The World's 50 Greatest Zoo Exhibits

For the purpose of the article Living Coasts was not classed as an exhibit as it is the whole zoo.

The broad definition of an exhibit is listed as 'a part of a zoo which is in some way linked, but does not represent the whole zoo.'

Everyone sees things differently, if I were asked to nominate the best exhibit at Chester I would say Europe on the Edge, even though I think the giant otter enclosure is very good.

 

A quote from the magazine.

"Our top 50 includes nothing from Africa, South America, New Zealand or Russia. This reflects a weakness of our coverage, perhaps, but such was the result of our present survey."

 

As one of the contributors to this list - and as the person responsible for one of the contentious choices! - I'd simply add to Snow Leopard's comments above: this is not a scientific exercise, nor a democratic process. Rather, it is a bunch of zoo nerds (and several professionals as well) picking out their favourite zoo exhibits. Nothing more, nothing less. Those choices are based on a number of factors: personal impact (that wagtail thing in the Exotarium), historical significance (the aquatic birds house) or, sometimes, just that irrational and unpredictable coming together of things in a serendipitous manner. One of my choices was the hyena cage at Beauval. Is it 'better' than, say, Burgers Bush? No, of course not. But whenever I've visited Burgers Bush I've been mildly dissatisfied (too many people, rubbish weather, pressed for time), while Beauval I associate with summer holidays and having time to burn. Totally personal, totally subjective.

It's a good read (the article as a whole). those who aren't members of the IZES should be, then they'd get a great publication.

 

Thanks, Sooty, that helps explain things a lot!
So I'm guessing that you are saying that their was NO statistical "voting" or adding up of the votes from the different panel members, right? Thus, if you (or SnowLeopard, or any other panel member) suggested a single exhibit for the list -- that exhibit made the liist, automatically, right?

 

Right!

There's a long-running radio show in Great Britain called 'Desert Island Discs' - what eight 'discs' would you take if you were to be stranded on a desert island. Of course, the things people choose aren't always the best songs (whatever 'best' might mean), but rather the songs that mean the most to them. I'm sure that some piece of music by, say, Mozart is 'better' than Bruce Springsteen singing 'The Ghost of Tom Joad', but Bruce would get my nod because that song has meant so much to me over the past 20 years. I don't think it's better. I just like it more. I guess it's the same with people's zoo choices here....

 

Watching Tufted Puffins dive and swim at the Alaska Sealife Center is kind of cool.

 

Funny, I've personally guided 4 of those reviewers through a zoo before.

 

I've only seen 17/50, and kind of agree with everyone, these sort of lists can never be anything other than subjective, and while there are a few on the list I would omit, there are definitely a few I agree should be on there.

The lack of Australasian exhibits (apart from the Alice Springs Desert Park Nocturnal House) is a little surprising, I would nominate a couple of others for the list - for example Taronga Zoo's Great Southern Oceans exhibit, and Auckland Zoo's Te Wao Nui, which I would say is the best exhibit in Australasia.

 

Memphis is a great zoo, but China is one of their worst exhibits. Should not be on the list, but one of their others (cat area or Teton Trek) possibly should be.

Los Angeles elephants of Asia should not be on the list based on photos I have seen. Should be replaced with elephant exhibit at Dallas or Nashville or North Carolina.

San Diego should of course be on the list, but not with monkey trails. Either the gorilla exhibit or one (or both) of the two massive aviaries.

And to the person who said Fort Worth MOLA should not be on the list, I respectfully (but vehemently) disagree. It is the best and most groundbreaking reptile complex in the USA and possibly the world - definitely belongs on the list.

As a cat fanatic I would also add the snow leopard exhibit at Zoo Zurich (which I have not seen in person but will in a couple weeks).

And as someone else has said I would give a nod to Life On The Rocks at my local Arizona Sonora Desert Museum.

 

Great list and topic for discussion. I appreciate the historical aspect of many exhibits on this list - and for that reason I'd probably have included a couple of additional exhibits from Schonbrunn, perhaps a historic bird or reptile house too.

That being said - the most glaring omission to me is that none of the major exhibits at Singapore Zoo are included. Many of these exhibits are among my favorites and most notably, the free ranging orangutan exhibit(s) is my all time favorite. Plenty more memorable exhibits to choose from too (Rift Valley, Primate Kingdom, Sun Bear, Pygmy Hippos, Nile Crocodiles).

Also as zooboy just noted - Great Southern Oceans at Taronga also immediately comes to mind. As does Taronga's aviary with platypus, echidna, and various bird species.

 

I think the Singapore Zoo largely doesn't have many spectacular exhibits, they are generally considered too small or otherwise lacking. I was surprised to see their Elephants of Asia exhibit (i.e. the one at Singapore Zoo) suggested, as there is nothing particularly impressive about that. Primate Kingdom and the Orang exhibits are great, principally because of the foliage available, which is only really possible because of the tropical climate. The Sun Bear, Nile Crocodile, and Pygmy Hippo enclosures are all nothing special IMHO. Rift Valley is impressive though. Likewise Night Safari, Jurong and presumably River Safari (except perhaps the Flooded Amazon manatee exhibit?) lack stand-out exhibits.

 

The Elephants of Asia exhibit on the list is the one at the Los Angeles Zoo.

 

Yup, I was meaning the Singapore Zoo one as suggested by zoomaniac in his post (#13). I haven't seen LA Zoo's exhibit (yet!), so will reserve judgement for now.

 

Well get on a plane (or in a boat) and come see it.

 

All the talk of exhibits that "should" be in this list rather overlooks the genesis of the original piece. As has been said above, this isn't an empirically-tested analysis of objective assessment. To say that exhibit X should be present, and exhibit Y shouldn't, is akin to saying that David Cameron was wrong to pick "Ernie The Fastest Milkman In The West" as one of his choices on Desert Island Discs (BBC - Desert Island Discs - Castaway : Rt Hon David Cameron MP), and that he should have picked something by Theolonius Monk instead....

 

What is wrong with putting forth exhibit choices that we think belong on the list of the 50 greatest zoo exhibits? Surely part of the idea of the list is to generate discussion, which is what we are doing now.

 

Nothing wrong at all - as you say, this is exactly the sort of conversation a list like this should elicit.

The point I was making, though, was that it's not a case of "should" (implying a rightness, and a wrongness, to certain choices); rather, David Brown's choices are, of course, going to be different to those of, say, Scott Richardson.

There are some exhibits on the list that do almost nothing for me at all - the chimp house at Osnabruck, for example. But that does not make it a wrong choice, and I wouldn't say that it shouldn't be there.....

 

I would have hated that - the PM is welcome to all the Benny Hill records he wants, but if he even thought about my beloved Thelonious Monk I couldn't feel superior any more (even though I've only just learned how to spell his christian name correctly ).
Surely the questions we should be asking are whether the exhibits are the best for the animals, the zoo visitors and the zoo staff. As I said before, I don't think that applies to all of them.

Alan

 

The 'free-ranging' orang utan exhibit is possible because of the way Singapore Zoo manages most of its orang utans using free contact. Probably no other zoo in the world (tropical or otherwise) would allow a dozen orang utans access to live trees above visitor areas. A couple of Malaysian zoos have attempted similar displays but on a far smaller scale.

I'd say Jurong's Waterfall Aviary and Lory Loft are standouts, being amongst the largest avaries in the world (both aviaries are over 100 feet high).