the best zoo in Germany?

sooty mangabey

sooty mangabey

Well-Known Member
You may be interested to see a new zoo survey in Germany's Stern magazine, also available on their website (stern.de). A lesgue table has been arrived at in a very scientific fashion, ranking Germany's 50 major zoos (these are split into small and large zoos).

The top 5 is:
1. West Berlin
2. East Berlin
3. Wuppertal
4. Hamburg
5. Leipzig

I'm very surprised to see Berlin Tierpark so highly ranked. I love the place, but it is certainly awful in very many ways. if I were an elephant, a big cat, a monkey or a sun bear, i don't think I should want to end up there!

Bottom of the list for the big zoos are Saarbrucken and Neunkirchen, each of which probably deserves this fate.

Really worth looking at the web-site.
 
I just bought that magazine this week during my trip to Germany. While I think it's an interesting list, I don't agree with the rankings. Placing Tierpark Berlin so high and then Cologne as number 15 and Hannover as number 16 makes no sense.
 
Ranking zoos is so subjective imo anyone with some time and a decent brain could make a list and defend it to it's own standards.

I've seen Wuppertal Zoo last month, and i wouldn't know why it's ranked above Cologne or Dortmund... All three have their faults and good points.
 
Hey Toddy, welcome back :)

The test was very subjectiv... In my opinion, Tiergarten Nürnberg is the best in germany :)
 
Animal said:
Hey Toddy, welcome back :)

The test was very subjectiv... In my opinion, Tiergarten Nürnberg is the best in germany :)
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Many years ago I would have rated Frankfurt as far and away Germany's top zoo, though Berlin's had larger collections. Now Frankfurt doesn't even feature in these lists and as I haven't been there for many years I'm woindering has it 'declined' over time?
 
maybe someone should do a thread on Frankfurt, because there doesn't appear to be one. Frankfurt is the only European zoo I've been to and I thought it was fantastic.
 
Hmm, I've only read about German zoos on the net, but it seems to me that each zoo has one highlight, and the rest is a bit averaged out.

Berlin TP seems to look like a nice zoo though,
 
German zoos are probably the best in the world. Not the most innovative (Holland?) or the most glamorous (America?) or the most politically Correct (anywhere other than Germany, probably), but for breadth of collection, for wonderful buildings old and new, for superb grounds, for atmosphere, for gravitas, for husbandry….

Berlin Tierpark is fantastic in many ways. A superb collection, a design which does not bow to the needs of an ignorant public, an ambitious vastness which is unique, I think, in the world. But some of the enclosures are bland, bland, bland – the newish African monkey house, for example, is a throwback to the days when monkeys were housed in what looked like a bathroom (white tiles abound). And some of the old enclosures are of a different era.

Frankfurt is superb, of course. It still has the best small mammal house in Europe, one of the best bird houses, an old but excellent aquarium and reptile house, and some very nice newer things, such as the cat house and the sealion pools. Unfortunately, their brilliant director Christian Schmidt left a year or so ago, and so it’ll be interesting to see what happens in the years ahead.

There are many other excellent zoos too. I wouldn’t have had Hamburg anywhere so high up the list, nor Nuremberg, but others like these too a great deal. Cologne has always been very strong, Duisburg has improved vastly in recent years, Munich is stunningly beautiful…. All across the country are wonderful places.

I don’t think the Stern survey considered work being done away from the zoos concerned.

Of course, this is all just a parlour game – but a very enjoyable one at that.
 
You can't tell " which zoo is the best", because all zoos are so diffrent, every zoo has its good and its bad things, and the most important thing is, but most people can't see it, is, how' is the zoo keeping the animals behind the scenes ?

I've seen many things behind the scenes at San Diego Zoo and a few other Zoos in the USA and of course, germany, and fact is, most animals, which are living"behhind the scens" are living in poor conditions. I've seen the last Hunters Hartebeest at Brownsville behind the scenes, the place, where they have kept the animal, was looking like a garbage place.....I've seen to many bad conditions for a lot of animals behind the scenes. San Diego is just one example.

In the most cases, I can visit many zoos just in the visitors area, so I can't tell in that cases, how the animals are living there behind the scenes.

Forget this "Stern"test, this test was not made by zoo experts or animal keepers(one of them was formely a zookeepr, but I think, this was a long time ago...) I bet, would this test made by a group of animal keepers, the Berlin Animal Park would be never on the second place, this park is one of the worst zoos in germany I know...I've visited this park this week, the park has a great collection, no question, but most of the living conditions, especially hoofed animals, are very bad.

