Best Continents for Zoos

Best Continents for Zoos
24-05-2008

Since there has been a lot of good-natured debate on the thread "Best Countries for Wildlife", I thought that I'd begin one in terms of continents and zoos. Which continent is the best in terms of captive wildlife?

Process of Elimination:

7- Antarctica: zero zoos, and so naturally in last place.

6- South America: quite a few small zoos, but not many noteworthy, large ones. Has anyone here at ZooBeat ever visited a zoo on this continent? A quick google search revealed that there are a number of wildlife parks and zoos, particularly in Brazil, Argentina and Venezeula, but surely none of them are world renowned or else we would be discussing them here on this forum.

5- Asia: many zoos, but often they are famous for being of poor quality. On the polar bear exhibit thread I posted a 200 page report on the conditions of polar bears in Japanese zoos and there were some shocking photos. China, Vietnam, Japan, Laos, India, etc have all been famous for how NOT to exhibit animals. As always there are exceptions to the rule...just look at Singapore! The Singapore Zoo is regarded as possibly one of the top ten zoos on the planet, the Jurong Bird Park is arguably the greatest display of captive birds in the world, and the Night Safari is a unique zoo that is only open at night. A wonderful trilogy of great Singapore parks, and many other Asian zoos are still improving.

4- Australia: the smallest continent, this island is the world's 6th largest nation and yet only has a population of 20 million. There are 4 main zoos (Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth) and possibly 5 if one counts "Australia Zoo" up near Brisbane. Taronga Zoo in Sydney is magnificent and definitely one of the better zoos in the world, while Melbourne is also a top-notch establishment. Also, due to the gorgeous weather there are innumerable smaller wildlife parks all over the country.

3- Africa: there are many, many zoos and wildlife parks here. Some are world-renowned (the Johannesburg/Pretoria Zoos being two of them) but they are constantly overshadowed by the incredible diversity of life found all over Africa. Sure, at times 15 of the around 55 nations are at civil war with themselves, but the tourist hotspots don't ever seem to be affected for long. I've never visited the world's 2nd largest continent, but to spend a month in Kenya, Tanzania, Egypt, South Africa, etc would be a dream come true. Are there zoos in Africa that deserve to be among the world's greatest? Perhaps the renowned national parks take away from any captive collections.

2- North America: only one of these 3 nations has many great zoos. There are many deplorable zoos in Mexico, with a handful of half-decent ones. Canada has 25 members of CAZA, but only two truly excellent zoos (Toronto and Calgary) that warrant much attention. But the United States has a bounty of glorious, world-class zoological gardens. There are about 220 members of AZA, and that isn't even counting a few hundred smaller, "roadside" zoos. Looking through the 2008 book "America's Best Zoos" one is spellbound by the number of amazing exhibits that seem to be built every other month. A tourist could spend months seeing many of the best zoos on the continent (see the "Summer Road Trip" thread) and then two years later every single one of those zoos will have constructed a new exhibit that makes the zoo worth seeing all over again. It never ends!

1- Europe: the #1 continent for zoos. It's that simple, and I'm sure that some European members of ZooBeat will wholeheartedly agree. The close proximity of many countries packed into the second smallest continent means that a tourist can hop on a train, bus or car and take off on a trek to see many outstanding zoo collections. England alone has at least a couple of hundred zoos and wildlife parks, as does Germany, as do many other nations across the continent. I'm not even sure how many world-class zoos there are, but I'm sure that someone will respond with an answer. As amazing as North America is for top-class zoos, I feel that Europe is still the #1 continent in terms of overall breadth and depth of the collections.

Do you agree or disagree with my rankings???

24-05-2008

I would perhaps put Australia in third place, but other than that, pretty much spot-on.

Good idea snowleopard!

24-05-2008

Like Jimmy, I'd switch Australia and Africa. Australia seem to be blessed with a climate that suits displaying exotics; something no amount of money can buy in Europe. (I guess that statement is dependent on where you are in the country though).

