when i first joined this forum there was less than ten of us and all but one hailed from australia (and the other was a kiwi!). but in just a few years - look what its become! its pretty impressive (and i have to commend sim on achieving that). what we have now is not only the biggest resource for non-professional dialogue on issues regarding zoos. and by discussing our thoughts on exhibit design, visit experiences, captive husbandry and animal welfare on the world wide web, we not only learn from eachother - we have the strongest, loudest zoo patron voice in the world! by denouncing a zoo or one of its exhibits, we place that discussion right there on google - often just under the zoos own website. and over the years i've noticed stuff thats lead me to believe that our discussions might just make it into the tearooms of our local zoo. so - here an idea i've been sitting on for about two years. why don't we, as a forum, host online awards? i mean, who better to vote than us? after all as members of the public, it is for us that zoos exist. annually, we could celebrate the best - and worst - of zoos in all their different facets. thats categories for ex situ and in situ conservation, exhibits, awards for best exhibits in particular regions and of course - the gold prize best zoo overall. and the same zoo and exhibit can keep winning it year after year. thats the whole point. they are the ones to beat. and who knows where the idea will go. its potentially the greatest way for us to formally praise the zoos that we so love and denounce those we so hate - and that okay. because animal welfare is still a big issue in the zoo world. heres our way to officially tell zoos just what we think. of course we'll need to nominate potential categories, and work out the finer details regarding voting but first of all.. who's in?
Just one thing, I feel there should be awards for the Larger zoo's and another for the smaller zoo's just to be fair?
hmmmmm. thats an interesting point mark. but i dunno... i reckon there could definitely be a "best small zoo" category. but i reckon small zoos can compete with larger zoos in the exhibit categories - as there is nothing stopping a small zoo from building a much better small mammal exhibit than a larger zoo. also,why should we give praise to a mediocre chimp exhibit just because we classify (and we'll need to work that out) the zoo as "small". there will no doubt be plenty of categories for smaller zoos to be compete in.
I'm definately in, would be awesome! e.g. and now to present the award for best Australian zoo Phoenix! And the nominees are..............
How about some member awards too, like maybe the best contributor and the best zoo know-it-all, just a suggestion?
Good idea! ZooChat should do a quiz animals and exhibits etc of the top 30 zoos (for example) and the winner is the biggest know-it-all!
categories?...... we may want to merge some categories or ditch others due to lack of members. to start i propose no award for africa and a merger of asia/oceania due to the low number of decent zoos in these regions. a "zone" consists of a series of exhibits that are linked thematically, either geographically, taxonomically or other theme. proposals: *BEST ZOO* BEST URBAN ZOO BEST OPEN RANGE ZOO BEST SMALL ZOO BEST ZOO NORTH AMERICA BEST ZOO ASIA / OCEANIA BEST ZOO EUROPE BEST THEMED ZONE MOST BEAUTIFUL ZOO exhibit awards - the definition here of "exhibit" is one or more adjoining or adjacent enclosures for a given species OR a single enclosure for multiple species. proposals: *BEST EXHIBIT* BEST MIXED SPECIES EXHIBIT BEST PRIMATE EXHIBIT BEST LARGE CARNIVORE EXHIBIT (bears, big cats, canines) BEST LARGE MAMMAL EXHIBIT (elephants, giraffe, rhino, hippo) BEST SMALL MAMMAL EXHIBIT BEST AQUATIC EXHIBIT BEST BIRD EXHIBIT (mixed aviaries or single exhibits) BEST REPTILE EXHIBIT (single exhibit only) BEST ENRICHMENT INNOVATION conservation awards. could be a bit tricky... proposals: BEST IN SITU CONSERVATION PROGRAM BEST EX SITU CONSERVATION PROGRAM