Of course I have my favourite zoos in germany, Frankfurt or Nuremberg for example, but both zoos has bad things, too.As like as every zoo.

This test was very bad, there are so many mistakes. One example, because a few people here can't read german. They wrote, the Tierpark Ströhen is the only zoo on the european mainland whos keeping L'Hoests Monkeys. That's wrong, we have two further zoos in germany with that species( Tierpark Schwaigern and the Zoo Aschersleben ) and a few french zoos with L'Hoets Monkeys....Or france and germany are not part of the european mainland....? There are a lot of more mistakes, another example is, they wrote, the"King cheetah"is a " species". That's wrong, too. Its just a striped variation of a cheetah, as like as the"black panther" is just a black mutation of the leopard.

So the test is absolutly weakmindend.
 
sooty mangabey said:
You may be interested to see a new zoo survey in Germany's Stern magazine, also available on their website (stern.de).
I'm very surprised to see Berlin Tierpark so highly ranked.
Click to expand...

Is there any link to this article other than the "current issue" link you gave originally? I'd really like to see this article.

I'm not at all surprised that the Tierpark is highly-ranked. Not sure if I've ever seen a more extensive collection of large animals in any zoo! And most of them have lots of space to roam.
 
During the time that i lived in Germany, i visited many zoos, but not as many as i now would have loved, Hannover Zoo, Frankfurt zoo, Berlin Tierpark, and yes my beloved Zoologischen Garten Berlin, this last one is the reason why i found my birth passion once again, and remains the top destination in the world in my heart.

After living in Europe, and returning to the US, i have visited what i believe to be the US"s biggest guns in the world of zoos, San Diego Zoo, Bronx Zoo, and many others. I have visited many times the so called world's first billion dollar zoo, Disney's Animal Kingdom, way too many times.

I can tell you from my heart that after all this, Berlin Zoo is still the number one zoo in my mind in the world, so clearly it has to be the number one zoo in Germany.

There is things about Berlin Zoo, that no other zoo in the World can come close to, when you place all of them together, it's history, the animal collection, the feel of the place, the size of the park, every bench, lamp, statue, enclosure, there is something magic about it, it has such a deep meaning for me, that if it was possible i would love to be burried there.
 
I agree, thought Berlin zoo was awesome.
 
It is an incredible place, i was just posting in a different thread about the top 10 exhibits in the US, and i realised, that Berlin Zoo does not have a single exhibit that could make this list if i was going to include Europeans Zoos i have visited, maybe the Hippo House Dome could make the very end of the list, it is a very well done exhibit, and my favorite place to see Hippos, but the problem is the lack of other animal enclosures within this exhibit to really push it.

But even knowing that there is not a single exhibit in this fantastic zoo that is one of the best of its class in the world, it is still the best zoo in planet earth, when you combine its many features, the only other zoo that i have seen that comes very close is San Diego Zoo, but it did not move my heart and brain the way Berlin did, in part this is due to the history of the place, a museum feel that you will only partially get in San Diego Zoo.
 
!

MiniZoo954,
I totally, totally, TOTALLY agree with you on the Berlin Zoo! Certainly the world's best collection.
 
I'm extremely happy that you feel this way ANyhuis, and coming from you, this is a great revelation, and it just shows, that while many other zoos outhere have fantastic exhibits, and bigger pockets, it is still one zoo with no award wining exhibits, the undisputed king of the zoological World, so many people's fascination with zoos started here (including myself), i will make my way back here soon, hopefully to say goodbye to Bao Bao before his time comes, so much history in this place, what a magical place.
 
sooty mangabey said:
German zoos are probably the best in the world. Not the most innovative (Holland?) or the most glamorous (America?) or the most politically Correct (anywhere other than Germany, probably), but for breadth of collection, for wonderful buildings old and new, for superb grounds, for atmosphere, for gravitas, for husbandry….

Berlin Tierpark is fantastic in many ways. A superb collection, a design which does not bow to the needs of an ignorant public, an ambitious vastness which is unique, I think, in the world. But some of the enclosures are bland, bland, bland – the newish African monkey house, for example, is a throwback to the days when monkeys were housed in what looked like a bathroom (white tiles abound). And some of the old enclosures are of a different era.

Frankfurt is superb, of course. It still has the best small mammal house in Europe, one of the best bird houses, an old but excellent aquarium and reptile house, and some very nice newer things, such as the cat house and the sealion pools. Unfortunately, their brilliant director Christian Schmidt left a year or so ago, and so it’ll be interesting to see what happens in the years ahead.

