Best and worst local zoo exhibits

Phillip island wildlife park

Best: eastern grey kangaroo walk through
Worst: Various birds of prey exhibit
Emu walk through (emus are very intimidating to guests)

But the worst of the worst is the tawny frog mouth exhibit which is literally just a box full of about 10 tawny frog mouths and is a disgusting exhibit.

 

Some state locals for me than I will post some out of state ones.

Central Florida zoo
Best: Hepatarium, Cheetah, Warthog
Worst: Cougar

Disney's Animal Kingdom
Best: Kilamagaro safaris
Worst: American crocodile

SeaWorld Orlando
Best: Penguins, Sealions
Worst: Dolphin nursery

Gatorland
Best: Gator breeding marsh, Emus
Worst: The young gator decks

Brevard zoo
Best: Main savanna, Rhinos, Giant Otters
Worst: Red ruffed lemurs

Jungle Adventures
Best: Wolfs
Worst: the rest of the place

Tampa zoo
Best: Shoebills, Manatees
Worst: Some of the primates, domestic goats

Busch gardens
Best: The savannah veldt, Lorikeets
Worst: Some of the bird cages

Palm Beach zoo
Best: Most of the south amarican exibits
Worst: Agouti and serval cages

Jacksonville zoo
Best: Giraffes
Worst: Manatees

Santa Fe zoo
Best: Gibbins
Worst: Dwarf crocodile

Wild Florida
Best: The safari
Worst: Wallaby

 

Wilhelma Zoo

Worst: Bird of Prey Cages
Best: Amazon Rainforest and Insectarium

 

Beardsley Zoo

Best: Red panda or Spider Monkey

Worst: Probably some of the owl exhibits

 

Both Cincinnati and Columbus I consider my local zoo.

Cincinnati-Best-Night Hunters is a very interesting nocturnal house full of rare animals in pretty big cages including realistic habitats and interactive segments, a much needed improvement compared to the old cat house.

Worst-Bear Hill, the grottos are old, outdated and barley used after their polar bear died. The exhibits are all rocky and lacking any vegetation.(which was not as big of the problem when the polar was in it but they also now are used for an Andean bear.

Columbus-Best-Heart Of Africa, this is a no-brainer if you have seen it, the savannah is probably the largest zoo exhibit I have ever seen. The other habitats here are also pretty solid, such as the plane you can view the lions from and a unique vervet monkey habitat with them raiding a camp.

Worst-Animal Encounter Village, too small, to urban, to ugly, and way to unsuitable for its inhabitants. This area just needs to go, it really is bad compared to the rest of the Zoo and is a serious eyesore.

 

Zoo Tampa:
Best - Red wolf*
Worst - Red river hog
*new black bear and panther habitats are currently under construction, I anticipate the panther habitat to replace the wolf as my top. The old red wolf habitat was better, IMO, before they moved them to their current location.

Busch Gardens:
Best: Myombe Reserve (gorillas and chimps)
Worst: bird cages

Florida Aquarium:
Best: Coral reef
Worst: Brown pelican

 

To be honest, I don’t think the manatee exhibit is that bad by no means. Sure, it might be awkward to view them from certain angles, in addition to it being very difficult to see the manatees underwater, just due to how murky the water can be at times. But even in my own opinion still, it is not the zoos worst exhibit, just an honorable mention at best. Besides, the zoo did announce some plans to make a more suitable enclosure for them in the near future a while back, so there is no need to be in an “end-of-the-world” kind of scenario.

In my opinion, however, I do suppose that the nearby snapping turtle and bobcat exhibits in the same exhibit zone, (Wild Florida) could be the two exhibits at the zoo as a whole that I really seem to dislike the most; although I will personally agree with the fact of the giraffe exhibit being one of the zoos strongest exhibits in addition to the rotational lemur exhibit in African Forest, jaguars, the babirusa/small-clawed otter mixed species exhibit, lorikeets, and along with some of the terrariums in the RotJ exhibit as well.

 

Its not bad at all. But of all of the manatee exbibits I've seen, its just the one I like the least. (Plus its been almost three years since Ive been to Jacksonvile so my memory may be diffrent than what it was in the past)

 

My out of state zoos

Nashville zoo
Best: Andean bears
Worst: Aldabra tortoise (Still decent though)

Hogle zoo (Salt Lake City)
Best: African Savanna (Mixed species only)
Worst: Snow leopard (Way to small)

Cinnsanati
Best: Most of Africa, Jungle trails, Aviary
Worst: Bears

Columbus
Best: Poler bears
Worst: A.E.V (Kinkajous in a smoothe truck, realy?)

