which seem to focus entirely on cold tolerant animals from North America and northern Asia. So it’s been very interesting to see these major Scandinavian zoos go in a completely different direction.

You forget that Europe has a much milder winter at comparable latitude than N-America. For example Stockholm is in terms of winter temperatures very comparable to Boston, which is clearly warmer than Chicago. Copenhagen has clearly warmer winters than New York City. We have a gulf stream coming from the Caribbean that brings warm and moist air, while N-America gets one from Greenland, which is obviously much colder. With the exception of Russia, the USA keeps giraffes and other tropical animals in much colder climates than any European zoo does. There are zoos in northern Scandinavia, but Finnish zoos and the ones in C and N Sweden & Norway tend to focus on mostly cold-tolerant animals.

 

[Batto]

I knew next to nothing about Scandinavian zoos before I read this thread, but the thing that stands out to me about them the most is that many of these zoos appear to have extensive tropical animal collections despite being located in a part of the world with such horrible winters.

Might also go along with the general Scandinavian appreciation, if not to say passion, for saunas...

 

[snowleopard]

Thanks for your Latin quote and joke about saunas, @Batto, and I saw advertisements for spas all over the Nordic regions. They enjoy taking long, hot baths up there!

I was going to mention the weather in Scandinavia, but @lintworm beat me to the punch. Talking to a few locals and researching facts on Google, this was one of my biggest takeaways from the trip. Analyzing different weather patterns around the world is interesting. For example, I live about an hour east of Vancouver, in southern British Columbia, and last winter we had maybe 5 days when it snowed. There is usually a big dump of snow and it hangs around before melting after about a week. However, when I travel overseas and tell people I'm from B.C., many are shocked that we have very little snow. Our weather is quite British, with a lot of rainy, damp days for half the year and then during the last few seasons, our summer months are incredibly hot. Every year for 5 consecutive summers, we've had at least a week straight of 38 degrees Celsius (100 Fahrenheit) and weeks on end of 30+ degrees. Wildfires from hours away have been affecting the air quality and we've seen some dramatic changes to our seasons. The air-conditioning business is booming!

When I met up with Konstantin (@twilighter) for a night and a two-zoo day on this trip, he told me that in some winters Oslo gets very little snow as well and I was genuinely surprised. Things can fluctuate from year to year, but generally he said that his home region in Norway is snow-free most of the time.

The mention of Chicago is a great point, with the Brookfield and Lincoln Park zoos getting a ton of snow each winter, as does Detroit and Toronto and loads of nearby North American cities with a lot of megafauna in their big zoos. That area near the 'Great Lakes' is notorious for long, harsh winters. Then there's Stockholm, Norway, Copenhagen and other Scandinavian cities with big animal houses that often dwarf similar buildings in American zoos. I think that @lintworm is correct when he says that "with the exception of Russia, the USA keeps giraffes and other tropical animals in much colder climates than any European zoo does".

For example, Cleveland averages at least 50 inches (127 cm) of snow each year and it's tricky to know what some of the animal buildings look like. If Cleveland was based in a major European city, then visitors could go inside the Elephant House, and the Rhino House, and into the Antelope House, and the Tiger House, etc., but instead, due to bizarre American laws and ideals, those facilities are mainly off limits and so Cleveland Zoo in the middle of winter must be a desolate attraction. There's a big Tropical House outside the entrance, but not many visitors trek up to the Primate, Cat & Aquatics building even in the summer and so attendance plummets across the zoo's grounds in the off-season. The Scandinavian nations deal with the cold weather by building huge heated structures for their animals and visitors can physically walk inside and see for themselves how animals are contained in captivity. There's full transparency.

The Nordic nations also continue to constantly improve their holding areas. Copenhagen opened a new Elephant House (2008), Boras also built a new Elephant House (2018), Givskud opened a Giant Otter House (2013), Randers has its three Tropical Domes, Parken has its gorgeous Desert House, Kristiansand has its orangutan/langur/gibbon area with three different Primate Houses (2022). All of these zoos have buildings where visitors can enter, but at a place like Cleveland, with more snow and worse weather, there is not always indoor access to see the big cats, rhinos, antelope, etc. in winter.