24-05-2008

Agree with Chris and Jimmy, id swap Australia and Africa around. I agree though that Europe probably is the best continent zoo wise.

24-05-2008

Although as an American I find the xenophobia and the "America is Number 1" attitude of so many of my compatriots both disturbing and nauseating, I do believe that on the whole the US (and therefore North America) has a very slight edge over Europe when it comes to quality zoos. There are several great zoos in Holland, a few in Germany, a few in the Czech Republic, a handful of wonderful Scandinavian zoos, 2 or 3 very high quality Swiss zoos, and a few of the established "ivy zoos" such as Antwerp that are making headway towards re-invention. But from what I've experienced, heard and gleaned from the web and literature, most of the Southern and Eastern European zoos are well behind these leaders. Great Britain seems to be filled with what David Hancocks disparagingly refers to as "homemade zoos:" casual, often private collections with low exhibition standards. The zoos of Paris, Rome and Madrid (and despite recent efforts London) are all well past their intended shelf life.

That said, there has been a remarkable amount of activity in European zoos, and there is a refreshing diversity of approach to zoo design and philosophy, as opposed to the US, where liability restrictions and copy-cat designs have combined to increasingly limit creativity. Ten or twenty years ago it wouldn't even have been a contest--North American zoos were well ahead in terms of exhibit design, conservation activities etc. But the European zoo community has significantly closed the gap, and may well overtake NA in the near future.

Great (or very good) European Zoos I've visited:
Berlin West
Berlin East
Leipzig
Prague
Zurich
Basle
Rotterdam
Emmen
Arnhem
Hannover
Antwerp
Planckendael

24-05-2008

New Zealand is part of the "Australia" continent which is usually known sa Oceania or Australasia... We have 4 inner city zoos of approx. 1000 animals at Auckland (by far the best), Hamilton, Wellington and Christchurch (known as Orana, the second best)...

On Singapore, Sentosa aquarium is supposed to be quite good too...

24-05-2008

@NZ Jeremy: I would dearly love to visit New Zealand, and plan to one day, but the Auckland Zoo is the only zoo that would be even remotely considered as a world-class zoo. Perhaps I should have included it in reference to an "Australasia" continent, and once Auckland finishes its $16 million project in 2010 it could be even more highly regarded.

@reduakari: it's disappointing to hear that out of a couple of hundred German zoos only a handful (at best) are world-class. I know that you have been to a ton of zoos, and perhaps the European and North American continents are closer than I suspect in terms of high quality zoos.

24-05-2008

@ Snowleopard, Dont forget we also have three open-range zoos here apart from the 4-5 city zoos you have mentioned

24-05-2008

I think that Australia has an amazing climate for all sorts of zoos, parks and aquariums, and I'd seriously love to live there one day. I also adore the idea of open range zoos, as they are terrific for the animals and often produce amazing breeding successes. But the only major downfall to captive wildlife in Australia is the lack of big-name zoos. The United States has 220 quite large zoos, and at least 60 of them (see the book "America's Best Zoos") are terrific. Germany has over 200 zoos, Great Britain over 200, etc. Australasia has less than 10 big-name zoos, and even the famous Werribee open range zoo near Melbourne only contains something like 400 animals. That would be a roadside zoo in the U.S.! No wonder the Victorian Government wants to turn it into African Safari World...haha.

The strict import laws mean that the diversity is sadly lacking as well. Even average zoos like Cleveland in Ohio can showcase 6 of the world's 8 bear species. In Australia there are marsupials and primates galore but in terms of hoofstock, bears and carnivores the diversity is almost non-existent. In North America I can walk into zoos that aren't even that good and see bears, big cats and antelopes all over the place. I loved Taronga and Melbourne Zoos, quite enjoyed Healesville and Adelaide, but between the import laws and isolation factor Australia will never be a world power in the zoo industry.