There are many other excellent zoos too. I wouldn’t have had Hamburg anywhere so high up the list, nor Nuremberg, but others like these too a great deal. Cologne has always been very strong, Duisburg has improved vastly in recent years, Munich is stunningly beautiful…. All across the country are wonderful places.

I don’t think the Stern survey considered work being done away from the zoos concerned.

Of course, this is all just a parlour game – but a very enjoyable one at that.
Click to expand...


I do agree with everything (and certainly the admiration for german zoos) but not on the new African Monkey House in Berlin Tierpark: it's outside enclosures are very large and although all species (except for the gelada, which lives on a island) are kept in cages, they like the climb the wire, they've got grass, trees, herbs, etc. It's just the perception of a cage (what's the diffence with netted enclosures? It's perhaps more attractive to us humans but it makes in my opinion little difference for the animals).

Maby you're right about the interior, but several weeks ago the diana monkeys f.e. got leaves/soil on the ground.

And the vast visitor interior looks awsome, it's very symetric and clean. I like it a lot.
 
I'd still like to see that Stern article! I've emailed them, but I'm not so sure they'll help me. Any way someone who has it can help me? If not, could someone at least post here what Stern listed as the "Top 20" zoos in Germany? (Top 50 would be nice too)
 
Philipine eagle said:
And the vast visitor interior looks awsome, it's very symetric and clean. I like it a lot.
Click to expand...

That's funny, that is exactly what I hate about it! So little space for the monkeys and so much for the visitors in what looks like a laboratory or a monkey hospital.

@ANyhuis: I have that Stern article at home. I will post the list sometime next week when I get a hold of it :)
 
Toddy said:
@ANyhuis: I have that Stern article at home. I will post the list sometime next week when I get a hold of it :)
Click to expand...

Thanks so much, Toddy! By the way, I'll likely be touring some German zoos in October, which is one reason I'd like to see this article.
 
Test 2000

In 2000 Stern also made the same test. Im posting the list of year 2000, I will post latter the list 2008 as soon I get it.

Big Zoos
1. Köln Zoo - erstklassig 1.91
2. Hamburg Tierpark Hagenbeck - erstklassig 1.98
3. Nürnberg Tiergarten - erstklassig 1.99

4. München Tierpark Hellabrunn - gut 2.03
5. Dortmund Zoo - gut 2.05
6. Schwerin Zoologischer Garten - gut 2.10
7. Osnabrück Zoo - gut 2.24
8. Stuttgart Zoologisch-Botanischer Garten Wilhelma - gut 2.26
9. Karlsruhe Zoologischer Stadtgarten - gut 2.28
10. Leipzig Zoologischer Garten - gut 2.31
11. Krefeld Zoo - gut 2.34
12. Augsburg Zoologischer Garten - gut 2.36
13. Wuppertal Zoologischer Garten - gut 2.46

14. Dresden Zoo - passabel 2.50
15. Berlin Tierpark - passabel 2.56
16. Duisburg Zoo - passabel 2.57
17. Frankfurt Zoo - passabel 2.57
18. Berlin Zoologischer Garten - passabel 2.62
19. Magdeburg Zoologischer Garten - passabel 2.66
20. Saarbrücken Zoologischer Garten - passabel 2.87
21. Hannover Zoo - passabel 2.95

22. Rostock Zoo - zwiespältig 3.01
23. Münster Allwetterzoo - zwiespältig 3.06
24. Erfurt Thüringer Zoopark - zwiespältig 3.09
25. Halle Zoologischer Garten - zwiespältig 3.13

26. Gelsenkirchen Ruhr Zoo - unzulänglich 3.53
27. Heidelberg Tiergarten - unzulänglich 3.68

Small Zoos

1. Eberswalde Tierpark - erstklassig 1.83

2. Görlitz Tierpark - gut 2.02
3. Rheine Naturzoo - gut 2.23
4. Jaderberg Tier- und Freizeitpark - gut 2.35
5. Braunschweig Arche Noah Zoo - gut 2.41

6. Landau Zoo - passabel 2.53
7. Aachen Tierpark - passabel 2.95

8. Cottbus Tierpark - zwiespältig 3.16
9. Hof Zoologischer Garten - zwiespältig 3.18
10. Bremerhaven Zoo am Meer - zwiespältig 3.45

11. Mönchengladbach Tiergarten - miserabel 4.10
12. Lübeck Tierpark - miserabel 4.70
 
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