 

[pachyderm pro]

All of these zoos have buildings where visitors can enter, but at a place like Cleveland, with more snow and worse weather, there is no indoor access to see the elephants, rhinos, antelope, etc. in winter.

Not to nitpick, but just for the record Cleveland does in fact have visitor access to the elephant house. This is an interesting point of discussion however and living in the Great Lakes area all my life I concur that visitor access to holding buildings are important. When Brookfield and Lincoln Park first reopened following the first covid wave, all of the animal houses were closed and it really made me realize how much of those zoos are completely indoors. I am a bit confused what you mean by "bizarre American laws and ideals" when suggesting why American zoos lack indoor viewing for certain large mammals. Could you elaborate on this point?

And while I have the chance I just want to add to the accolades. This has been an excellent travel thread @snowleopard! A great read where I learned about many zoos I was previously unacquainted with. There's no denying that the exhibit quality in Scandinavian collections is nothing short of phenomenal. However, I must admit that I don't know if these are my kind of zoos. I'm the type of zoo nerd that prefers holistic collections with a diverse representation of mammals, birds, herps, fish and inverts. With so many of these collections being extremely top-heavy on large mammals, it's not quite as appealing to me personally, even if those huge enclosures look absolutely wonderful. Of the zoos covered in this report, the one that is by far the most interesting to me is Odense. Significantly smaller than many others, but with some of the coolest exhibits in the region (African waters, sitatunga exhibit, manatee hall, penguin house, etc.) and probably one of the most interesting collections. There is a real focus on unique species and I always like to see that in zoos. There are of course a variety of other excellent looking things in the region to see like the Boras savanna and the multi-acre polar bear enclosures at the Scandinavian Wildlife Park. However, whenever I do get around to Europe one day, I don't imagine the Scandinavian region will be my first, second or even third stop. With that said, a few zoos did get added to the bucket list over the course of this thread.

Looking forward to where the next destination is!

 

[Dassie rat]

Odense is one of 5 ZTL collections with bigtooth river stingrays and the only one with doradas.

 

[birdsandbats]

As someone who has lived all my life in a region with very long, harsh, cold, and extremely snowy winters, I am also shocked to learn that British Columbia and Norway both lack much snow. I'm used to snow so thick that it's difficult to walk for at least three months of the year.

 

[Batto]

Thanks for your Latin quote and joke about saunas, @Batto, and I saw advertisements for spas all over the Nordic regions. They enjoy taking long, hot baths up there!

I might not be as appreciated as @lintworm , but I have my moments...
Hot baths in the cold are great anywhere; just ask Japanese macaques.

 

[StellarChaser]

@snowleopard
As someone who lives in the part of Canada that has colder and longer winter than where you live, I admit that the harsh temperature around Great Lakes is a big restriction on building top world zoos. The cold temperature starts from late November until next April, which means many tropical species have to be off-displayed for almost half a year. The harsh weather also brings difficulty in acquiring specialized diets for certain top star species, like bamboo for Giant Pandas and Eucalyptus for Koalas. I don't know much about the zoos outside of Ontario, but there is no zoo in Ontario like Norden Arks that focus on cold-tolerant species. Most Ontario zoos still prefer tropical species, there is nothing wrong with this idea since the people in the North don't have many chances to see tropical species, giving them opportunities is one of the main purposes of the zoos. But Ontario zoos don't provide adequate indoor exhibits for those tropical giants, like Toronto Zoo, even with 287 hectares of land, still doesn't have winter houses for River Hippo and White Rhino opened to the public. The Toronto Zoo's giraffe house was used for African Elephants previously, and it is ridiculously small for African Elephants. Other Ontario zoos like Elmvale and Niagara Safari also don't have Giraffe or Antelope houses open to visitors.
I think Norden Arks still have the potential for further development, several species can be added as expansion such as Cougar, North American Porcupines, Eurasian Beavers, Polar Bears, Arctic Foxes, King Penguins, Mountain Hares, Striped Hyenas, Japanese Macaques, Takins and some raptors like Bearded Vulture, Bald Eagle, Steller Sea Eagle, Cinereous Vulture, etc. I also wish to see a Norden Arks-like zoo in Ontario, I know St-Felicien Zoo in Quebec already specializes in cold-hardy species, it is just too remote for me.

