The best zoos
- Thread starter Daphne
- Start date
It depends on your own preferences and the list of @lintworm is good start to orientate yourself on European zoos.
I would suggest a city trip to Berlin. Zoo Berlin has a full diversity of species and several historical buildings. Tierpark Berlin is very spacious with a great collection of especially ungulates. The city itself is great, full of history and good museums.
Not really. ^^ Berlin is constantly broke (but loves to waste millions), dirty, full of rude weirdos and so dysfunctional & chaotic that it puts the (alleged) German reputation of efficiency to shame. One of its former mayors embossed its inofficial logo by calling it " “poor [and dirty] but sexy”.
However, AWP is also correct that from a touristic pov Berlin has a lot to offer. And the culinary diversity is great, too.
Well, I meant the touristic point-of-view.
I think lots of cities that are great for tourists have their social and economic problems. Just take Amsterdam. The museums, historical center, the canals and (of course) Artis are great for tourists, but as a (sort of) local I'm more concerned by the ultra left mayor, the assassinations, radicalism against other religions and all things concerning the recently opened "Noord-Zuidlijn" metro (most important, the negative changes in the transportation network).
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I guess we can all agree that pretty much all the larger metropolises share similar problems; probably all along the very same that are rooted in the nature of urbanity and human nature itself. However, Berlin is blatant in its disregard of what is usually regarded as positive German characteristics - such as efficiency, punctuality or functionality. I wonder whether the Swiss have the same perception of Zürich. 
I consider variety of exhibits and overall experience- and do not consider how large the zoo is. My top 10 zoos are-
10.Lincoln Park Zoo
9.Roger Williams Park Zoo
8. Capron park Zoo
7.Buttonwood Park Zoo
6.Central Park Zoo
5.Brookfield Zoo
4.Columbus Zoo
3. Squam Lake science center
2.Smithsonian National Zoo
1.Cleveland Metroparks Zoo
10.Lincoln Park Zoo
9.Roger Williams Park Zoo
8. Capron park Zoo
7.Buttonwood Park Zoo
6.Central Park Zoo
5.Brookfield Zoo
4.Columbus Zoo
3. Squam Lake science center
2.Smithsonian National Zoo
1.Cleveland Metroparks Zoo
I enjoyed Brookfield and Columbus zoos also . I am somewhat surprised to see Cleveland on your list . Just out of curiosity what makes that one a favorite of yours .
I felt Cleveland zoo had some very well-done new exhibits- like those for tigers, koalas, elephants and the rainforest. I also feel they have some good historic exhibits- like monkey island. It could also be that I have only visited around 20 zoos in my life so there is not exactly a whole lot it is competing against.
Just shows Tripadvisor & similar are pointless really! Everyone has different opinions of what may be good or bad!
I understand about not being to a lot of zoos . Unless I am forgetting some . I haven’t even been to 20 zoos yet . I am guessing around 10 I have been to all the major zoos on Ohio except Cleveland.
It’s been quite a while since I have been to Detroit but I liked that one also
Of the ones I've seen, in terms of comprehensiveness, in no particular order: San Diego; the Bronx; Brookfield; Columbus; Cincinnati; Smithsonian; St. Louis come to mind. Toronto's zoo is excellent; make sure you're in good shape as it's very big. Kansas City has done a fine job at remaking their zoo. I first visited many years ago and was quite disappointed but they have done well. The San Diego Wild Animal Park and Whipsnade are also up there.
Of smaller zoos that do not try to have comprehensive collections--Roger Williams Park, Santa Barbara, the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, and Haifa are charming and worth visiting.
Thanks for the nice mentions of the Detroit Zoo. I leave it out of my list in part because it's my home zoo...I live within walking distance and I'm a member, so I go there a lot. The financing situation has eased up some but the zoo isn't swimming in money and I am impressed by the way they've handled it. There was the $30 million penguin exhibit but other than that they're making modest changes--combining three bear exhibits into one, expanding the tiger and red panda displays, a wolf exhibit, and so forth.
Of smaller zoos that do not try to have comprehensive collections--Roger Williams Park, Santa Barbara, the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, and Haifa are charming and worth visiting.
Thanks for the nice mentions of the Detroit Zoo. I leave it out of my list in part because it's my home zoo...I live within walking distance and I'm a member, so I go there a lot. The financing situation has eased up some but the zoo isn't swimming in money and I am impressed by the way they've handled it. There was the $30 million penguin exhibit but other than that they're making modest changes--combining three bear exhibits into one, expanding the tiger and red panda displays, a wolf exhibit, and so forth.
