This book belongs in all of our libraries!!!

This book belongs in all of our libraries!!!
06-05-2008

Hey Everyone,

I received in the mail today the newest zoo book in my collection.

America's Best Zoos: A Travel Guide for Fans and Familes.
By Allen W. Nyhuis and Jon Wassner.

Nyhuis wrote a similiar book in the early 1990s and this is the updated version. It gives a well written summary of almost every major zoo in the United States. And also includes future plans for the zoos. The book begins with sections on tips for visiting a zoo and a list of rare and common species - and what zoos they can best be seen at. The midsection is the bulk of the summaries divided by regions of the US. And the last section contains ranks of the "best of" in American Zoos. For example:

Kansas City has the best African collection, followed by SDWAP.
Fort Wayne has the best Australian collection followed by Cleveland.

Omaha's Lied Jungle is ranked the best with the Bronx's Jungleworld in 2nd for Indoor Tropical Rain Forest. The authors explain below the section title "based on animals and overall realism" - interesting to note based on a current thread.

Both author rank individually their top 25 exhibits because the both viewed zoos in very different manners (as many of us do too). I wont go into details here, but if you have a little money left over from last month I highly reccommend that you all go to amazon.com and get a copy yourself.

Enjoy!

06-05-2008

Thanks okapikpr,

I don't mind disagreeing with a writer when they state their reasons as you describe these writers do. Helps open the mind to thinking about my assumptions.

06-05-2008

ordered it this morning. Looking forward to it arriving.
I have a book called "zoo; profiles of 102 zoos, aquariums and willife parks in the united states". It was published in 1994 but it's good aswell. It gives a history of each zoo and a run down on things like exhibits, how to get there and education and conservation. it's old now but worth a look if you can find it.

07-05-2008

@okapikpr: thanks for the update, as I've been waiting for the new version of Nyhuis's book to be released. It's amusing that the 1994 copy is already far behind the times in terms of zoo exhibits.

What is shocking is that the infamous Lied Jungle exhibit still ranks so high on the list, even after 15 years of many excellent exhibits popping up in North American zoos.

07-05-2008

I was in correspondence with Mr Nyhuis as he completed this new edition - I'd reviewed the original for International Zoo News, and he wanted to quiz me about some of the criticism I had made. My impression of him was that he was a decent chap who wanted to write a decent book, but he was by no means a zoo expert. Thus the angle from which he approaches the American zoo world upon which he is commenting is a very different one from that which many of us will have - hence, possibly, his liking of the Lied Jungle. I'm sure this book will be well worth reading, but it may well stir up debate in what it says (no bad thing). A definitive guide to zoos in the USA it still needed!

07-05-2008

The book is co-author by a zookeeper from Indiana who also traveled to many zoos for the book. So this new book has both visitor and keeper perspectives'. The summaries of zoos that I have read describe them well, however it leaves out most flaws of these zoos also...its trying to get people to travel to zoos.

07-05-2008

maybe a link would be helpfull if it is on a website somehwere- amazon.com for instance?

08-05-2008

That should help Zoo_Boy! I've already ordered the book myself.

08-05-2008

I just glanced at a copy this morning in our zoo office. One correction for Fort Wayn'e Australian aviary--we don't have hundreds of rainbow lorikeets! At this point there are none out there--too cold--but when the weather warms up there will be something like 12!

08-05-2008

For those who have or have seen the book I'm curious. Did Zoo Boise make it in there?

08-05-2008

Yes. But it doesnt have a full summary like the others. At the end of each chapter is a subsection "The Best of the Rest", and Zoo Boise is included there.

08-05-2008

The authors also have a website to continue zoo updates and add more reviews/summaries. It is still under construction at this moment, but check back at the site in a few months to see what they have...according to the book there will also be canadian zoo information.

America's Best Zoos: A Travel Guide for Fans and Families -

13-05-2008

Hello Everyone, this is Allen, one of the authors of the book you're discussing. Thanks SO much for your interest in our book. If you don't mind, let me address a few of your points about this book.
1. First, it is meant to be a TRAVEL guidebook. Jon, my co-author, has indeed worked in three different zoos, so he does offer an "insider's" viewpoint. Still, our book is aimed at tourists and zoo visitors -- not at zoo employees (though we hope you enjoy it too). While Sooty Mangabey is correct that I am not a "zoo expert" (not from an insider's viewpoint), I really DO believe we are very much in touch with what "the people" want to see at zoos. I have been to over 200 zoos and aquariums all over the world, including all of the major zoos in the USA. I have not only looked at the animals and exhibits, but also watched and talked to the people -- to gauge what they like and don't like.
2. As a travel guidebook, our book is NOT a "critique" book of zoos. We wrote about what we liked when we visited the zoos. If there was something we didn't like, we simply kept our description brief -- or, if there was a lot not to like, this zoo would not make it to a full review.
3. As for the "infamous" Lied Jungle -- I am stunned at that comment. I've never seen anything in that excellent exhibit which merits calling it "infamous". To me, it remains the definitive indoor rain forest zoo exhibit in America, despite its 15+ years of age. This is based on the animals exhibited, the realism, and the overall visitor experience. If you disagree, that's fine. As Sooty said, debate is healthy. Feel free to enlighten me on why some of you feel differently about that Lied Jungle. I'm very curious!
4. To Rookeyper: I'm disappointed to hear you only have a dozen or so lorikeets in your Australian aviary. Last year, when I toured it, I didn't really count them, but I noted quite a few birds flying around me. Certainly, in my past visits there, I've experienced having "hundreds" of Aussie birds flying in flocks around me. Finally, please note that we sent every zoo's chapter to the zoo's PR director for review. We had hoped they would check us for inaccuracies. Apparently, this one got through the cracks.

Any other questions?

13-05-2008

@Allen: thanks for joining ZooBeat, and hopefully you will feel enticed to offer up your personal opinion on the over 200 zoos and aquariums that you have visited worldwide. I myself will have visited around 60 zoos and aquariums by the time September rolls around, as I'm significantly adding to my total this summer, but there are many members on this site that have surpassed that number. If you glance through the countless threads then I'm sure that you will find an enormous amount of information that would interest you, including new exhibits scheduled to open in 2008 and 2009.

There are a number of ZooBeat members that have described the so-called "infamous" Lied Jungle in unflattering terms, and there is the general feeling that the fake-rock background turns off hard-core zoo fans. I have never visited Omaha's Henry Doorly Zoo, but the Lied Jungle exhibit definitely is a contentious one amongst zoo goers. There have actually been a number of debates surrounding it here at ZooBeat.

As far as your book is concerned, I have ordered it from amazon and am now awaiting delivery sometime in the near future. I own the 1994 edition, and am extremely grateful that you have chosen to update the facts and figures 14 years later as there has been a wealth of new exhibits that have opened across North America. Keep up the great work!

13-05-2008

To touch once again on the Henry Doorly Zoo's Lied Jungle: In David Hancocks's 2001 book "A Different Nature" he rips into that exhibit. He mentions the "cramped and sterile holding spaces", "everything the animals come into contact with is fake and useless", it is a "demonstration of what NOT to do", etc. To be fair he also bashes many other tropical rainforest exhibits, but does throw some praise towards the Bronx Zoo's "Jungle World". Perhaps there is a large gap between what the general public perceives within a zoo exhibit and those that are members of the fraternity. I've never worked in a zoo, and so find myself wavering between the two different categories.