 

[snowleopard]

At the end of every trip, I always update my statistics and I'll provide those numbers below. It's interesting to note that from the summer of 2019 to the summer of 2022, a very long period of three years that included a pandemic, I saw ZERO new zoos and only traveled locally. Where I live, it's a two-hour round-trip to Vancouver Aquarium, or a 5-hour round-trip to Woodland Park Zoo, other than the local Greater Vancouver Zoo which I don't visit very often. I tend to have a big trip with a whole whack of zoos packed into it, and then nothing until another future summer trek.

My biggest zoo regret is standing outside the gates of Rome Zoo in October 2003, but my girlfriend at the time wasn't interested in a visit and the zoo was supposedly quite horrendous back then. I should have popped inside for a quick tour!

These numbers include major zoos, minor zoos, aquariums, insectariums, reptile zoos, bird parks, etc.

USA – 372
Netherlands – 43
Germany – 40
Canada – 33
Australia – 19
Denmark – 16
Belgium – 10
Sweden – 6
France – 2
Norway – 2
Switzerland – 2
Trinidad & Tobago – 1

546 different zoos/aquariums in a dozen countries (434 zoos and 112 aquariums)

A few more things:

Thanks to all the ZooChatters who have added great comments to this thread, particularly the last few posts about the weather. When looking at a map of North America, it is rather astonishing to consider that I live near Vancouver in southern British Columbia, 49 degrees latitude, while cities like Milwaukee, Detroit, Toronto and Cleveland are 41-43 degrees latitude and yet receive far more snow days each winter. A couple of years ago my city of Abbotsford literally had two days where it snowed, yet those other cities I mentioned have months of snow. It does make you wonder about the elephants at two of those zoos, and also makes one recognize why the other two zoos sent their elephants away years ago. When I was last at Reid Park Zoo (2015), I was told by the director and two keepers that the elephant herd was allowed outside 23 hours every day, only coming in for one hour in the morning. That would never happen in Milwaukee or Cleveland, and therefore who would want to be an elephant at one of those zoos?

Also, @pachyderm pro, I'll reply to your excellent response. First up, I said something about American laws and ideals, and that was my broad comment on zoo laws in general. In the U.S. and Canada, the idea of walking through an enclosure with a herd of Wisent, or large pythons, or a dozen different primate species such as can be found across the European continent, is a totally alien policy due to the threat of lawsuits. At Rheine Zoo in Germany, a brilliant mid-sized facility that is easily one of the top 40 zoos in Germany, there are 15 big, male Barbary Macaques in a walk-through exhibit. The director told me that once a year, on average, a visitor is bitten by one of those primates, but it is always the fault of the visitor because they were trying to feed the monkeys. There are no lawsuits or lawyer billboards, but instead the zoo director puts a bandage on the bite mark and maybe gives out a couple of free zoo passes and that's the end of the story. The walk-through exhibit continues to operate like normal to this day.

The same idea is prevalent with indoor holding areas. I saw Sun Bears inside at Munster and Big Cat Houses are very common to go inside in European zoos. I've been in a number of Antelope Houses on European trips, but how many Antelope Houses have I been inside in North America? There's Saint Louis...errr...any others? I don't recall any off the top of my head. There's the fear that a clueless American will climb in with some Impala, or be gored by an Addax, or there will be lawsuits flying in all directions. In European zoos, one can go inside animal buildings (all of them called 'houses'), or step over pythons, or pet an Aardvark (Randers), or have large sharks (Kattegatcentret Aquarium) or Electric Eels (Kolmarden Tropicarium) in open-topped tanks, etc. I truly wish that more of that could occur in North America, but it's likely to never happen. The cool walk-throughs, the mixed-species exhibits that are everywhere, the indoor animal houses, the amazing architecture, the lack of junky roadside menageries, the many guidebooks, the plethora of 'zoo nerds', etc., make European zoos very appealing.