Kakapo
Well-Known Member
I passed some days elaborating a new method for rate the zoos that I've visited: just counting the species photographed in each place. This method is far from perfect, but gives an approximate idea of the rating of zoos based on personal experiencie. There are some deal, for example, the zoos visited long time ago are underrated because my interest in taking photos was not exhaustive and hence I took much less (for example at Fuengirola), while hometown zoos can be overrated because one does various visits to it and adds the species that changes over time (the case of Saragossa's fluvial aquarium). But for good or for bad, is as least a method based on exact numbers and not just on impressions. This is the list of rating of my visited zoos (not including zoos visited only before I had digital camera, such as Valencia oceanographic):
First price go to Köln zoo, where I've photographed 167 species.
2- Loro park, Tenerife, with 162 species.
3- San Diego zoo - 160 species
4- Berlin zoo-aquarium - 156 species
5- Faunia Madrid - 153 species
6- Birch aquarium, San Diego - 149 species
7- Saragossa fluvial aquarium - 144 species
8- Antwerpen zoo - 134 species
9- Plzen zoo - 129 species
10- Madrid zoo-aquarium - 117 species
11- Pairi Daiza - 112 species
12- Prague zoo - 107 species
13- Berlin tierpark - 101 species
14- Artis royal zoo - 96 species
15- Duisburg zoo - 94 species ----- La Rochelle aquarium - 94 species
16- Burgers zoo - 89 species
17- Wüppertal zoo - 79 species
18- SeaWorld San Diego - 77 species
19- Tierpark Hellabrunn - 57 species
20 - London zoo - 52 species
21- Barcelona zoo - 49 species
22- Vivarium in König museum, Bonn - 40 species
23- Barcelona aquarium - 37 species
24- Menagerie du Jardin des Plantes, Paris - 32 species
23- BestZoo - 31 species ------- Prague world aquarium Morsky Svet - 31 species
22- Prague Terrarium - 24 species ---------- Dolfinarium Harderwijk - 24 species ------------ London butterfly house, Syon park (closed) - 24 species
23- Taipei zoo - 23 species
24- Liberec zoo - 21 species
25- Zie-zoo - 18 species ------- Apenheul Apeldoorn - 18 species
26- Cosmocaixa Barcelona - 14 species
27- Vivarium in TheNat (San Diego natural history museum) - 13 species
28- Vivarium in Nantes natural history museum - 11 species
29 - Fuengirola biopark - 10 species
First price go to Köln zoo, where I've photographed 167 species.
2- Loro park, Tenerife, with 162 species.
3- San Diego zoo - 160 species
4- Berlin zoo-aquarium - 156 species
5- Faunia Madrid - 153 species
6- Birch aquarium, San Diego - 149 species
7- Saragossa fluvial aquarium - 144 species
8- Antwerpen zoo - 134 species
9- Plzen zoo - 129 species
10- Madrid zoo-aquarium - 117 species
11- Pairi Daiza - 112 species
12- Prague zoo - 107 species
13- Berlin tierpark - 101 species
14- Artis royal zoo - 96 species
15- Duisburg zoo - 94 species ----- La Rochelle aquarium - 94 species
16- Burgers zoo - 89 species
17- Wüppertal zoo - 79 species
18- SeaWorld San Diego - 77 species
19- Tierpark Hellabrunn - 57 species
20 - London zoo - 52 species
21- Barcelona zoo - 49 species
22- Vivarium in König museum, Bonn - 40 species
23- Barcelona aquarium - 37 species
24- Menagerie du Jardin des Plantes, Paris - 32 species
23- BestZoo - 31 species ------- Prague world aquarium Morsky Svet - 31 species
22- Prague Terrarium - 24 species ---------- Dolfinarium Harderwijk - 24 species ------------ London butterfly house, Syon park (closed) - 24 species
23- Taipei zoo - 23 species
24- Liberec zoo - 21 species
25- Zie-zoo - 18 species ------- Apenheul Apeldoorn - 18 species
26- Cosmocaixa Barcelona - 14 species
27- Vivarium in TheNat (San Diego natural history museum) - 13 species
28- Vivarium in Nantes natural history museum - 11 species
29 - Fuengirola biopark - 10 species
Kakapo
Well-Known Member
Read the entire message and not only the list. It includes the explanation of why the numbering is a bit messed up near the bottom. That's different from being a wrong methodology, that simply isn't (remember that I talked about number of species photographed + personal experience, not about exhibits, rarity of the species, or average opinion of various visitors).
About the point of "making the top 30": these are not the top 30 but all the zoos I've visited after having digital camera.
P. S. If anyone is interested, I also can put what are the species photographed in each place.
Thanks, obviously it's fine for you to rank zoos in whatever way you choose.
I have read the post again, but I still don't think it explains why the list of placings reaches 24, then goes back to 23,22, then starts again at 23?
Kakapo
Well-Known Member
Ahhhhhhh!!!! I tought that you was talking only about the position of each zoo respecting other zoos. I didn't saw the horrible mesh that I done with numbers until now!!!!! My apologies both for the bad numbering as for don't understanding your message until now.
Please some admin can edit my post (since I can't now) and put the correct numbers (25 for BestZoo and Prague aquarium, and subsequent crescent numers until reach the 33th for Fuengirola)?