The best zoo country in the world

What is the best zoo country in the world ?

  • United States

    Votes: 43 38.4%

  • Germany

    Votes: 39 34.8%

  • United Kingdom

    Votes: 7 6.3%

  • The Netherlands

    Votes: 10 8.9%

  • France

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Australia

    Votes: 1 0.9%

  • Singapore

    Votes: 5 4.5%

  • Other

    Votes: 7 6.3%
  • Total voters
    112
  • Poll closed .
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Hvedekorn said:
Agreed. France and Ukraine are no more different in language, geography, culture, what have you, than states as Massachusetts and Connecticut.

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I meant only in the context that have combined transnational institutions like the ECB/Euro, joint defense operations/contracts/equipment, the EAZA, even the EU itself. Combined with the relative size of the populations and economic blocs that in certain contexts yes European countries in the EU are like states in the United States in that sense.

So the only way to compare based on size is based on the entire EU (though the EU has more people 500 mil vs 300 mil but similar sized economies.

And while the US does have a lingua franca (but not official languages like the EU does) we do have a vast many cultures. Connecticut and Massachusetts are different states but are in a culturally similar area. Now say Hawaii and Alabama or Maine and Nevada those are basically as different cultures as crossing borders in the EU.

Of course I know you as citizens of Denmark Germany or the Netherlands never want to lose that culture (and who would they are very rich deep historical cultures) - economic and political ties will eventually turn into cultural ties.

In fact I see the EU's problems (especially with the Euro and separate countries deficit/spending habits) are simply reflections of the problems of the pre-Constitution US under the Articles of Confederation.
 
So it have been like half a year since this thread have been updated now, but with out beating a dead horse anymore, do anyone have anything more to say about this ? If we compared Europe as a whole to The United States, who would win ? Which zoo countries are best in education, number of species, best animal enclosures, doing most to protect endengeared species and so on, keep the ball roling a little more...
 
I would say the U.S. wins in the best exhibits category but Europe in species diversity for the most part. I would say both do a good job when it comes to wildlife conservation and both have helps many endangered species and helped in re-introducing and replenishing the populations of many native species (and many exotic ones!). In the U.S., species like the Red Wolf, American Bison, California Condor, Mexican Wolf, Black-Footed Ferret, and others. In Europe, species like Eurasian Lynx, Eurasian Wolf, and European Bison.

~Thylo:cool:
 
I would say - if Europe is seen as one - Europe:
historicly : zoos like Vienna ( the oldest world-wide ) and Hagenbeck ( "wireless"zoo ) realy are zoos which made history.
species diversity : Berlin has the largest collection in species and Walsrode has the most bird-species. Also many other European collections have bigger species-lists as American zoos.
enclosures : safariparks first were establish in Europe and Eco-displays like Burgers Bush and Burgers Desert were also first build in Europe.
On wildlife conservation I think both America and Europe are doing good jobs ( but still not enough ).
 
ThylacineAlive said:
I would say the U.S. wins in the best exhibits category but Europe in species diversity for the most part. I would say both do a good job when it comes to wildlife conservation and both have helps many endangered species and helped in re-introducing and replenishing the populations of many native species (and many exotic ones!). In the U.S., species like the Red Wolf, American Bison, California Condor, Mexican Wolf, Black-Footed Ferret, and others. In Europe, species like Eurasian Lynx, Eurasian Wolf, and European Bison.

~Thylo:cool:
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About the re-introduction and repleshing you forgot some important species:
For the US / North America : Whooping crane, Whooping swan and Peregrine falcon.
For Europe : Griffon vulture, Bearded vulture.
 
In terms of quantity it would be intriguing to note how many zoos there are in the two nations with the largest populations. India has approximately 200 zoos and in regards to China there simply does not seem to be available data anywhere. I have a zoo book that lists 500 zoos in Germany and over a period of several months I've personally compiled a 22-page document that lists 670 zoos in the United States. I've only been listing facilities that are open to the public as the U.S. has around 700 zoos in total if one were to include various sanctuaries that do not have public access.

It would seem that the United States (700 zoos) and Germany (500 zoos) are the clear leaders both in quantity and quality, with a well-travelled friend recently sending me his top 20 U.S. zoos and top 20 German zoos and making it known that there isn't much between the two nations as the quality is extremely high when analyzing the most notable zoos of each country. The Netherlands seems to have a selection of very high quality zoos but isn't there only about 60 zoos in that nation? Per capita that is still very impressive!
 
snowleopard said:
In terms of quantity it would be intriguing to note how many zoos there are in the two nations with the largest populations. India has approximately 200 zoos and in regards to China there simply does not seem to be available data anywhere. I have a zoo book that lists 500 zoos in Germany and over a period of several months I've personally compiled a 22-page document that lists 670 zoos in the United States. I've only been listing facilities that are open to the public as the U.S. has around 700 zoos in total if one were to include various sanctuaries that do not have public access.

It would seem that the United States (700 zoos) and Germany (500 zoos) are the clear leaders both in quantity and quality, with a well-travelled friend recently sending me his top 20 U.S. zoos and top 20 German zoos and making it known that there isn't much between the two nations as the quality is extremely high when analyzing the most notable zoos of each country. The Netherlands seems to have a selection of very high quality zoos but isn't there only about 60 zoos in that nation? Per capita that is still very impressive!
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Here is my list of the top zoo countries in the world. Note that I have not visited most of the countries. And my impressions are only based on what I have read and heard.
1. United States
2. Germany
3. Netherlands
4. United Kingdom
After that it become more subjective, but I would rate the countries roughly like this:
5. France
6. Czech Republic
7. Australia
8. Singapore
9. Poland
10. Spain

Runners up and honourable mentions (not in order) are Denmark, Austria, Switzerland, South-Africa, Canada, Malaysia, Japan and New Zealand. Other people feel free to comment and disagree.