*BEST ZOO* BEST URBAN ZOO - Bristol BEST OPEN RANGE ZOO - ? ? ? BEST SMALL ZOO - Bristol BEST ZOO NORTH AMERICA - Busch Gardens/San Diego (i dont know many) BEST ZOO ASIA / OCEANIA - Taronto BEST ZOO EUROPE - Chester BEST THEMED ZONE - AQUA in Denmark (correct me if im wrong) MOST BEAUTIFUL ZOO - ? ? ? BEST MIXED SPECIES EXHIBIT - African Adventure thing at PL BEST PRIMATE EXHIBIT - Gorrila cages at Howletts and PL BEST LARGE CARNIVORE EXHIBIT (bears, big cats, canines) - BEST LARGE MAMMAL EXHIBIT (elephants, giraffe, rhino, hippo) - Chester Indian Rhino BEST SMALL MAMMAL EXHIBIT - BEST AQUATIC EXHIBIT - ZOOM polar bear exhibit BEST BIRD EXHIBIT (mixed aviaries or single exhibits) - Chester Bird of Paradise BEST REPTILE EXHIBIT (single exhibit only) - Chester Komodo Dragon BEST ENRICHMENT INNOVATION - ? ? ? BEST IN SITU CONSERVATION PROGRAM - Chester's Water Vole/Jersey's Sand Lizard? (correct?) BEST EX SITU CONSERVATION PROGRAM - Chester's Orangutan
Good idea, but there are a few "but"s like this: Is everybody in this chat able to rate zoos on a worldwide sight? Myself as an example have visted 147 Zoos and Aquarias worldwide (not including Merlins fastfoodlike Sealife Centers ). But I'm sure that there are chat-members who have visited more. So isn't it a little bit unfair, when the rate-value of a member who has seem only 20 or 30 zoological institutions is equal to a member who has seem 100 and more?
I think the winners need to be decided by a series of polls. Or maybe, if someone could set up an email account for this for us to send our votes to, that way people wouldn't be influenced by other people's votes.
There need to be polls definately but who makes the nominations? and what are the criteria? If you have a favourite zoo (mine Werribee) does that make it the best zoo? I think this is a great idea though I am very limited in what I can judge having only been to zoos on the East Coast of Australia. My nomination for best Open Plains - Werribee Best small zoo - Mogo Best zoo runby charity - Orana Best zoo for over all good and consistant breeding results - Mogo
okay guys. first of all, lets not start making nominations just yet otherwise we will become tempted to start arguing about it here. sim, our administrator, likes the awards idea - so this thread is for people to make suggestions regarding the process we use. it is my suggestion that voting is made via a poll here on the thread. with the result revealed when voting closes. all members can vote - once. we have to decide on the categories, but more importantly we have to decide what we do about the fact that many of us have not visited many zoos. do we do a system whereby you award points on individual exhibits and zoos you have been to only - thus the zoo/exhibits with the most points awarded gets the prize? zoos that have been visited less naturally don't get many points however, thats can be a fair part of the process - all good zoos need visitors.
could we have sub catagories within the catagorie, like in best large carnivor best bear exhibit best cat (big and small etc) and another catagorie surgestion Mest marine mammal exhibit
I agree that it needs breaking down into several sub categories to ensure that smaller-but-still-brilliant enclosures don't get overlooked.
This is a very valid point. I think that to vote in a category the individual voting should have to have seen a minimum number (say 30, but up for debate) number of what they are voting on (e.g. carnivore exhibits, UK zoos, etc.) or have visited a minimum number of zoos. This may sound elitist but otherwise results would get distorted by individuals who've only visited a handful of zoos overshaded by perhaps one major zoo -for instance if a member lived in Lower Scotland and didn't travel much I'd imagine Edinburgh would get their vote (rightly or wrongly) for most categories. Similarly, there's no point giving an award if there's not enough nominees in a category (e.g. best UK Binturong enclosure, silly I know but I'm sure you get the point) or too few votes in a category to make any award valid. Finally, given the above points, I wonder if the best approach is to have a small number of categories for each country and continent? I hope someone better than me can work out a system that makes sense and creates some worthy, and open for fierce debate, winners but I feel it'll be quite a task to get the balance right between the above points and everyone else's views whilst avoiding the necessity of an infinite number of categories.