 

[dublinlion]

Great thread, the reviews are just the right length and nicely varied. The travel, weather and food information and comments about different cultures are very interesting and educational. The extra info from other posters is also very good and really adds value to a great thread. I didn't realise how little I knew about Scandinavia and its zoos.
It would be great to see a similar thread on Uk and irish zoos in the future.

 

[Jurek7]

If this is an allusion to the whole "Marius the giraffe" incident

It's not one incident. Some years earlier Copenhagen got itself more chimpanzees (into this very building). Since males started fighting, it euthanized the old one. I hope few zoos, even in Scandinavia, euthanize great apes just because they fight. Why they did not improve chimp accomodation beforehand? Why they got more chimps? Copenhagens choices are inexcusable.

If Cleveland was based in a major European city, then

I especially enjoy your threads, because rather few people know many zoos on different continents.

I noticed that there are general differences between countries and regions. Zoos in Europe have lots of walk-in animal houses and primate walkthroughs, zoos in the USA have giraffe feeding decks (but not vice versa).

It would be cool if such comparisons led to zoos in different parts of the world copying each other best ideas.

 

[Batto]

I hope few zoos, even in Scandinavia, euthanize great apes just because they fight. Why they did not improve chimp accomodation beforehand? Why they got more chimps? Copenhagens choices are inexcusable.

I seriously doubt that the chimp was euthanized "just because" of intraspecific aggression; there must have been more at play. The acquisition of more animals might have been a result of necessity. It's not as simple as it might look from the outside.
One way or another: Jumping prematurely and emotionally to conclusions won’t help anyone, though...

 

[Batto]

It would be cool if such comparisons led to zoos in different parts of the world copying each other best ideas.

That has happened in the past again and again; major American zoos considerably influenced the renovations of certain European zoos in the 1990s / early 2000s. However, cultural, financial and national differences can have a significant impact on the implementation. All in all, zoos all over the world just put their pants on one leg at a time.

 

[twilighter]

At the end of every trip, I always update my statistics and I'll provide those numbers below. It's interesting to note that from the summer of 2019 to the summer of 2022, a very long period of three years that included a pandemic, I saw ZERO new zoos and only traveled locally. Where I live, it's a two-hour round-trip to Vancouver Aquarium, or a 5-hour round-trip to Woodland Park Zoo, other than the local Greater Vancouver Zoo which I don't visit very often. I tend to have a big trip with a whole whack of zoos packed into it, and then nothing until another future summer trek.

My biggest zoo regret is standing outside the gates of Rome Zoo in October 2003, but my girlfriend at the time wasn't interested in a visit and the zoo was supposedly quite horrendous back then. I should have popped inside for a quick tour!

These numbers include major zoos, minor zoos, aquariums, insectariums, reptile zoos, bird parks, etc.

USA – 372
Netherlands – 43
Germany – 40
Canada – 33
Australia – 19
Denmark – 16
Belgium – 10
Sweden – 6
France – 2
Norway – 2
Switzerland – 2
Trinidad & Tobago – 1

546 different zoos/aquariums in a dozen countries (434 zoos and 112 aquariums)

A few more things:

Thanks to all the ZooChatters who have added great comments to this thread, particularly the last few posts about the weather. When looking at a map of North America, it is rather astonishing to consider that I live near Vancouver in southern British Columbia, 49 degrees latitude, while cities like Milwaukee, Detroit, Toronto and Cleveland are 41-43 degrees latitude and yet receive far more snow days each winter. A couple of years ago my city of Abbotsford literally had two days where it snowed, yet those other cities I mentioned have months of snow. It does make you wonder about the elephants at two of those zoos, and also makes one recognize why the other two zoos sent their elephants away years ago. When I was last at Reid Park Zoo (2015), I was told by the director and two keepers that the elephant herd was allowed outside 23 hours every day, only coming in for one hour in the morning. That would never happen in Milwaukee or Cleveland, and therefore who would want to be an elephant at one of those zoos?

