USA Today Best Zoo, Zoo Exhibit, Aquarium and Safari Park Polls 2019

SharkFinatic

SharkFinatic

Well-Known Member
5+ year member
It's that time of year again: the USA Today Reader's Choice polls for the best zoos, zoo exhibits, aquariums, and safari parks in North America.

Best Zoo Nominees:

Vote- Best Zoo Nominees: 2019 10Best Readers' Choice Travel Awards

Best Zoo Exhibit Nominees:

Vote- Best Zoo Exhibit Nominees: 2019 10Best Readers' Choice Travel Awards

Best Aquarium Nominees:

Vote- Best Aquarium Nominees: 2019 10Best Readers' Choice Travel Awards

Best Safari Park Nominees:

Vote- Best Safari Park Nominees: 2019 10Best Readers' Choice Travel Awards
 
I have only looked at the first link (Best Zoo) so far. It also includes their panel of "experts" (as I imagine all the links do). Two of the seven people work in the zoo profession (though neither are zoo directors or curators). The remaining five are women who write articles or blogs on family vacations or things to do with kids. Seriously? These are their "experts"?

The zoo list is not that bad, though I do shake my head at the inclusion of Audubon Zoo (even though I have not been there myself). Bronx and San Diego are there and some others I would consider top notch (Dallas, Houston, Living Desert). However I am disappointed my local Arizona Sonora Desert Museum did not make it this year as they have the last couple years. This is almost certainly due to the panel being made up of moms with travel blogs and not zoo professionals. In recent years the panel has been made up exclusively (I think) of zoo professionals and they recognize how innovate Arizona Sonora Desert Museum is.
 
North Carolina Zoo, Sedgwick County Zoo and Zoo Miami are major zoos that take all day to see and they are each packed with high-quality exhibits. I would personally put all three of them into my all-time Top 10 zoos and so those ones are notable omissions. The three zoos that I'd name as the weakest selections would be Cheyenne Mountain, Indianapolis and Riverbanks.
 
Arizona Docent said:
I have only looked at the first link (Best Zoo) so far. It also includes their panel of "experts" (as I imagine all the links do). Two of the seven people work in the zoo profession (though neither are zoo directors or curators). The remaining five are women who write articles or blogs on family vacations or things to do with kids. Seriously? These are their "experts"?

The zoo list is not that bad, though I do shake my head at the inclusion of Audubon Zoo (even though I have not been there myself). Bronx and San Diego are there and some others I would consider top notch (Dallas, Houston, Living Desert). However I am disappointed my local Arizona Sonora Desert Museum did not make it this year as they have the last couple years. This is almost certainly due to the panel being made up of moms with travel blogs and not zoo professionals. In recent years the panel has been made up exclusively (I think) of zoo professionals and they recognize how innovate Arizona Sonora Desert Museum is.
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If it's any compensation, the ASDM's Arizona Trail is a Best Exhibit nominee.
 
On a side note, I'm surprised Pittsburgh Zoo's Jungle Odyssey exhibit got nominated, since a lot of people found it underwhelming, if I'm not mistaken.
 
I voted Bronx (although I leaned hard towards Dallas).

I voted Mission Everglades at Miami.

I voted The Wilds. Although Northwest Trek and San Diego are impressive. I probably should recast that vote for Northwest Trek.
 
Arizona Docent said:
The remaining five are women who write articles or blogs on family vacations or things to do with kids. Seriously? These are their "experts"?
(...)
This is almost certainly due to the panel being made up of moms with travel blogs and not zoo professionals. In recent years the panel has been made up exclusively (I think) of zoo professionals and they recognize how innovate Arizona Sonora Desert Museum is.
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I agree with you, but this once again illustrates the point I made at the thread "Stupidest Exhibit Ideas Ever" (and others): that the factual qualification (or rather, the lack thereof) of the reviewer to evaluate a zoo or exhibit greatly influences the quality of such ratings.
However, the editorial department probably critiqued the panel selection of previous years (i.e. the zoo professionals you mentioned) for being too "nerdy" to appreciate the wishes of said moms with travel blogs... Whether the latter have any significant factual knowledge regarding animal welfare, (zoo) biology, enclosure design / building, zoo keeping, conservation, zoo veterinary medicine etc. is a different kettle of fish.
 
The experts chosen for these polls shows that USA Today values the opinions of family travel experts greatly. This is not a bad thing. It just shows what the pool is about. It’s not about which zoo is the most inovative, or has the most species, or largest exhibits. This poll is designed for the average zoo goer and their families and what they value in a zoo. These families are majorly important to a zoo and basically the life blood to keeping the zoo running. USA Today is a very generalized publication that needs to reach out to the widest demographic possible. Zoo nerds on this forum are not who they are thinking of nor are they thinking about zoo professionals. These are about families which make up the overwhelming majority of the attendance at zoos. So the experts are looking at different things than we usually do when we review or visit zoos. They look at overall experiences, staff friendliness, attractions, and potentially look at exhibits a fair bit less than we do. These polls are always scoffed at by users here because of this. Especially when the final tallies come up.

I’ll make a few points about this poll from the perspective of a zookeeper who’s zoo is nominated. This poll every year is a point of pride and we strive to rise in the ranks every year by making small changes to make our zoo a bit better. Things like picking up that piece of trash in the road, taking the extra time to ask that family how their visit is going, or taking pride in the zoo’s accomplishments and messaging that to guests. I assume it’s the same for employees of other zoos on the list. I’m sure the higher ups at these zoos want the highest ranking possible because of marketing, but to the employees, it’s a badge of honor.

You should not look at this poll as a true top ten. San Diego Zoo was nominated last year but didn’t crack the top ten after voting and it’s my personal number 1. But this poll does have value to the zoo’s that are nominated and the families that visit. If you are walking and interacting with the visitors at a zoo, you will notice that they value very different things than us zoo nerds. Doesn’t make their opinions wrong.

So take this poll with a grain of salt. If you want to make your own top ten go ahead. Although those threads tend to lead to large tangential arguments here.
 
I intended to vote on Sedgewick's Zambezi Elephants, but I accidentally selected OCZ's Expedition Asia.
 
Echobeast said:
This poll is designed for the average zoo goer and their families and what they value in a zoo.
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That's what I somehow doubt. And I wonder whether this current panel is really representative of the diversity of zoo visitors, nerds or not.
Echobeast said:
Doesn’t make their opinions wrong.
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Once the wellbeing, health and safety of the animals and fellow human beings is impaired, they are wrong.
 
@Batto My post was made to put the poll into perspective because every year, I see people complaining about this particular poll. Every time a "Top Ten" thread is made, inevitably it becomes a big argument. I wanted to calm everyone down and make sure people don't overreact. Looks like that didn't work lol.

Batto said:
That's what I somehow doubt. And I wonder whether this current panel is really representative of the diversity of zoo visitors, nerds or not.
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Let's look at the "experts" that did the nominating in the Best Zoo category:

