Upcoming poll: What Zoo Has The Overall Best Landscaping Design?

Dan

Dan

Well-Known Member
Love it or hate it (and I know that some hate it) but here I go with another poll of mine! If it annoys you, just ignore it, OK?

The question will be "What zoo has the overall best landscaping design?", so this time it is not about the best individual exhibit (compare http://www.zoochat.com/2/poll-zoo-exhibit-has-best-landscaping-82947/) but the overall quality of the zoo in this respect.

I will nominate Woodland Park Zoo and eagerly await nine more nominations before I set up the poll!

Now what constitutes "best landscaping design" one may ask. Well... you be the judge! Lots of factors can be weighed in of course. MY PREDOMINANT ONE will be my usual personal obsession - animal welfare! I am particularily impressed with landscaping design that enrich the animals´ lives, most often by as far as possible emulating the environment that the animal lives in in the wild.

But feel free to argue any other perspective - whatever takes YOUR fancy! This is not rocket science, it is a poll at a web site for enthusiasts with varying qualifications, but who knows... some interesting discussion might be generated. I hope so!

Oh and since this is MY poll I can of course set up the rules any way I want to :p. So here comes a little quirk: Disney´s Animal Kingdom cannot be nominated in this poll!

Why? Because it is, to my knowledge, the only zoo in the world backed up by a multi-billion-dollar entertainment corporation that can afford any costs in order to be the biggest and best. In fact, I don´t doubt that DAK does have the best "overall landscaping design" of any zoo in the world but let´s let the poll be about "all the other zoos" so to speak.

So nine other nominations, please? I would of course be very glad if you present some arguments for your nomination - the more the merrier. Links to pictures are always nice.

PS
So why have I nominated WPZ without any supporting arguments? Well, I would say that there are some 2000+ "supporting arguments" for it already available here at ZooChat. Check out the gallery and be amazed! :):):)
 
No prizes for guessing which zoo I'm going to nominate.


Werribee Open Range Zoo. All of the exhibits are fantastic in terms of design and animal welfare. and the landscaping outside of the exhibits reflects Africa really well (not that I've ever been to Africa:)).
 
Cool, thanks ZooLeopard and PAT!

Three nominations made (zoos from three continents, that is interesting! :)) - only seven left.

Hurry up, ladies and gentlemen... :)
 
Bristol zoo's is good, most of the exhibits are planted nicely and the gardens are nice.
I guess that's my nomination :p
 
Four nominations are made. Time is running out and this upcoming poll is fast becoming a hit!

(BTW, all, so far, nominees are zoos in the Anglo-Saxon dominated part of the world - can I point that out without being to un-politically correct? :p)

OOPS, sorry.... more nominations, please!

Also BTW: no Dutch zoos are being mentioned so far... there are some splendid zoos in that country, I hear, not least from this particular point of view...
 
I don't have another zoo to nominate, but I agree with Dan's choice of Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle. I am very fortunate that I live fairly close to such a great zoo (5 hours roundtrip drive) and therefore I've seen it expand over the years. That zoo has been hailed as an innovative leader in the field of landscape design and immersion exhibits, and the 1976 Long Range Plan is arguably the first of its kind of any zoo on the planet to instill the belief that the surroundings both inside and outside of an enclosure are just as vitally important as the enclosure itself. Many North American zoo history books devote at least a paragraph or two to the Seattle zoo, as while it may not have the best or biggest animal collection it does have many natural, lush, amazingly well-designed exhibits.

With awards for African Savanna, Elephant Forest, Tropical Rainforest, Northern Trail, Trail of Vines and Jaguar Cove, Woodland Park is #2 in the United States (after the Bronx Zoo) in terms of AZA exhibit awards. Some individuals don't put a lot of value on such accolades, but whether one supports the notion of awards for enclosures or not there is no denying that the Woodland Park Zoo has many top-notch animal habitats. There was even a delay of 11 years in the construction of Jaguar Cove (it opened in 2003) because the zoo didn't want to build a second-rate enclosure with the Tropical Rainforest in 1992 and thus waited more than a decade for the funding and time frame to add on a world-class jaguar exhibit. One can visit in person, or scroll through the more than 2,300 photos in the ZooChat gallery.:)

Another zoo that has amazingly detailed exhibits is the tiny Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum just outside of Tucson. Only animals from the Sonoran desert in Arizona are in the collection, but the exhibit design and backdrop of gorgeous desert makes for a spectacular experience.
 
Thanks for the support, snowleopard. It is actually your splendid pictures from WPC that has convinced me that this must be the no 1 zoo from this perspective.

BUT STILL ROOM FOR SIX MORE NOMINATIONS!
 
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