Also, @pachyderm pro, I'll reply to your excellent response. First up, I said something about American laws and ideals, and that was my broad comment on zoo laws in general. In the U.S. and Canada, the idea of walking through an enclosure with a herd of Wisent, or large pythons, or a dozen different primate species such as can be found across the European continent, is a totally alien policy due to the threat of lawsuits. At Rheine Zoo in Germany, a brilliant mid-sized facility that is easily one of the top 40 zoos in Germany, there are 15 big, male Barbary Macaques in a walk-through exhibit. The director told me that once a year, on average, a visitor is bitten by one of those primates, but it is always the fault of the visitor because they were trying to feed the monkeys. There are no lawsuits or lawyer billboards, but instead the zoo director puts a bandage on the bite mark and maybe gives out a couple of free zoo passes and that's the end of the story. The walk-through exhibit continues to operate like normal to this day.

The same idea is prevalent with indoor holding areas. I saw Sun Bears inside at Munster and Big Cat Houses are very common to go inside in European zoos. I've been in a number of Antelope Houses on European trips, but how many Antelope Houses have I been inside in North America? There's Saint Louis...errr...any others? I don't recall any off the top of my head. There's the fear that a clueless American will climb in with some Impala, or be gored by an Addax, or there will be lawsuits flying in all directions. In European zoos, one can go inside animal buildings (all of them called 'houses'), or step over pythons, or pet an Aardvark (Randers), or have large sharks (Kattegatcentret Aquarium) or Electric Eels (Kolmarden Tropicarium) in open-topped tanks, etc. I truly wish that more of that could occur in North America, but it's likely to never happen. The cool walk-throughs, the mixed-species exhibits that are everywhere, the indoor animal houses, the amazing architecture, the lack of junky roadside menageries, the many guidebooks, the plethora of 'zoo nerds', etc., make European zoos very appealing.

I also want to pay my respect to the wonderful reading you offered us @snowleopard! I am very happy that you had a good time here and expanded the ZooChat geography with this region.

Scandinavia is not an area that get a lot of attention amoung the zoo entusiasts and the reasons are many. Most certainly the difficult accessibility and the limmited numbers of big collections and rarities are the main ones. Public support of big renovations and expensive exhibits is very low and that makes, of course, the local zoological facilities not competitive against the other parts of Europe. The strong support of animal welfare and animal rights, amoung the citizens play significant role as well.

Nevertheless, Scandinavia has it's traditions in keeping animals in captivity and still has what to offer to a zoonerds. Most of the zoos in the region take advantage of the spectacular nature and in meny cases the best enclosures are dedicated to the local fauna or to the suitable species, which would trive during the winter.

I actually thought that you will forgive the flagship Copenhagen some of the shortcomings, because finally you will get to see some animals up close before you jump on the plane.

As a fan of the good old European zoos, which sometimes offerd unexpected surprises and some rare animal encounters, I am sure that you have a lot more to explore on this side of the pond I hope you will include Europe in your near future plans and we will have a chance to meet again!

