Best Snow Leopard Exhibit

A discussion has started based on my photo here Snow Leopard in snowstorm - ZooChat that I think merits its own thread. The topic as stated in the title is where are the best snow leopard exhibits? There is a similar thread for exhibits for regular leopards here Best Leopard exhibits .

As far as I can tell the best of the best are in Europe with their American counterparts falling behind, though I will mention a couple of decent second tier ones on this side of the pond. Please head each section by country (even if you are only listing one zoo) as I am doing below.

 

Germany
Karlsruhe Zoo
Leipzig Zoo
Switzerland
Zoo Zurich
Austria
Zoo Salzburg
United Kingdom
Highland Wildlife Park
Sweden
Kolmarden Wildlife Park
United States
Bronx Zoo
Central Park Zoo
Woodland Park Zoo

 

I was going to edit my United Kingdom post to add Twycross, going off memory of the photos when the exhibit first opened. But I checked the gallery to confirm I was remembering the correct one and see it has become too overgrown to be appropriate for snow leopards. Look at this recent photo and the before photos posting underneath: Snow leopard enclosure - ZooChat

 

Nordens Ark in Sweden would possibly top this list. Helsinki in Finland also has a very good complex.

 

I think the overgrowth in the Twycross photo may have something to do with the birth of cubs shortly before then.

 

Milwaukee County Zoo has a very good exhibit. Picture shows part of the exhibit

 

Nothing like cubs to clear overgrowth!

 

Based on the above photo, the one in Milwaukee looks adequate but I would not call it good.

 

That sums it up - but it is better than most Snow Leopard enclosures in the Midwest.

 

Surely there's only one truly amazing snow leopard exhibit, and that's Zurich? I've never met anyone who has seen it that hasn't ranked it as far and away the best snow leopard exhibit (and in some cases just for cats in general) in existence... This is just anecdotal but I think it does speak volumes.

 

I haven't seen too many, but the one at Stone Zoo is pretty good and has rocky terrain.

 

Omaha's new exhibit is the best I've personally seen.

Snow leopard exhibit by Echobeast posted 2 Jul 2019 at 6:30 PM

Snow leopard exhibit by Echobeast posted 2 Jul 2019 at 6:30 PM

 

I have seen Zurich and not seen Kolmarden in person, but based on photos they seem to be on par.

 

Zurich's enclosure is great, but Zoochatters often haven't been to Sweden, so they tend to miss some other amazing enclosures, like this one:


This is the one in Nordens Ark.

Helsinki has a series of four connected cages, each of them quite spacious and green:


And one that has not been mentioned and may be somewhat divisive, the one in Doue-la-Fontaine, lots of height and space but a somewhat modernistic look: