USZOOfan42
Well-Known Member
But it has Pygmy’s!
What is in your opinion, the greatest zoo that no longer exists today?
- Thread starter Nile Hippo Expert
- Start date
Local_Shark
Well-Known Member
This is 100% not the "greatest" ever, but I used to absolutely love the SEA Lab in Redondo Beach, CA. One of my favorite local aquariums as a kid that was a super formative place for me growing up. It was a huge part of making me want to pursue marine biology and more specifically aquarium science as a career, especially because many of the animals were rescues and re-released after successful rehabilitations. It was closed in 2019 because the land was sold to a developer, and the nonprofit running it could no longer make the exorbitant rent payments. Really a tragic thing for the people of the LA area, not to mention its marine residents.
Probably Catskill Game Farm. Benson’s Wild Animal Park was pretty big as well…but I’ll go with Catskill…just for their ungulate collection.
Shall we keep it to the OP's original question, there are enough threads already to discuss the purported decline of zoos that still exist.
As for the original question: both Jurong Bird Park, but even more so the old Noorder Dierenpark in Emmen come to mind. That place was a game changer when it comes to education and naturalistic enclosures for large groups of animals.
Nile Hippo Expert
Well-Known Member
To specifically cover the rules, there are two rules for this thread. First, the zoo or whatever it is called (safari park, aquarium wildlife park, game farm, etc.) has to be permanently closed, though it doesn't matter when it closed, it just has to be closed for good. Second and it cannot be a place which was replaced by another place of that type (such as a replacement zoo or aquarium) in the city area which opened within three years of its closing (i.e LA's Griffith Park Zoo wouldn't qualify because it was almost immediately replaced by the current LA Zoo which included the direct transfer of many animals.) I have seen a few mentions of Bristol Zoo on this thread, and that I will consider it okay because that replacement Bristol Zoo hasn't yet been opened yet.
EDIT: Can a moderator please edit this in with the first post of the thread?
Lafone
Well-Known Member
The replacement Bristol zoo has been opened for some time - it may not be much loved by some people and it may be disparaged in this thread but it is open. There’s a thread on it if you want to know more about it.
Nile Hippo Expert
Well-Known Member
I just looked through it, and it is obviously an incomplete zoo at the moment, but they plan to have their big project conservation completed by 2035, so it will be interesting to see how in evolves over the next decade!
ZooNews2024
Well-Known Member
Yes, Dierenpark Wassenaar is at the top of the list - by miles.
Just check the species lists, and bird housing which was revolutionary.
A minor correction though, is that the cheetah (and other cat) breeding was achieved on a private site set behind the zoo, and not actually part of it and not done by the zoo itself.
Same owners though, of course.
You've been just a little faster then I was
Ref. amazing bird collection: I'm thinking about the birds of paradise (although I must confess I know this zoo only from old zoo guide books).
@ZooNews2024: Does that mean that Dierenpark Wassenaar has never bred tigers, lions and other cats (within its public grounds)?
Wassenaar had flat-headed cat, Pegu pig-headed turtle, flattened musk turtle, Phayre's langur, Demidoff;s galago and Indian desert cat (now kept at 1 ZTL collection)
Giant pangolin, Rio Magdalena river turtle, Gurney's pitta, Wilson's bird of paradise, Asian brackish frog, Jerdon's palm civet and Calabar angwantibo (now kept at no ZTL collections)
Giant pangolin, Rio Magdalena river turtle, Gurney's pitta, Wilson's bird of paradise, Asian brackish frog, Jerdon's palm civet and Calabar angwantibo (now kept at no ZTL collections)
Smaller than Wassenaar in the 20. century, but the greatest zoo which closed in the 21. century might have been Al Wabra Wildlife Center, with its Spix's and Lear's macaws, rare gazelle, beira, etc.
Al Wabra wildlife center [Al Wabra Wildlife Preservation]
Al Wabra wildlife center [Al Wabra Wildlife Preservation]
Jonathan Petersson
Well-Known Member
SeaWorld Ohio was my second home growing up and what sparked my love of animals so I have to give it to them just due to the effect it had on my life as well as many others in the state. However exhibit quality would not have met today's standards.
So far the only zoo to ever win the European Museum of the Year Award for its educational output!
I saw Emmen Zoo many years ago and I should have visited it, There was an auction of its educational items, which looked interesting
They didn't actually win the European Museum of the Year Award, but rather a Special Commendation from the same Forum. That is a nod multiple museums get each year to highlight approaches other museums can learn from.
There is only 1 zoo that has actually won the true European Museum of the Year Award, which is the Ozeaneum in Stralsund, which won in 2010. The Ozeaneum is a mix of natural history museum and aquarium (Germany's largest in terms of volume), so if a zoo would win it, they are the logical choice.
Looks like a map I drew when I was 7, not meant to ridiculise the zoo, but rather to point out the bizzarre - and I dare to say outdated - layout of it.Sorry if there is already a thread for this, but I think that the Alberta Game Farm/Polar Park (1959-1998) in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada was the greatest now-closed zoo because it had several extremely rare species, such as Mountain Gorilla, Saiga and Hartebeest, and it also had a major and diverse collection. Here is a map of the park in the late 1970s (photo by @snowleopard)
Of course I know nothing of the place and these may as well be just artistic representations, although the name does not suggest any deviance from what I imagine the enclosures to look like.