It irritates me that I forgot the Czech Republic in the poll. That country has at least four excellent zoos (Prague, Plzen, Dvur Kralove and Zlin). The species diversity here is high.

Altough, the two most populous countries, China and India are absent from the list, I guess that the zoos there will develop more when the economy and livingstandard rise even more. I also have my fingers on Brazil when it comes to development both zoo-wise and economically.

Snowleopard, do you mind posting your fantastic American zoo list. And can you also post the list with descriptions of the top American and German zoos?:)
 
@Norwegian Moose: I like your list of top zoo countries and in my mind it seems very accurate. I cannot post the list of top 20 U.S. and German zoos as the individual who sent it to me has not given their approval. However, I will say that I have several lists that I've compiled and saved over the years from fellow zoo nerds and the latest one does not contain many shocks. Zurich, Chester, Vienna, Berlin, Tierpark and Hamburg are all really high, along with San Diego, Omaha, Bronx, Saint Louis, etc. My list of 670 American zoos is an enormous 22 pages (even at 11-point font) and I likely won't ever post that behemoth. However, I have begun threads such as "North Carolina Zoos", "Arizona Zoos" and "Illinois Zoos" that have a breakdown of state-by-state totals so you should at least have some idea of the zoos in specific states. I've also posted comprehensive totals of California, Florida (both around 70 zoos) and Texas (50 zoos).

I just posted the following on a separate thread talking about Australian zoos:

It seems whether one were to list the sheer quantity of zoos, the quality of the top zoos, the world's 50 greatest zoo exhibits, or any number of other categories...surely it is a neck-and-neck choice between Germany or the United States for the status as the world's greatest zoo destination. If one were to look at just quality then there might not be much to choose between the two, but quantity the U.S. leads 700 to 500. However, there is something greatly appealing to the notion that Germany packs its 500 zoos into a much smaller slice of land, and there is perhaps not so many roadside menageries as there is in America.
 
Difficult choice... Considering quantity and variety of species, US is the number one I guess. But if you compare with the size/population of each country, then Germany and Netherlands beat. Also Singapur of course, probably the biggest concentration of zoos and aquariums in just one city.

Anyway, my vote finally went to Germany. I think they have some of the world´s best enclosures (Gondwanaland for example, although I don´t know enough about US zoos for judge) and the number of rare species on them is as interesting as in US, but all gathered in a much smaller country.
 
snowleopard said:
However, there is something greatly appealing to the notion that Germany packs its 500 zoos into a much smaller slice of land, and there is perhaps not so many roadside menageries as there is in America.
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Just wondering, are there any facilities comparable to roadside menageries in Europe? Does greater regulation and limits on private individuals owning dangerous wild animals make them fewer, if any?
 
Shirokuma said:
Just wondering, are there any facilities comparable to roadside menageries in Europe? Does greater regulation and limits on private individuals owning dangerous wild animals make them fewer, if any?
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I'm not sure how many roadside menageries there are across Europe in comparison to the United States, although perhaps some of the Eastern European nations would have a few "roadside zoos". When I was researching my current list of approximately 80 Canadian zoos I was surprised to find that perhaps 20 zoos in Canada have closed in the past 20 years as many tiny, substandard places have gone out of business and things are similar in the United States.

Here is an interesting website:

Summary of State Laws Relating to Private Possession of Exotic Animals

Glancing through the list of 50 U.S. States it appears that:

21 U.S. States = Ban on private ownership of exotic animals — non-domesticated felines, wolves, bears, reptiles, non-human primates

10 U.S. States = Partial ban on private ownership of exotic animals — allows ownership of some exotic animals but precludes ownership of the animals listed

In a U.S. State like South Carolina "there are no state laws governing the possession of non-domesticated felines, primates, reptiles, and other wildlife not listed above." Many other states have very lax laws regulating the ownership of exotic animals. In Texas you can purchase a monkey or wolf without a license according to the site. (and yes, the site is Born Free but don't shoot the messenger folks:))
 
snowleopard said:
I'm not sure how many roadside menageries there are across Europe in comparison to the United States, although perhaps some of the Eastern European nations would have a few "roadside zoos".:))
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Snowleopard, I think that the exhibit quality of zoos in general in Western and Northern Europe is very high. As you have said, Germany has over 500 zoos. And even though some of these zoos have individual exhibits that are bad, you would struggle to find a roadside zoo, if what I have heard is correct. There might be a few exceptions to the rule though. So for Germany I would like to visit every zoo that exist in that country.

However in the US the regelations are a lot more lax, and many roadside zoos exist in that country. So for the United States I would like to visit every AZA accredited institution. There are about 220 AZA zoos if I am correct. Also I would like to visit the few good non AZA-accredited ones. But I definitely would not like to visit a single roadside atraction.

However in Eastern Europe and also some places in Southern Europe like Spain, there a bunch of bad zoos, that would qualify as roadside. However overall Europe is very good on the zoo front, with a high number of quality zoos. Also the fact that Germany packs its many zoos into a much smaller piece of land than the US, and the mostly superior species diversity (except we do not have pronghorn and whale sharks her:)) would make Europe the best zoo continent in the world, in my opinion.
 
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