Sherry Boswell is a South Carolina native and mom to two teens. When she’s not traveling, she’s working as a real estate attorney and social media manager for Goosewing Ranch. Best travel memories include getting married on a beach in the Virgin Islands, playing an electric blue violin in European cathedrals and watching her kids take their first steps in Paris and London. Find her travel and lifestyle tips at Travel Plans in Mom Hands and also as a contributing writer for Kids Are a Trip.
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Kyle McCarthy is the co-founder and editor of Family Travel Forum, the trusted resource for family vacation planners since 1996. FTF’s award-winning publications (MyFamilyTravels.com, America’s Most Popular Family Vacations, and The Family Vacationist) provide expert and user reviews of global family vacations ranging from eco-adventures to city breaks, multi-generational cruises, resorts, theme parks and more. Each spring, FTF runs a Teen Travel Writing Scholarship for students 13-18 who blog about their trips to win cash grants. Through FamilyTravelConsulting, she advises the travel trade on ever-changing family needs, smarter marketing and conferences. Ms. McCarthy, author of a dozen Frommer’s guidebooks, also contributes to US News, CNN and other publications. She can be found on most social networks @familytravel4um.
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Eileen Ogintz, a leading national expert on family travel, is the author of the Tribune Interactive syndicated column Taking the Kids that appears around the country, creator of the popular website TakingtheKids.com and co-chair of the TMS Family Travel Conference which draws top family travel influencers and major travel brands. She is the author of the 11-book Kids Guideseries; The Kid’s Guide to Acadia National Park is being released in April 2019. The Kid’s Guide to NYC is now in its 3d edition and The Kid’s Guide to Washington, DC the second edition.
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Nicky Omohundro is a travel writer and the founder of Little Family Adventure, an active family lifestyle and travel website. Since 2013 LFA has been providing family travel information, destination guides, healthy recipes, inspiration to get outdoors and encouragement for families to have “No Child Left Inside.” Always up for a family adventure, Nicky travels extensively with her three children. Together they have experienced everything from camping in Grand Teton National Park to cruising the Bahamas. Follow her on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter or Pinterest.
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Allison Taylor, owner and content creator of Family Vacations U.S., is somewhat of a compulsive researcher when it comes to family vacations. Allison has two boys ages 8 and 10 whose antics keep her very busy, and being married to a firefighter adds a whole other element to the chaos. You can find her on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.
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Mommy Nearest is an award-winning, tech-enabled media company for millennial parents. The company is the most trusted and widely-used geo-based app for discovering family-friendly places nationwide, and the website, mommynearest.com, has quickly become the leading site for parenting content.
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You are going to tell me that all of these people and one media company are not qualified to nominate 20 of the best zoos in North America? They are all writers, bloggers, and guide book creators specifically for traveling families. Many of them are award winning. Maybe if only one of them was nominating the whole list you could say they aren't qualified but it is absurd to say that 5 independent entities that are considered experts in their field (and one mom who gives a grounded, first hand perspective of family travel values) can't represent the average zoo guest when the average zoo guests are families.

Let's look at the zoo professionals that also helped make the nomination list:

Alan Sironen is the owner of Zoo Consultants International. Zoo Consultants International assists their clients in animal exhibit planning, zoo animal equipment development, exhibit blueprint review and animal transportation. Alan was employed for over 35 years at Cleveland Metroparks Zoo. During his employment at Cleveland Metroparks Zoo he held positions as Zookeeper, Head Zoo Keeper, Assistant General Curator, Curator of Mammals, Curator of Mammalogy, and Curator of Large Mammals and Carnivores. Alan Sironen received a Bachelor of Arts in Biology from Capital University in 1975 and a M.B.A. in International Business Administration from Baldwin Wallace College in 1986. Alan currently is a Professional Member of the Zoological Association of America and a Professional Associate Member of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums. He also serve on the Board of Global Conservation Connection.
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I feel this guy's resume speaks for itself. He clearly has the expertise to know what makes a great zoo when it comes to animal exhibits, conservation, and accredidation.

Debra Erickson is President of the International Zoo Educators Association. She is also the Marketing Director for San Diego Zoo Global, Executive Director of Atlantis Blue Project Foundation and Accreditation Chair for Atlantis, Paradise Island. She has been in the conservation, interpretation, marketing, communications, and education fields for 30 years and has worked for the San Diego Zoo, the San Diego Zoo Safari Park, Atlantis, Paradise Island, Atlantis, The Palm, SeaWorld San Diego, SeaWorld Orlando, S.E.A. Aquarium and Dolphin Island. Debra has held a wide variety of positions in the education and interpretation field including Education Director at San Diego Zoo Safari Park, SeaWorld Orlando, and Atlantis, Paradise Island. She has created interpretive plans for a wide variety of exhibits including Manatees: The Last Generation, Wild Arctic, and Tiger Trail which have all won the American Association of Zoos and Aquariums Top Exhibit Honors award. Currently she is leading the effort to provide San Diego Zoo Kids, a 24-hour, commercial-free television channel, to 300 children’s hospitals and Ronald McDonald Houses around the world. Having worked in over 40 countries during her career and seeing the challenges that many developing countries face, Debra has a keen commitment to conservation. She worked as Executive Director and Conservation Director for Orangutan Foundation International and was responsible for developing and implementing the conservation plan for Tanjung Puting National Park. Debra continues her conservation work through the Atlantis Blue Project Foundation where she funds marine conservation projects and mentors conservationists in the field. Debra received her B.A. in Biology from Scripps College and her M.A. in Educational Technology from San Diego State University.
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Do I even need to say anything more about Debra Erickson?

