''The most zoo countries'' (zoo-love) and European California

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Nikola Chavkosk

Well-Known Member
I made this list of ''The most zoo countries'' in Europe and in the World, as I see them. This don't mean that the criteria are accurate or fair, it is just my point of view and probably also of many others.

I made this list partially basing on numbers of zoos in a country, number of animals, number of species held in that country, number of species and population number of endangered or highly charizmatic animals (like okapis or bonobos for example) held in that country, the standards of zoos (eg. percent of modern zoos), etc.

This is just for fun.

Europe

1. Germany (''Number one The most zoo country'' in Europe, and second in world)

2. United Kingdom (In Europe, I mostly love how British zoos are built and located (like outside cities))

3. France (particularly rich in lemur/sifaka species, kordofan giraffes :p )

4. Spain (European California :p )

5. The Netherlands

6. Czech Repuplic (many rare animals, and extensive reptile colection - like in Plzen zoo, surprisingly for not too big country).

7. Belgium
8. Denmark
9. Switzerland
10. Poland
11. Hungary (something similar like Czech Republic)
12. Austria
12. Italy
13. Portugal
14. Sweden
15. Russia (many captive Siberian tigers, polar bears, extensive diverse captive collection of reptiles, gorillas..)
16. Ireland
17. Greece
18. Croatia
19. Turkey
20. Ukraine

21. Serbia (holds Asian elephants, western chimps, one or two bornean orangutan (one male bornean orangutan was sent from the Czech Republic to breed with their female), cassowaries, brasilian tapirs, among other animals).
22. Estonia (black rhino(s) in Talin :p )
....

Country without official zoo in Europe: Albania, Montenegro among some others maybe.


World (without Europe):

1. United States of America (of corse, and as single country on the top in the world, but after EU (as not single country)
2. Japan
3. Australia
4. China (many captive tigers, orangutans, giant panda, Asian and African bush elephants..)
5. Canada
6. Singapore
7. Mexico
8. India (230 Bengal tigers, many Indian rhinos)
9. Israel
10. United Arab Emirates
11. South Africa
12. New Zeland, Argentina, Qatar, Malaysia, Indonesia, Brasil, ....)


*Germany and UK would rank above Japan
*France would rank above Australia..

''Bonobo countries'' in Europe: Germany, France, UK (England), the Netherlands, Belgium

Top three European countries with the greatest population of (in 1999):
African bush elephants: Germany (1), UK (2) and Spain (3).
Asian elephants: Germany (1), UK (2) and the Netherlands (3).

''The most zoo US states'' would be California, Texas, Florida, New York, Washington D.C., Ohio, Georgia, Colorado, Ilinois...)
 
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It seems that Bulgaria is also a zoo-love country, since there are at least 8 zoos in Bulgaria (big or not, modern or substandard), for comparatively small country (7 milion people).

Italy could have a lot of more zoos, but has not, as compared to some country with aproximately the same population, eg. France or UK.

It's subjective thread, but I taught it will be funny/interesting for arguing, but seems that not.
What do you think?
 
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Arizona Docent said:
I am sure the tiny kingdoms do not have room for any, such as Andorra, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, San Marino, Vatican City.
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Yes they are. Altough Monaco (a microstate) has one.

I taught Luxembourg have some zoos, but according to Wikipedia it has none..

Are there US states without zoo (with some bigger zoo, including terrarium/aquarium, but not just petting zoo (with mostly domestic animals))?
 
Liechenstein has Vogelparadies Birka.

Luxembourg has Parc Merveilleux, along with several small live collections in museums and butterfly houses.
 
Luxembourg has quite a few animal attractions: Parc Merveilleux, Parc Animalier Escher Deierepark, Wasserbillig Aquarium and Grevenmacher Butterfly Garden that I know of.

There's also a small facility in San Marino, the Reptilarium-Aquarium.
 
Giant Panda said:
Luxembourg has quite a few animal attractions: Parc Merveilleux, Parc Animalier Escher Deierepark, Wasserbillig Aquarium and Grevenmacher Butterfly Garden that I know of.

There's also a small facility in San Marino, the Reptilarium-Aquarium.
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Thank you. I have never been in that region (Benelux), actualy I have only been in Tierpark Hellabrunn as only EAZA member that I have visited so far, last year. But I have a plan this year to visit either Barcelona zoo, or Bioparc Valencia, or Antwerp zoo or Cologne zoo.
 
