On a long drive today i got to thinking of the loss of Glasgow zoo and then, the mind started to wander to all the major cities here in the UK and all around the world that don't currently have a zoo. These cities may have a small animal collection, aquarium or safari park but not an actual "zoo". The cities i thought of were, and please feel free to add (or to correct). Glasgow Liverpool Manchester Birmingham Cardiff Milan Venice Turin Genoa Oporto Bilbao Marseilles Bruges The Hague Oslo Gothenburg Bonn Geneva Istanbul anybody else?
others in the uk... Leeds Sheffield Newcastle Nottingham/Derby Coventry Hull All of these have large populations.... I've often thought that the north east has been crying out for a decent zoo, maybe the Doncaster collection will fill the void...
Hamilton (Ontario). There were/are plans on creating an avian zoo but I'm not sure where I'm not sure where that's going now.
Istanbul has a zoo called the Bosporus Zoo. It s way out of the centre and hard to reach (but Istanbul is huge anyway ) unfortunately I wasnt able to visit yet as I most of the time have other obligations in Istanbul (I used to live there for a while as a student )
I think the trend in the UK has been away from city zoos, towards zoos (and public aquaria etc) in areas with significant numbers of tourists. Thinking in terms of medium to large conventional zoos opened and closed in the UK in the past 30 years, we have lost Belle Vue and Glasgow - but gained Blackpool and Marwell (plus Howletts and Port Lympne, although they might not want to be called conventional). This might have been worse, London and Dudley have had shaky moments, but still survive - incidentally I believe you can really think of Dudley as the Birmingham Zoo, so I'd cross Brum off your list. Alan
Leeds doesn`t have a zoo as such but it does have Tropical World,Harewood House Bird Gardens,Lotherton Hall Bird Garden and Pudsey Park Aviary and Aquarium,and it may be gaining another.
@kiang: this is a great topic for a thread, so congrats for starting it! The number of high profile European cities that lack a major zoo is shocking, as some of the locations contain millions of people and yet not having a zoo means that it's barely worth visiting such illustrious destinations. Haha. I googled major U.S. cities and found that Austin, Texas is the largest city in America without a major zoo. There is a small zoo there that has 300 animals and is basically an animal sanctuary, but the city of Austin has around 750,000 people and is ranked as the 16th largest U.S. city in terms of its population. In Canada Montreal has a few million people and is the 2nd largest city in Canada, but there is only the tiny Biodome and no zoo. Vancouver is Canada's 3rd largest city and has a great aquarium, but the Greater Vancouver Zoo is more than an hour away and only has about 550 animals. It is scarcely regarded as more than a minor dot on the zoological landscape of North America.
Also Las Vegas should be included into the list. They have a small zoo, but I think it's mainly used as a sanctuary.
Very Very true Mark, Now does a city zoo have to be a Government or Council Run Zoo? or can it be someones own venture? Or if its privatly owned does it count as a small zoo?
One of the former State goverments here in Queensland did send some of their mates over to some US zoos for a look but nothing ever happened about it, guess they got a free holiday out of it, it would seem there has been a real lack of interest is this area
lack of interest up the ladder, lookl how many "small' parks they are, and ispose inf QLD had a state zoo then they would have to be nicer with their zoo permits!
There are particular cities that don't have zoos though they do have one somewhere near ( state, country) not sure though if it is considered e.g " Brisbane's zoo" concerning australia zoo, also like Tele Aviv, I' not sure if Ramat Gan is consider " Tele Aviv zoo" ? Can anyone clear this thing up for me please..?
There used to be a Tel Aviv zoo but now just Ramat Gan, i think all the animals were moved there when the zoo closed. It's a seperate municipality but is part of greater Tel Aviv, they are joined together with no space in between them at all, almost like London or New York boroughs... so it could definitely be considered as Tel Aviv's zoo.