1. Columbus Zoo Columbus Zoo showcases animals from 5 continents and has an excellent aquarium and reptile house. It even has two African areas and two Asian areas. It also exhibits koalas. 2. Living Desert Zoo and Gardens This hidden gem in Indian Wells/Palm Desert is charming. It has North American and African desert animals as well as nature trails, gardens, and spacious exhibits. Overall, it is an unusual, excellent zoo, even higher than San Diego! 3. San Diego Zoo San Diego Zoo has excellent exhibits for pandas, hippos, koalas, an excellent reptile house, aviaries, and Elephant Odyssey (an excellent exhibit). It is not as geographically complete as Columbus Zoo, but it is an excellent zoo. 4. Erie Zoo Erie Zoo has a large collection of African animals (meerkats, lions and rock hyrax in the main building, giraffes in the center of the zoo, and Kiboka Outpost- an African area- with zebras, rhinos, warthogs and more. It also has an excellent children's zoo and Wild Asia, with Asian reptiles. 5. Bronx Zoo My original #5 was Orange County Zoo, but Bronx is better. JungleWorld is excellent, the ibex exhibit is good as well, World of Reptiles is another excellent exhibit. Madagascar is one of few zoos with a Madagascar building/area. #2 in Madagascar exhibits goes with Cleveland in PCA, and #3 at tiny Akron.
Zoos #6-23 (cloudedleopard's zoo ranking) 6. Detroit Zoo. Detroit Zoo is unique because it is one of few zoos in the Midwest that have chimpanzees. Arctic Ring of Life is spectacular, so are the prairie dogs, river otters, tree kangaroos, and the yards with the bush dogs, and the fallow deer everywhere! The playground is unique because of the turn car thingy that you sit in and turn. 7. Brookfield Zoo. Brookfield has two good African areas, the Swamp, a spectacular Australia House, dolphin show, Fragile Kingdom, etc. I visited this zoo when Joyce the elephant was still living there. The only thing that was bad was that they didn't take the membership card from other zoos. 8. National Zoo. National Zoo had a good Asia Trail exhibit. I saw Balawat right before he went to Akron Zoo for their sloth bear exhibit. The elephants were fun to watch, and the Invertebrates House and Pollinarium were good. The giant pandas and bird house were also excellent, and the reptile house. 9. Cincinnati Zoo. Night Hunters, Children's Zoo, Gibbon Ridge, and Wings of the World (WotW) are excellent. Jungle Trails is also excellent. I visited Night Hunters 3 times when I went to Cincy a few months after it opened. 10. Clyde Peeling's Reptiland (CPR). CPR was excellent, with the Island Giants, dinosaurs, emus and snake displays. They also had a good turtle collection and hands-on exhibits. I had seen the sign but didn't think it was any good. It is even AZA accredited! 11. Shedd Aquarium. I loved Wild Reef's glass floor and Amazon Rising, but thought Caribbean Reef was shabby. The oceanarium and the Waters of the World were also excellent. 12. SeaWorld San Diego. Boy, this was gimmicky. There were hundreds of gift shops, but the ray tank, dolphins and sea otters, penguins, sharks and turtles were really good. The orcas were good to see, as well as the show Blue Horizons. It would earn a place in the top 10 if it wasn't so darn gimmicky. 13. Toledo Zoo. Wild Walkabout was great when it lasted, but Nature's Neighborhood, Museum, Reptile House, Africa!, Arctic Encounter, and Tembo Trail are great permanent exhibits. I like any African savanna exhibit (except Cleveland!) and like the Museum and Arctic Encounter. 14. Cleveland Metroparks Zoo. PCA and Northern Trek are shabby, but I like African Elephant Crossing, Rainforest, Wolf Wilderness, and Australian Adventure. The Rainforest is excellent with almost no bad enclosures. 15. Pittsburgh Zoo. Pittsburgh Zoo has a bad Tropical Forest building. Kids Kingdom, PPG Aquarium, and Waters Edge are good, but African Savanna and Asian Forest are crap. 16. Lincoln Park Zoo. I liked the Great Apes and African Journey, but not so much the Cat House. The Antelope & Zebra Area wasn't the greatest, but I saw my first Sichuan takin there. 17. Akron Zoo. This small zoo is good, but there is nothing to write home about except for Grizzly Ridge. I don't know why lions, tigers, and bears (oh my!) are called Tiger Valley. That's 3 species. Komodo Kingdom is excellent and so is Legends of the Wild. The snow leopard exhibit is so much better than Cleveland. Asian Trail is just white stork, red panda, and barking deer. Farmland is good, and so are the snowy/burrowing owl enclosures (all that is left of Wild Prairie). 18. Orange County Zoo. This is a great zoo but small. I like the owl/reptile part, the children's petting zoo, and the animals displayed. The enclosures are all excellent. This should be higher, but so many zoos are much better. 19. Santa Ana Zoo at Prentice Park. The farm is crappy, the primates have good enclosures, the South American area is so-so, and the camels have a dust pit. They have unique species but margay and owl monkey were off exhibit. Not worth the price, but the Knowlwood Cafe is cheap. 20. Lake Farmpark, Oh. This petting zoo in Kirtland OH 44094 is good. The enclosures are good but the horses have peeling paints and pigs exhibit zoochosis. This is a good place, but it is not noteworthy. 21. American Intl Rattlesnake Museum (AIRM). If I haven't been to so many other zoos, AIRM would be between 10 and 15. The rattlesnake tanks are good, the spurred tortoises were off exhibit, displays were good, and the tanks were overall good and the gift shop was good. We spent 50 minutes there. 22. National Aquarium, DC. This now-closed place had alligators and turtles and nautilus. I visited years and years ago so I don't remember that much. It was alright and would be in the late teens if I wouldn't have visited any better zoos. 23. Fountain Valley CA Reptile Zoo. The fish and turtle pond was bad, the alligator tank was good, smelled bad, and overall was crappy. The collection was good (#8 in the Top 10 Zoos for Reptiles list) but was dirty and a glorified pet store.
You Zoo is all USA. Beijing Zoo have good communist and imperial China feeling. Singapore Zoo is great it have 4 different Zoos to go into. Toronto Zoo is largest Zoo in the world. I want to try European Zoo, but I notice they are great but pretty packed. Different feeling. I personally think Zoos are not just for conservation but also a work of art as well.
In 1980s, there used to be 50 clouded leopards in 29 zoos in China. But now there are only 5 clouded leopards in 4 Chinese zoos.
