Ever since I visited zoos I discovered that every institutions has its own charm and made one feel a certain more or less different way, but I managed to split most of the parks into five different groups The first two are quiet global adaptable The adventurous feeling (Randers, Zurich) Some zoos recreated the natural habitat of the animals that well that you can get a quiet realsitic impression of the original habitat/country (Some may chose Gelsenkirchen and Arnhem, but eventhough the last one did very well recreating the ecosystems, it still feels european(except for ocean)) The classical feeling (Frankfurt, Basel) You get what you expect and nothing less (international) The other two are quiet european and are what this thread should be about (my favorite ones, since I am obsssed with the enlightment) The explorer feeling (Antwerpen, Amsterdam) What I imagine as the time of entlightment feeling The setting is probably the opposite to the adventurous type, not imitating the animals natural enviorment rather than creating something new Those zoos still keep the taxonomical order Most often set in a wonderful garden with beautiful architecture Everything has a history and there is a reason for everything and all you want to do is discover that history, science, the taxonomy, be an explorer like Darwin and Humboldt (unique european) (Eventhough the city and the museums of London gave me the same feeling the zoo sucked at this point) Beside that I found some zoos more authentic to keep a certain species than others like if they would belong there because of that history Antwerpen - Okapi, Congo fowl The exotic feeling (Rotterdam) The zoos of the dutch west coast have something makes me feel that the same animal species, that are probably kept at every other institution in europe, are more exotic than normaly percieved in a way like the time when the first exotic animals came to europe and the arrival itself was a sensation and pulled the crowds into the zoo like a magnet maybe because of a constrast since the masoala hall felt less exotic than blijdorps Rivierahall (pretty european, but not limmited) Those two combined are pretty much the european feeling that was ment in the title The last one is the special feeling Dedicated to special taxa or Ecoysytems Aquariums, Monkey and Bird Parks (walsrode) (global) ----- My questions are - Are these feelings comprehensible for you? - Which zoo feels like another? - What is your favorite feeling? - Which is the most intense for you?
