Zoos in Decline

[pendraig_milnerae]

First of all, apologies for the slightly depressing nature of the title of this thread.
Recently I've been thinking about various zoos in the UK, especially those visited in the last couple of years, and how a number of them seem to be in a state of decline. My local zoo of Port Lympne seems to have been on the down since the 80s, even I've noticed this trend since I started visiting a decade ago, and in spite of certain minor improvements in a few cases, many exhibits today stand empty and derelict, with closed pathways and rusting fences that no longer serve a purpose. This is especially sad given its former reputation and the fact that it sits on a huge, spectacular site that, if handled correctly, has the potential to exceed what is once was.
Is there anywhere else that follows this trend? It seems like there's a few in the UK, though specific examples aren't springing to mind. And is it possible for declining institutions to build themselves back up again?

 

[amur leopard]

The most obvious example in the UK would be Edinburgh I suspect, as particularly its collection has suffered immensely in recent times along with other facets of the zoo. A few fairly high-profile zoos in the UK have closed in recent years too.

London is an interesting case as it is unavoidable that their collection has decreased and developments have stalled a bit but I think on the face of it, at the very least fiscally, the zoo is doing quite well for itself, particularly in the context set by the pandemic.

Otherwise Paignton isn't what it used to be from what I've heard - having said this, looking at the flip side, places like Exmoor, Hamerton, YWP and Chester are on an upwards curve so hopefully things stay that way for them.

Having said this, a lot of this is from a zoo nerd perspective. While Edinburgh is perhaps a bit less contentious, I think a lot of regular visitors would not necessarily agree that these places have decreased in quality because on average collection will be less important to them and improvements in enclosure quality over the years masks the decline.

 

[Mickey]

When I go on Zootierliste for fun and see the holdings of common animals, like wallabies and such, the list of holdings for the UK and Germany count many times more than 20 holders, and in the UK they have very little variety of animals between smaller collections, so perhaps it's sort of an overstock in a Country;
in Italy there are few zoos and all far in between and they do not seem to be doing bad, so perhaps for the case you're talking about it's too much "product" for the "demand", that's how I see it at least

 

[Jambo]

A simple explanation for this - standards are higher than they once were for the way animals are kept in captivity.

Many city zoos which once had wonderful collections are now less than half of what they were say 30-40 years ago. Their collection has diminished- why? Because they're now using more space for bigger enclosures. Back in the past they would cram species in tiny, uninspired cages and paddocks. These days, those sort of enclosures are unacceptable.

Only city zoos such as San Diego which is sprawled over 100 acres have managed to maintain a decent collection due to their incredible size.

 

[amur leopard]

and in the UK they have very little variety of animals between smaller collections, so perhaps it's sort of an overstock in a Country;

Do you actually have any evidence of this? I suspect the UK has one of the greatest varieties of animals across smaller collections in Europe and possibly the world actually. Most small collections have a handful of lovely rarities - Barleylands with their Four-eyed opossum, Cedars with Zorilla, Cassiobury with Zorilla and Sunda porcupine, Noah's Ark with Spix's guan, Lotherton with Southern helmeted curassow; that's just off the top of my head - the list goes on and on. In contrast, smaller zoos in Germany for example tend to have a much more standardised core of CE wild boar, CE red deer, Western roe deer etc.

So yeah, I actually can't think of a country in Europe with more variety between smaller collections (possibly the Netherlands, but at a stretch).

 

[pendraig_milnerae]

The city zoo situation is an interesting one, because I completely agree with downsizing collections to allow for better welfare standards, so long as what remains is an interesting collection of more than just the smaller animals on the ABC lists. In this regard London is probably doing a pretty good job in spite of their irrational hatred of classical zoological architecture and any structure more than fifty years old. On the contrast is somewhere like Detroit, whose strategy is essentially to just keep getting rid of species in a continuous decline without any specific end goal or alternative as to what they're going to obtain.
I'd also like to add Dudley Zoo to the list of UK zoos on the rise, especially since they've been on the down for decades now and have the best possible approach to improvement, that of restoring and renovating the old while continuing to construct the new alongside having an interesting collection that contains rarities.

 

[Maguari]

Many city zoos which once had wonderful collections are now less than half of what they were say 30-40 years ago. Their collection has diminished- why? Because they're now using more space for bigger enclosures. Back in the past they would cram species in tiny, uninspired cages and paddocks. These days, those sort of enclosures are unacceptable.

Only city zoos such as San Diego which is sprawled over 100 acres have managed to maintain a decent collection due to their incredible size.

That's certainly a big part of what happened at London, and (although now moot) at Bristol. It's a factor at Paignton too, maybe. But it doesn't account for every case. Places like Edinburgh, Port Lympne and Marwell, often discussed as 'declining', are not running at or near their limit of space, not by a long chalk.