These two experts should represent what all guests value in a zoo.

I find it insane that anyone would find these experts unqualified to nominate zoos for this particular poll (the point of which I explained in my previous post).

Batto said:
Once the wellbeing, health and safety of the animals and fellow human beings is impaired, they are wrong.
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You seem to like to take my quotes out of context. Let's look at my quote again:

Echobeast said:
You should not look at this poll as a true top ten. San Diego Zoo was nominated last year but didn’t crack the top ten after voting and it’s my personal number 1. But this poll does have value to the zoo’s that are nominated and the families that visit. If you are walking and interacting with the visitors at a zoo, you will notice that they value very different things than us zoo nerds. Doesn’t make their opinions wrong.
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The point of that paragraph was that other zoo guests are going to like and dislike different things at a zoo than you are. Of course animal welfare and guest safety are going to be near the top for nearly every one of those guests. I never said or implied that it wasn't and none of these nominated zoos are even questionable in that regard. They are all AZA, ZAA, or WAZA accredited (or a combination of multiple accrediting institutions) which puts them in the top 10% of licensed zoos in the USA when it comes to animal welfare.

You continue to imply that I do not care about animal welfare which couldn't be further from the truth. This is not the thread to discuss that and we had a pretty unhealthy discussion about it previously. I believe you posted this reply only to get at me.
 
Echobeast said:
I find it insane that anyone would find these experts unqualified to nominate zoos for this particular poll (the point of which I explained in my previous post).
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And I wonder how you appear to take personal offence in any of my replies to the arguments you bring to the table. Could you please point out where did I explicitly write that all panel members are unqualified?
Your very country is the one currently lecturing the rest of the world about the power of diversity. So were the PoC, the Asians etc. among the panel members? What about the gender ratio? You can't tell me that just white women visit zoos.
But on a more serious note: I do think that ArizonaDocent has a point in wondering whether this is a representative panel or not.

Echobeast said:
The point of that paragraph was that other zoo guests are going to like and dislike different things at a zoo than you are. Of course animal welfare and guest safety are going to be near the top for nearly every one of those guests.
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The point of my initial post was that a not too insignificant number of visitors knows little to nothing about animal welfare or guest safety. Which explains the reckless and harmful visitor behavior frequently scathed among zoo staff and in this very forum. So if I state that, say, the enclosure for a coastal taipan should provide apt retreats for the animal and safe handling options for the staff (i.e. trap box etc), but the majority of the visitors thinks that such an animal should rather be presented in a bare small fishbowl of an enclosure so that they can spot it more easily, I'd dare to say that I know better than the visitors how this should be done.
Echobeast said:
You continue to imply that I do not care about animal welfare
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And you continue to take everything personally. Once again: where did I explicitly state this? And I thought our previous discussion was rather interesting in regard to the very different povs.
As stated in past threads, I always wonder about the American (and Canadian) enthusiasm to put everything into a rating system, no matter how inept the qualifying factors and the evaluation are. But maybe that's another cultural difference. Granted, the local media try to do the same, but it's not half as extensive.
 
Batto said:
As stated in past threads, I always wonder about the American (and Canadian) enthusiasm to put everything into a rating system, no matter how inept the qualifying factors and the evaluation are. But maybe that's another cultural difference...
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“Only Americans could turn Birding into a competition!” *Huffs in European*

“That’s right and you don’t want to miss this one.” ;)

Getting a little tightened up about it ain’t ya?
 
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