Hi everyone, I was thinking about the largest zoo collections, as in the zoos with the most number of species. I know Berlin Zoo is the first with about 1500 species. Does anyone know a few?
When You also count in historical husbandries (as You seem to do, regarding Your behaviour in another thread...), I would also mention -Bronx Zoo -Frankfurt -Duisburg -Hamburg -Vogelpark Walsrode -London -Antwerp -Rotterdam -Naples -Cincinnati -Paris (at least one of them) -Jurong -Dallas Aquarium -Poznan ...and maybe other zoos like Hannover, Stuttgart etc. If You look at the old records, You know what I mean. Although not all the species mentioned there have been kept in the particular zoo at the same time, the numbers of species that have at least once been kept, especially in certain "rarity collections" like in Frankfurt or Duisburg are highly impressive. In terms of current collections, besides the already mentioned zoos of Berlin (where the amount of species kept was even far more impressive in the times of Lutz Heck or Dathe, resp.), I would also list the Shedd Aquarium, Moscow and Pilsen Zoo and Al Wabra Wildlife Reserve.
The Berlin Tierpark has one of the biggest collection in europe, they had at the end of 2007 976 diffrent species, the Berlin Zoo had in January 2007 1439 species, Stuttgart has around 1000 species, Leipzig around 950. Frankfurt had once a big collection, too. In the mid sixties, they had more than 900 species, unbelivable in this small zoo, they have only an area of nearly 30 acres. And what left of the great collection of London Zoo ? Not very much, but they had no other choice, as like as Frankfurt Zoo. But the diffrence is, London has a big expansion zoo outside the City, Frankurt dosn't. In the USA, San Antonio has a very big collection, too, and not to forget the Bronx-Zoo.
London still has a fairly sizeable collection despite the loss of the larger animals. The 2007 inventory listed 755 species (252 invertebrates, 213 fish, 23 amphibians, 77 reptiles, 113 birds, 77 mammals). Both ZSL parks combined come to 891 different species.
But the diffrent between and San Diego is, Houson has an Aquarium, San Diego does not. I think, Houston does has more reptile species than San Diego.
But the diffrent between and San Diego is, Houson has an Aquarium, San Diego does not. I think, Houston does has more reptile species than San Diego.
I can add the exact numbers for Pilsen Zoo, mentioned earlier by Sun Wukong. Stand 31st December 2007 - 1210 species, thereof 220 mammals, 416 birds, 228 reptiles, 51 amphibians, 77 fish, 218 invertebrates.
Thanks Jana, You spared me the work... A lot of the species listed is kept behind the scenes at Pilsen, and having the chance to peek at this "secret" husbandry is one amazing experience, where You encounter species You hardly ever see in other zoos.
Some information of the Royal Zoological Society of Antwerp (RZSA or KMDA) that owns both Antwerp Zoo and Planckendael animal park: Antwerp Zoo: about 770 Planckendael: about 250 (some of them are the same as in Antwerp Zoo) So actually the RZSA has about 970 different species.
Whilst the figures from the above posts thrill me, they are only from Europe and America. Many Asian zoos have very large collections. Zoo Negara, in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, is a very large zoo and I had the pleasure of visiting it in January. Singapore Zoo is one of the best, and I assume their collection is also sizable. Without having visited, I think many city zoos in East Asia easilly push European and American zoos behind them, such as Beijing, Shanghai, Tapei, Seoul, and the places in and near Tokyo. At least one zoo in Mexico is supposed to be very large. Sorry for not being able to cite figures here, but maybe someone else can.
Yes I also thought Signapore Zoo would have a big collection but actually they have 'only' 315 different animal species (information from the official zoo site). But that doesn't change the fact that it's a very good zoo of course!
I'd expect Taronga zoo in Sydney would have a large collection but it only has 340 species, but its the best in Australia and most likely the southern hemisphere,
The institutions with aquatic species generally have higher numbers of species in their collections: Sydney Aquarium - 513 Sea World - 326 Underwater World - 320 This is fairly obvious though - the majority of fish species housed here are relatively small, and don't need much space. Other zoos in the region with high species counts include: Taronga Zoo - 340 Adelaide Zoo - 295 Melbourne Zoo - 294 Territory Wildlife Park - 228 Perth Zoo - 201 Having a large number of species isn't necessarily a good thing though - with a limited amount of space, it's often better to have larger populations of a smaller number of species. Having too many different species in a small region (from a zoo point of view) is one of the things that has allowed us to run into having so many non-viable populations. The complaints from forum members about whay we don't have species X any more will hopefully increase, as zoos continue to decrease overall species numbers, and concentrate on managing a smaller number of species in a better way
It depends whether you combine species "owned" by "institutions"... For example I mean San Diego Zoo and Wild Animal Park differing species combined...
@Baldur: I did think about mentioning Beijing and Shanghai when writing my first post, especially with zoo(s) and aquarium(s) combined. However, I currently have no exact data about the numbers of species kept there. Maybe some of the larger Japanese public aquariums should also be mentioned.