That said, 'declining' is a relative term, and a lot of places that have 'declined' have later bounced back anyway - sometimes you just need to rationalise before you can expand (Chester being a prime example here, which dropped very noticeably to about half the current number of mammal species at one point around the turn of the millennium).

 

[birdsandbats]

There is one very well-known American zoo in decline that no one seems to discuss from this angle - the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum. In recent years ASDM has shifted focus from being a primarily animal-focused facility to focusing more on its botanical, geological, and art-based elements, and this has left its animal collection in decline. Currently there are lots of enclosures just being left empty and overgrown, and their collection has declined a lot in recent years. It's still a great facility that is well-worth seeing, but its glory days as an animal collection seem to be gone.

Another major American zoo very much in decline is Detroit, though this zoo's decline is much more well-known. What was a rapidly growing collection in the late 20th-century and early 2000s changed when Ron Kagan became director. Kagan is an animal rights activist, and while some good changes were made to Detroit under his direction (notably the addition of the famous exhibits Amphibiville, Arctic Ring of Life, and Polk Penguin Conservation Center), Kagan's rule over Detroit brought just as much bad as good. Especially in his later years as director, Kagan seemed determined to rid the zoo of as many species as possible, and many species left the zoo for no other reason then Kagan didn't want them anymore, leaving many exhibits either empty or just filled with species already found elsewhere in the zoo. Kagan retired last year however, and I hope the new director can bring Detroit into another great era.

 

[Zoo2022]

When I go on Zootierliste for fun and see the holdings of common animals, like wallabies and such, the list of holdings for the UK and Germany count many times more than 20 holders, and in the UK they have very little variety of animals between smaller collections, so perhaps it's sort of an overstock in a Country;

If you only search for the commonly kept animals, that is all you will find.
If you widen your search, rather than narrow it, and look for what is actually out there - I think you will find quite a wide variety!

 

[pachyderm pro]

Whenever I think of zoos in decline, the first one that always comes to mind is Zoo Tampa. The last few years haven't been kind to the place which has suffered from a variety of issues. The zoo was forced to demolish its best exhibit in the form of the African Wetlands aviary and the recent revamp of the Florida region was a total disaster that brought down the entire area. The grounds as a whole also have had a tendency to appear rather scruffy and unkept as of late. They still maintain a very good collection across the board, but exhibit quality has totally tanked all around.

 

[Jana]

Usti, Liberec, Olomouc and to some degree Chomutov. These zoos have been underinvested for last 2 decades and it shows. What was adequate animal holding around year 2000 or so is now extremelly outdated. Usti has a plan to turn itself around - that I am sceptical about will succeed. Liberec recently secured funds for a slow renovation piece by piece so should be ok in a decade or two (hopefully). Olomouc would probably need new managment team to get out of the hole. Chomutov is not so bad yet, but I cant see much progress, their new masterplan seems all over the place.

 

[lintworm]

Do you actually have any evidence of this? I suspect the UK has one of the greatest varieties of animals across smaller collections in Europe and possibly the world actually. Most small collections have a handful of lovely rarities - Barleylands with their Four-eyed opossum, Cedars with Zorilla, Cassiobury with Zorilla and Sunda porcupine, Noah's Ark with Spix's guan, Lotherton with Southern helmeted curassow; that's just off the top of my head - the list goes on and on. In contrast, smaller zoos in Germany for example tend to have a much more standardised core of CE wild boar, CE red deer, Western roe deer etc.

That says more about you not knowing German small zoos. Places like Olching, Schoenebeck, Braunschweig and many more have far from standard collections. There are many wildpark type small places in Germany.

Btw. is there any evidence that Cassiobury really has Sunda porcupine, searches on internet only yield regular crested and it wouldn't be the first time a small zoo uses a made up name for its animals...

More back on topic, in Germany Zoo Wuppertal would definitely be a top contender. What used to be a must-see place for rarities really has lost its mojo due to lack of investment from a poor city.... This place has so much potential, but it needs a good plan and money, not a single expensive aviary...

 

[amur leopard]

That says more about you not knowing German small zoos. Places like Olching, Schoenebeck, Braunschweig and many more have far from standard collections. There are many wildpark type small places in Germany.

Btw. is there any evidence that Cassiobury really has Sunda porcupine, searches on internet only yield regular crested and it wouldn't be the first time a small zoo uses a made up name for its animals...

I think I was discussing places on a smaller scale still than Olching, Schoenebeck, Kothen, Donnersberg etc., although admittedly the aforementioned places might well be on par with some of the UK zoos I mentioned in terms of size the more I think about it.

And yes, I agree, some of the smaller German collections have some amazing species - obviously Schoenebeck but also places like Kothen, Ibbenbueren, Bernburg, Calden-Meimbressen, the list goes on. Having said this, the point about Germany wildparks often having a similar base of boar, roe deer, red deer, barn owl etc. remains, as I'm not sure there is an equivalent in the UK.