 

[Tim Brown]

Having been away in the Czech Republic when SL posted his Copenhagen Zoo review,Im rather glad that I was away ! I`m a fan of zoos in urban settings where they can relate to large populations and so promote zoology and conservation...its all very well raving over huge enclosures in the middle of nowhere where youre lucky to see an animal, but said enclosure will in itself usually be far less than a natural range,so Im wondering if one acre,ten acres,twenty acres really makes much difference to a captive scenario...as Lintworm (and Gerald Durrell !) said,what is in the enclosure is far more important than the actual size. Durrell made an analogy with empty aircraft hangers for instance. Its come to something when a Norwegian theme park gets all the plaudits and a scientific zoo with decades of input, both zoologically and educationally, gets called rotten. Copenhagen Zoo has improved immeasurably in the last 20 years and is a place i would return to again and again(with reservations about those Chimps). I go to a zoo to look at animals - not grass and trees ! I would also add that decent architecture matters not to animals but adds to the gravitas of a site as a serious place...it is difficult to fault Copenhagen in that respect. That SL wants to replace bears with raccoons and pikas(now there would be a thing) says much about the way the zoo world is going...and perhaps says something about the way SL himself is going(with all due respect to a good friend).
FINALLY having dropped my bomb of a riposte,i would like to say that this has been a great thread, full of new information to me...whether i can be bothered adding to my tally of zoos by peering into Scandinavian forests hoping for a glimpse of a Red-necked Wallaby remains to be seen.

 

[snowleopard]

I loved reading the post from @Tim Brown and he and I discussed Copenhagen Zoo at length over a series of texts. We are very good friends (and co-authors!) and we text and email constantly. Whether it is zoos or soccer, we have loads in common. It's fascinating to see how everyone has different perspectives on zoos and Tim likes looking down on a good old bear grotto. I prefer more expansive enclosures, but each to their own. Neither of us enjoy rollercoasters in zoos, so we can agree on that point when it comes to a place like Kolmarden or Busch Gardens.

On a different note, one of the major reasons why I toured the Scandinavian nations now is because they are expensive countries. Since everything consistently increases in price, it was best to bang them off before their entrance fees become even more eye-watering. If I was to hit up Denmark, Sweden and Norway in a decade, then the cost would be far more prohibitive. Although, it is curious that my fast food stops were fairly cheap in Scandinavia, with McDonald's and Burger King meals essentially being the same price as they would be in Canada. That is in sharp contrast with the extremely expensive entrance fees.

I thought that it would be intriguing to post the price of one adult ticket in the summer season at each of the 24 zoos/aquariums that I visited in the Nordic nations. I'm sure that there are possibly combo tickets available, and discounts for students and other such options, but for an adult flying solo on a zoo trip these are the prices in the local currency and then a conversion into Canadian dollars.

Kattegatcentret Center (Grenaa, DK) 175 DKK ($32 CAD)
Skandinavisk Dyrepark/Scandinavian Wildlife Park (Kolind, DK) 200 DKK ($36 CAD)
Skaerup Zoo (Borkop, DK) 140 DKK ($25 CAD)
Givskud Zoo (Givskud, DK) 230 DKK ($42 CAD)
Ree Park Safari (Ebeltoft, DK) 195 DKK ($35 CAD)
Munkholm Zoo (Munkholm, DK) 130 DKK ($24 CAD)
AQUA Akvarium & Dyrepark/AQUA Aquarium & Wildlife Park (Silkeborg, DK) 175 DKK ($31 CAD)
Jyllands Park Zoo (Videbaek, DK) 185 DKK ($34 CAD)
Nordsoen Oceanarium/North Sea Oceanarium (Hirtshals, DK) 185 DKK ($34 CAD)
Randers Regnskov/Randers Tropical Zoo (Randers, DK) 195 DKK ($35 CAD)
Aalborg Zoo (Aalborg, DK) 210 DKK ($38 CAD)
Odense Zoo (Odense, DK) 195 DKK ($35 CAD)
Terrariet Reptile Zoo (Vissenbjerg, DK) 120 DKK ($22 CAD)
Fjord & Baelt (Kerteminde, DK) 150 DKK ($27 CAD)
Malmo Reptile Center (Malmo, SE) 110 SEK ($14 CAD)
Kolmarden Wildlife Park (Kolmarden, SE) 748 SEK ($51 CAD)
Kolmarden Tropicarium (Kolmarden, SE) 189 SEK ($24 CAD)
Parken Zoo (Eskilstuna, SE) 360 SEK ($46 CAD)
Boras Zoo (Boras, SE) 379 SEK ($48 CAD) - @twilighter bought my ticket here
Nordens Ark (Hunnebostrand, SE) 280 SEK ($36 CAD) - @twilighter bought my ticket here
Kristiansand Zoo (Kristiansand, NO) 489 NOK ($64 CAD)
Den Lille Dyrehage/The Small Zoo (Sundebru, NO) 260 NOK ($35 CAD)
Den Bla Planet Aquarium/The Blue Planet Aquarium (Kastrup, Copenhagen, DK) 195 DKK ($35 CAD)
Kobenhavn Zoo/Copenhagen Zoo (Copenhagen, DK) 209 DKK ($38 CAD)

