Who do you believe will win an AZA Exhibit Award this year? Winners announced at the conference in Atlanta later this week.
We do not. So any North America exhibit opened within the past few years (and which has not already applied) is worth considering.
The nominees were listed in a recent issue of the AZA "Connect" newsletter, which I do not have handy. But among the several applicants are two very big Texas projects that opened within the past 24 months.....
Wow! I entirely missed that! D'oh! OK, the nominees are: Paws on -- Brevard Zoo Great Bear Wilderness -- Brookfield Zoo Polar Frontier -- Columbus Zoo & Aquarium Giants of the Savanna - Dallas Zoo Museum of Living Art (MOLA) -- Fort Worth Zoo Rare Rhinos of Africa -- Great Plains Zoo and Delbridge Museum of Natural History Bear Orphanage -- International Exotic Animal Sanctuary Africa Live! -- San Antonio Zoo 7 Aquarium Slawson Family Tiger Trek -- Sedgwick Co. Zoo Nature's Neighborhood -- Toledo Zoo Trader's Alley: Wildlfe's Fading Footprints -- Zoo Atlanta
Bonnie and I have visited half of these new exhibits and narrowed our pick down to three Dallas GOS,FW MOLA and CBUS Polar Frontier.Its going to be a split decision I am going with Polar Frontier,while Bonnie is going with MOLA. I had to go with Polar Frontier based on a truly unique pool stocked with trout which visitors can see predatory behaviors rarely seen in zoos.The exhibit also has a very large land area of natural substrate.Bonnie being a huge reptile fan was amazed by the the huge collection at MOLA and had to give it the nod. We also wanted to give an honorable mention to Natures Neighborhood at the Toledo Zoo very nice children's zoo that we were happy to see nominated. Team Tapir
I've only been to two of them (Great Bear Wilderness at Brookfield and Tiger Trek at SCZ) and neither of those imo deserve this. From what I've heard, MOLA, GOTS, and Africa Live all sound great, as well as Polar Frontier. I've haven't even heard of most of the other exhibits, but that doesn't mean they aren't good! I'm really the best person to judge, so I'll just see what happens.
I've been to 4 on the list (GotS, MOLA, Africa live, and the Bear Orphanage). I know where my vote goes...
Even though I've seen around 70 different American zoos and aquariums just in the past 15 months I've somewhat amazingly only seen 3 of the 11 nominees! (Dallas, San Antonio and Sedgwick County). Last year two zoos that are within 2.5 hours of each other tied for the award (Woodland Park and Oregon) and this year there are two major zoos within 30 minutes of each other that are probably the top contenders (Dallas and Fort Worth).
Are write-in candidates allowed for this award? I nominate the Capital of Texas Zoo Palm Civet Paradise: http://www.zoochat.com/1517/fanaloka-asian-palm-civet-exhibit-232880/ Wait, this is the "Best Exhibit To Report To PETA Award" we're talking about, right?
AZA 2011 Awards announced Exhibit awards: Significant Achievement(all equal, not in any order) : Brevard Zoo -- Paws On Dallas Zoo -- Giants of the Savanna Top Award (all equal, not in any order) : Columbus Zoo -- Polar Frontier Fort Worth Zoo -- MOLA Toledo Zoo an Aquarium -- Nature's Neighborhood
It is interesting that last year there were co-winners (Woodland Park's penguins and Oregon Zoo's Predators of the Serengeti) and this year there are 3 winners! I wonder if Fort Worth Zoo will place billboards near Dallas Zoo proclaiming their success? MOLA looks spectacular from the photos here on ZooChat, Polar Frontier has received rave reviews, and I've heard that the new children's zoo in Toledo is great for kids. All of that means that there are 3 worthy recipients of the AZA Best Exhibit prize...although Giants of the Savanna not being one of those 3 is intriguing. I'll bet that someone will post on here stating that the exhibit awards are more meaningless than ever, but many of the winners over the years were/are truly great additions to zoos. Plus, Columbus Zoo finally won and that is one of the biggest and best zoos in North America so I'm glad to see that they actually applied this year.
Its great to see Polar Frontier win.Being from Ohio and having visited the exhibit about 8 or 9 times we have surely done our share of raving about it.We gotta admit however that its a bit surprising I (Marty) picked Polar Frontier as my winner but kind of expected GOTS to take home the prize.Its kind of cool too that Bonnie's pick MOLA and our honorable mention Toledo also won.In case anyone was wondering the AZA did not contact us for our opinion on these exhibits Team Tapir
The Capital of Texas Zoo Palm Civet Paradise was ROBBED. Seriously though, congratulations to the winners and the nominees.