 

[Corangurilla]

Detroit has lost much of their collection ever since Kagan joined, but they have been slowly rebuilding it as of late (Cassowary, Sea Otters, Swamp Monkeys). Plus, they have KidZone in the works, and that will (hopefully) bring back Bush Dogs.
Brookfield has been left to rot for the better part of a decade, but now there's plans for outdoor ape habitats, prairie dogs, koalas, and maybe even the return of elephants to Illinois.
Philadelphia, on the other hand, has seemingly dropped their plans for Zoo360 (HUGE shame), has phased out loads of animals and replaced them with species already within the zoo (such as replacing their Okapi/Giant Anteater/Bearded Pig area with an uninspired Australian exhibit), and their last exhibit (Water is Life) looks kind of clumsy and poorly-themed (in my opinion, anyways). Even their website is a shell of what it used to be. It used to have bios for individual animals of nearly every species they had and had loads of facts, now they clump all their lizards and snakes under one page and barely have any information on them.
TLDR; Detroit and Brookfield may have been in decline before, but at least they are attempting to turn things around. Not the case for Philadelphia.

 

[Mickey]

I almost envy you guys, talking about the situation of your big zoos, while I'm stuck here in country where zoos are basically a joke
But if I have to speak on the behalf of my country, all I can say about every italian zoo is as follows:

Parco Natura Viva, perhaps the biggest EAZA zoo in Italy, has started its decline way back in the 2000s, when the son of the founder, Cesare Avesani Zaborra started sending animals away to never come back, instead of updating their enclosures he just demolished them, and to this day the backstages are dated to the 70s or inexistent, he is making the zoo go in a more commercial way, and not good one; all the rare species are leaving and common ones are replacing the once greatest italian collection in recent times, it's still the only place where Indian Black Vultures breed for whatever reason, but the zoo is phasing too many animals and importing zoo few.

Zoo di Napoli, this zoo was strarting to get in good shape again with the new director, but their shady ways of obtaining some animals and the fact that there have been no new attractions in the last decade severely hurts them.

Bioparco Roma, the once greatest zoo of Italy, has fallen in disgrace and is perhaps one of the worst zoos of an European capital, it still has some interesting species, but the zoo ia not looking good as of now.

I could go on listing you all the italian zoos and none is on the rise but one, Parco Faunistico La Torbiera; zoos in Italy are becoming all a copy paste of outside famous species, and I am certainly not happy about it

 

[pachyderm pro]

Brookfield has been left to rot for the better part of a decade, but now there's plans for outdoor ape habitats, prairie dogs, koalas, and maybe even the return of elephants to Illino

I was going to mention Brookfield in my first post as I've been very vocal in the past about my frustrations with their lack of progress, but I've been much more optimistic about the zoos future as of late. Minus the great ape exhibits, much of the stuff you mentioned is still conceptional especially when it comes to the elephants. However, with new management at the helm that has expressed clear ambition, there is reason to hopeful again. It'll take some time though, as indeed the zoo has been slowly decaying for the last several years with a load of empty enclosures, deteriorated infrastructure and unnecessary removal of many popular species.

Another zoo in a similar situation is Los Angeles. With an extremely ambitious master plan in development there's also reason to be hopeful, but at the moment it has definitely seen better days. Huge chunks of the zoo still date back to the 60s and the days of it being a rarity hot spot are long gone. The zoo also suffers from extremely dated infrastructure akin to Brookfield, especially with the concrete ungulate paddocks and roundhouse cages.

One other American collection that has dropped down the totem pole a bit is Woodland Park. Don't get wrong, Woodland Park is nowhere even remotely close to falling as far as Brookfield or Los Angeles, but progress has been slow in recent years and their last major development ended up being surprisingly second-rate. The non-mammal collection also took a huge hit with the loss of the day and night building. Luckily, this will be rectified with the upcoming forest house taking it's place, so things do seem to be turning around a bit.

 

[SusScrofa]

Detroit has lost much of their collection ever since Kagan joined, but they have been slowly rebuilding it as of late (Cassowary, Sea Otters, Swamp Monkeys). Plus, they have KidZone in the works, and that will (hopefully) bring back Bush Dogs.
Brookfield has been left to rot for the better part of a decade, but now there's plans for outdoor ape habitats, prairie dogs, koalas, and maybe even the return of elephants to Illinois.
Philadelphia, on the other hand, has seemingly dropped their plans for Zoo360 (HUGE shame), has phased out loads of animals and replaced them with species already within the zoo (such as replacing their Okapi/Giant Anteater/Bearded Pig area with an uninspired Australian exhibit), and their last exhibit (Water is Life) looks kind of clumsy and poorly-themed (in my opinion, anyways). Even their website is a shell of what it used to be. It used to have bios for individual animals of nearly every species they had and had loads of facts, now they clump all their lizards and snakes under one page and barely have any information on them.
TLDR; Detroit and Brookfield may have been in decline before, but at least they are attempting to turn things around. Not the case for Philadelphia.