24-05-2008

We are a long way from the main game, maybe in time things could change

24-05-2008

@reduakari: I think it really depends on the criteria You take into account-may it be the numbers of species presented, the general animal husbandry, the presentation, the customer service, the zoo architecture, the zoo gardening, the veterinary treatment etc. So based on which criterion You apply, world-famous San Diego Zoo could be called outstanding (f.e., species collection) or surprisingly lacking in quality (f.e., "grotto" exhibit design). And don't forget the still existing animal roadshows or privately owned attraction sites like Bear County or that currently debated Canadian private zoo; something like this would be almost impossible in Middle European zoos. On the other side, You still find bad zoos in East or Southern Europe. So all in all, I'd say that in terms of the number of good zoos, Europe and North America are about even, with some countries within the EU (like the CZ, the Netherlands, the UK, Germany, Switzerland, Austria...) having a slight edge in terms of good quality zoos closeby to each other. Even Ohio or California doesn't have the concentration of major zoos like, say Germany in the Rhine area.

I'd also suggest to switch Australia and Africa, and I would even suggest upgrading Asia due to some of the major Japanese Aquariums-wheras in terms of real zoos, besides the major zoos in South Africa and Entebbe Zoo, most zoos in Africa aren't any better than their Asian counterparts.

Good point by NZ Jeremy-why not sum up Australia, New Zealand and all the more or less smaller islands together as "Ozeania"? That might also take the Noumea Zoo into account...BTW: has anyone been there yet?

25-05-2008

my sister went there many years ago. I have photos but no scanner. I remember they had kagu (of course), great Indian hornbill, crowned pigeon, toucan of some sort, a flock of flamingoes...I'll have a dig through my photos lthis evening and see what i can find. As I recall the aviaries were rather barren and small.

EDIT: I found the photos, there's only about five of them. I think they must be from about 1990 or 91. I don't have a scanner but I used some good old kiwi ingenuity and just photographed the photographs. Didn't come out too bad, I'll try and upload them this evening into the "Other Zoos" gallery. The "flock" of flamingoes turned out to be just three birds, the other photos were of crowned pigeon, kagu, great hornbills, toco toucans, and one of a wild nankeen night heron (didn't bother doing that photo though)

EDIT #2: photos are now in the Other Zoos gallery

27-05-2008

It appears that many people think that I should have had Australia one place ahead of Africa, and I concede that is a valid point. The continent of Africa has many zoos while Australia has only a handful of large ones...BUT there are zoos of higher quality "down under" rather than the average collections in Africa.

No one really commented on South America, and I'm sure that there is a lack of knowledge concerning zoos on that continent. Once again there are certainly numerous establishments, but none of them are regarded as world-class.

27-05-2008

@snowleopard: "Many zoos in Africa"??? Take another look at:
Zoos in Africa, Near and Middle East
Zoos Worldwide - Africa

When we talk about "real" zoos, Australia and even Asia seem to offer more in times of sheer numbers (and in regard to Australia, general quality). Or do You count African national parks and game farms as zoos, too? If so, the numbers for all continents involved would skryrocket...

South American zoos
27-05-2008

I visited Santiago Zoo in Chile in 2003 and found it to be distinctly average, despite the amazing setting. In the middle of the city is the green oasis of Cerro San Cristobal, and the zoo is located on a somewhat cramped site on the southern slopes of this hill. From the top there are great views to the distant Andes, if the smog isn't too bad. I have to say I concur with my Lonely Planet's concise review: "unimpressive". Native fauna was represented as expected by guanaco, vicuña, puma, pudu and condor, all common enough exotics in zoos worldwide. I recall an impressive parrot and macaw collection. The common megafaunu of lions, tigers, hippos and bears were all kept in too-small enclosures with not enough shade (I was there on the hottest day of the year, 37C). According to some signs, there were plans to move the whole zoo to a new site out of the city, but whether this has happened yet, I'm unsure. Incidentally, Santiago has an absolutely brilliant natural history museum (if you understand Spanish).

On my travels I also passed through La Paz. The zoo is located south of the city centre and in this case the Lonely Planet had nothing but praise - they described it as "kick-ass". Regrettably, I didn't have time to check it out.