Total: $841 CAD (an average of exactly $35 CAD per zoo)

As one can see, my bank account bulged at the seams with all these steep admission fees. By contrast, Prague Zoo is only 250 CZK ($13 CAD) and Wroclaw Zoo is only 60 zl ($17 CAD) and those two facilities are in most zoo nerd lists of the top 10 zoos in all of Europe. I can already foresee that a Czech. Rep./Poland trip would be relatively inexpensive, although I think that I have eyes on southern and eastern Germany as a very good candidate for my next journey...whenever that will be.

 

[Hvedekorn]

Yeah, the exorbitant prices are a major reason why I don't actually visit zoos here in Denmark that often (rarely more than 4 times a year, often only 2-3 times). Even though the zoos in themselves can be very enjoyable, it often doesn't feel like you're getting your money's worth compared to the Central European zoos.

And it's not just because Denmark has higher prices in general, since the infamously expensive country Switzerland generally has more reasonably-priced zoos (Basel Zoo, for example, is cheaper than any of the major Danish zoos despite being a better and more expansive zoo than Aalborg and Copenhagen). I've also noticed that Danish museums are similar in price range to the Central European museums, and you mention the fast food prices as similar to Canada, so it's only with zoos that the owners and directors ramp up the prices like crazy. I wonder if there might be some kind of taxation or other types of behind-the-scenes costs that make running a zoo less economically feasible here than in e.g. Germany...

 

[TeaLovingDave]

Bratislava and several smaller European zoos with outdated enclosures housing single or just a handful individuals, like Stralsund.

Per my recent visit, Bratislava has a rather larger chimpanzee exhibit than the one at Copenhagen, including a decent-size outdoor area - it was actually one of the bits of the zoo that *wasn't* horrifyingly bad

As one can see, my bank account bulged at the seams with all these steep admission fees. By contrast, Prague Zoo is only 250 CZK ($13 CAD) and Wroclaw Zoo is only 60 zl ($17 CAD) and those two facilities are in most zoo nerd lists of the top 10 zoos in all of Europe. I can already foresee that a Czech. Rep./Poland trip would be relatively inexpensive, although I think that I have eyes on southern and eastern Germany as a very good candidate for my next journey...whenever that will be.

Having just pulled off a three-week and 21-collection jaunt on the continent spanning much of central Europe (with the main focus being southern Germany, Austria and Czechia, and daytrips to several other countries) I'll definitely be able to give you more than a few pointers when the time comes Czechia and Poland are *definitely* outliers where the price of zoo entry is concerned, even compared to Germany and the UK let alone your recent haul of pricey Scandinavian destinations!

 

[Batto]

Per my recent visit, Bratislava has a rather larger chimpanzee exhibit than the one at Copenhagen, including a decent-size outdoor area - it was actually one of the bits of the zoo that *wasn't* horrifyingly bad

It might be larger, but it ain't prettier...

 

[TeaLovingDave]

It might be larger, but it ain't prettier...

Perhaps not though there is a difference between that, and the enclosure being "far worse" than the Copenhagen example.

Of course, both are wonderfully modern and spacious compared to the horror at Wales Ape and Monkey Sanctuary:

Outdoor

Indoor