Pittsburgh
Best: Aquarium, Africa
Worst: Jungle odyssey

Georga Aquarium
Best: Ocean Voyager
Worst: Sea lions

WNC Nature center
Best: Bear, deer
Worst: Chicken coop

Riverbanks zoo
Best: Repitle house and Aviary
Worst: Lions, tigers


It has been many years since I have been to Bronx, DC, or Zoo Atlanta so I can not provide input for them

 

The Tortoise area is just your run of the mill Tortoise yard. I would give the Porcupine grotto the award for their worst exhibit.

Well there's a spelling I never thought I'd see, at least it doesn't have the double 'T' at the end.

 

Well there's a spelling I never thought I'd see, at least it doesn't have the double 'T' at the end.[/QUOTE]
Its a tough word to spell and I don't spell that good.

 

Turtleback
Best: Giraffes/Ostriches/Eland/Bontebok/White-faced whistling duck/Abyssinian ground hornbill
This exhibit is expansive and provides a large amount of space for all the animals contained within.
Worst: Amur leopard
This exhibit is so, so small. It's honestly ridiculous.

 

For my area I'd say:

Lake District Wildlife Park
Best: Meerkats, they have a lot of places to climb up and hide away, and it's a really nice design.
Worst: a lot of the reptile terrariums aren't very nice to look at.

Lakeland Wildlife Oasis
Best: Potoroos, mostly for the cool waterfall feature.
Worst: their marine fish tanks, mostly for the ugly plastic rocks that are covered in algae and grime, and you can't see that many species in them.

Safari Zoo Cumbria
Best: Vulture aviary, not only is it quite long and high with plenty of space for the Vultures to fly, but there's a few extra features like some high perches and a little pond.
Worst: their penguin pool and monkey enclosures are a bit small and could do with expansions or full-blown updates.

 

Henry Vilas Zoo
Best: Arctic Passage
Worst: African Penguin

Milwaukee County Zoo
Best: Aviary or North American River Otter
Worst: Bear Grottos or Small Mammals Building

 

If you don't know how to spell something all you have to do is open up another tab and search it up, it's not that hard.

 

For now, I’ll just do the zoos in my home state of Minnesota.

Minnesota Zoo
Best: Russia’s Grizzly Coast
Worst: Transcaspian Urial

Como Park Zoo & Conservatory
Best: Polar Bear Odyssey
Worst: Rainbow Boa Terrarium

Lake Superior Zoo
Best: White-Napped Crane/Chinese Goral
Worst: Parrot Cages

Great Lakes Aquariums
Best: Isle Royale
Worst: North American River Otter

Hemker Park & Zoo
Best: Ungulate Paddocks
Worst: Blue-Bellied Roller Terrarium

Safari North Wildlife Park
Best: Snow Leopard
Worst: Parrot/Lemur Cage

Pine Grove Zoo
Best: American Bison/Elk
Worst: American Black Bear

Zollman Zoo
Best: North American Ungulate Paddocks
Worst: American Black Bear

 

I know I know. I guess I was just being lazy this morning.

 

How do you think of Toronto Zoo's Orangutan exhibit

 

My thoughts for my medium/local large zoos.

Marwell
Best - Wild Explorers (White Rhino, Grevy's Zebra, Scimitar Horned Oryx).
Worst - Lemur walkthrough.

Cotswold Wildlife Park
Best - Madagascar (Lemur walkthrough)
Worst - The small paddock between the wolves and the cassowaries. Seems to be used as a temporary exhibit as things don't seem to stay there long but there always seems to be something there. In recent times it has held bustards, excess emus and warty pigs.

 

Scovill Zoo
Best: Cheetah exhibit, it is a good size and is very open with lots of grass and a mound in it as well.
Worst: Alligator exhibit, it is very small and just rather uninteresting.
Runner-up for worst: Budgie exhibit, when I visited this summer I saw a medium-small aviary meant as a budgie interaction area, it was empty due to divide, but from what I could tell it would have been a bad exhibit even if finished.