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Arizona Docent said:
I believe Wyoming may be the only state. Perhaps Snowleopard can confirm this?
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There are 700 zoos in the USA and Wyoming is indeed the only state that lacks a collection of exotic animals. The trio of states that lead the way are Florida (85+ "zoos"), California (70) and Texas (50) while there are several states that don't have very many at all that are actually open to the public. Alphabetically there is Alaska (5), Connecticut (5), Delaware (2), Hawaii (5), Iowa (3), Kentucky (4), Mississippi (4), Montana (4), New Hampshire (3), North Dakota (5), Rhode Island (4), South Dakota (5), Utah (5), Vermont (2) and West Virginia (3). Combined with Wyoming, that makes 16 states in the USA that each have 5 or less zoos.
 
snowleopard said:
There are 700 zoos in the USA and Wyoming is indeed the only state that lacks a collection of exotic animals. The trio of states that lead the way are Florida (85+ "zoos"), California (70) and Texas (50) while there are several states that don't have very many at all that are actually open to the public. Alphabetically there is Alaska (5), Connecticut (5), Delaware (2), Hawaii (5), Iowa (3), Kentucky (4), Mississippi (4), Montana (4), New Hampshire (3), North Dakota (5), Rhode Island (4), South Dakota (5), Utah (5), Vermont (2) and West Virginia (3). Combined with Wyoming, that makes 16 states in the USA that each have 5 or less zoos.
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How I could place Texas ahead of Florida in the original post. I will kill myself :p With so many famous zoos in Florida like White Oak, Disney, Tampa's Lowry Park zoo, Miami metro zoo, Central Florida zoo... how I could. Sorry Florida
 
Nikola Chavkosk said:
How I could place Texas ahead of Florida in the original post. I will kill myself :p With so many famous zoos in Florida like White Oak, Disney, Tampa's Lowry Park zoo, Miami metro zoo, Central Florida zoo... how I could. Sorry Florida
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Yes but according to both Snowleopard and myself, who are two of the most widely traveled North American members, Texas is the best.
http://www.zoochat.com/22/best-state-zoos-199261/
 
I should placed the Netherlands, above Spain (on fourth position), or maybe even above France, on third position of the European list. :(
 
You should also placed Australia above Japan because Australia have so much unique animals.
 
aardvark250 said:
You should also placed Australia above Japan because Australia have so much unique animals.
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Yes there are now things that changed in my mind - how I see countries. Also I would now place France, Netherlands and Spain above Japan (primarly because not so good to bad enclosures in Japan), and Australia above Japan yes. Certainly many zoochatters will not agree and would love to read their opinion, like from you aardvark250.

I also appologise for some mistyping like New Zeland (New Zealand), Brasil (Brazil), of corse (of course).
 
"numbers of zoos in a country"/ "number of animals"
Would this basis of comparison be fair though? Of course your definition of "zoo loving" countries is going to differ from mine and I will not fault you with it since it is ultimately your own opinion, I personally feel that it is more objective to "rank" them based on number of zoos per km^2. On the surface, obviously it seems as though USA has the most number of quality zoos, which is true, but if you add in a land size element, then a significantly smaller country, such as Singapore or even Germany, may fare better on the "rankings". For example, Singapore has the land size that is probably at least 10 000 times smaller than the US, but evidently the number of accredited zoos in the US is not a few thousand times more than Singapore's and neither is the total number of animals in captivity in American zoos going to be a few thousand times more than Singapore's. Of course, there are various elements/arguments that can refute this point, with urban area being such an example. To me, land size being taken into account would make the list fairer, just like how it is more reliable to use GDP per capita instead of a GDP of a country as an indicator to judge their economic growth.
Like you said, this is a "just for fun" kind of thread, so this is just my two cents :)
 
Yes, TheDisneyTeen that would be more objective estimation. But that can also mean, a lot of zoos per km2 who are holding just few animals, without some high-profile zoo animals from all over the World, like would be case for some countires like China, Brazil (don't have enough apes, or rhinos for example), and thus I liked as criteria for estimation to include also diversity of zoo animals, numbers of zoo animals who are very highly charizmatic (like apes, okapis, rhinos, koalas, rare in zoos cats, etc.), and also to include the quality of enclosures or zoos in general.

Maybe a new thread, with several different estimations based on such criteria would be very interesting (like different rankings: number of zoos/per km2, number of citizens per one zoo, general percentage of good enclosures, number of some selected highly charizmaric animals/per country, number of species of zoo animals/per country (wich will be almost immpossible to estimate), GDP/per each zoo in a country - as GDP/per capita :) )
 
If you include the quality of enclosures,China is definitely not on the list.China have lots of zoo but mostly are bad and outdate.
 
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