I agree about Philadelphia. For the major city its in, its rather small zoo and a number of outdated areas. But the problem ultimately is limited space to build larger enclosures.

I was going to mention Brookfield in my first post as I've been very vocal in the past about my frustrations with their lack of progress, but I've been much more optimistic about the zoos future as of late. Minus the great ape exhibits, much of the stuff you mentioned is still conceptional especially when it comes to the elephants. However, with new management at the helm that has expressed clear ambition, there is reason to hopeful again. It'll take some time though, as indeed the zoo has been slowly decaying for the last several years with a load of empty enclosures, deteriorated infrastructure and unnecessary removal of many popular species.

Another zoo in a similar situation is Los Angeles. With an extremely ambitious master plan in development there's also reason to be hopeful, but at the moment it has definitely seen better days. Huge chunks of the zoo still date back to the 60s and the days of it being a rarity hot spot are long gone. The zoo also suffers from extremely dated infrastructure akin to Brookfield, especially with the concrete ungulate paddocks and roundhouse cages.

One other American collection that has dropped down the totem pole a bit is Woodland Park. Don't get wrong, Woodland Park is nowhere even remotely close to falling as far as Brookfield or Los Angeles, but progress has been slow in recent years and their last major development ended up being surprisingly second-rate. The non-mammal collection also took a huge hit with the loss of the day and night building. Luckily, this will be rectified with the upcoming forest house taking it's place, so things do seem to be turning around a bit.

Los Angeles has really lost many interesting species in a short span of time. Their rhino dies a year or so ago, then only a week or so after my visit in February their last Hippo gets shipped out and the last Uakari in the US dies.

 

[Ursus]

So yeah, I actually can't think of a country in Europe with more variety between smaller collections (possibly the Netherlands, but at a stretch).

The smaller Dutch collections here definitely have their own few species that you will see at multiple facilities; corsac fox and the red-flanked variegated squirrel make good examples.
Two rarer small species (1 being more uncommon and the other quite rare) but are more common amongst the smaller facilities. Although a good few of our smaller facilities have a unique focus. For exampel Taman Indonesia specialises in Indonesian Species, Ettenleur de Eekhoorn Experience focusses on Eekhoorns, squirrels.
And ofcourse klein Costa Rica focusses on... not... Costa Rican stuff.. actually. I don't know what they are doing

But at several of the smaller collections; Taman Indonesia, Vogelpark Ruinen, Klein Costa Rica, Texel Zoo you can find some incredibly rare bird species not found elsewhere. So I'd say there's still the necessary variaty to encourage visiting them all.

Except Depaay... We don't visit that.

 

[jaguar691]

I just went to San Francisco Zoo a few weeks ago and there are some elements of this. There are some pathways (in the southeast) that used to have hoofed animal exhibits that are just now closed off; the sea lion exhibit I don't think has been used in a while; the Australian Walkabout only had like 4 animals which is fewer than I remember from a while back; I think there were some small exhibits in the Children's zoo section that looked empty. The newer African Savana is nice, but parts of where the old African Scene was is also simply closed off. And of the course the zoo still has a bunch of structures built in the 1930s, but also some new promising construction so I'd say it's a mixture of some decline and some progress.

This SF Gate article from back in 2000 took note of the declining number of animals, particularly larger animals, since the 1970s:
Creature Comforts / S.F. Zoo adds more space, fewer animals to exhibits

 

[Corangurilla]

I just went to San Francisco Zoo a few weeks ago and there are some elements of this. There are some pathways (in the southeast) that used to have hoofed animal exhibits that are just now closed off; the sea lion exhibit I don't think has been used in a while; the Australian Walkabout only had like 4 animals which is fewer than I remember from a while back; I think there were some small exhibits in the Children's zoo section that looked empty. The newer African Savana is nice, but parts of where the old African Scene was is also simply closed off. And of the course the zoo still has a bunch of structures built in the 1930s, but also some new promising construction so I'd say it's a mixture of some decline and some progress.

This SF Gate article from back in 2000 took note of the declining number of animals, particularly larger animals, since the 1970s:
Creature Comforts / S.F. Zoo adds more space, fewer animals to exhibits

I was gonna mention San Francisco, but I wasn’t sure if they were actually declining or if they were making bad progress (acquiring orangutans and fossas without exhibits for them, including Pygmy hippos in their upcoming Madagascar habitat claiming that they’re from Madagascar, constant animal renaming).