Only 22 for me to date. I've been to quite a few zoos in France, but not the one's on the list! Really need to get to Walsrode, Leipzig next year at least.
I was only Schonbrunn of these, but I think Budapest Zoo, Nyiregyháza-Sóstó Zoo and Szeged Zoo should have been in the list. Budapest has got a very good Australian collection and a lot of old buildings, Sóstó is one of europe's best zoos according to Sheridan's list and Szeged has got 9 marmoset species, Geoffroy's spider monkey, clouded panther, fossa etc. And where is the Hellabrunn Zoo from the list?
If Szeged would have to be in this list, so would at least 100 other mid-sized zoos around Europe. I am not a big fan of Sheridan's rankings, but Sosto is only listed as one of the best in the smallest size category, not in any of the bigger ones. In its category only 4 zoos made it onto my list, which is not about best, but must-see, an important distinction. Of these 4 zoos Plzen, Magdeburg and Doué clearly have something to set it apart, Odense maybe less. Sosto is a good zoo and has made a lot of interesting improvements in recent years, but it is not a must see Europe wide yet. With Budapest I tend to agree, if I would do this exercise again, this list would look slightly differently. I would probably add Basel, Budapest and Zlin-Lesna to the list and remove Bristol/Odense/Boras/Dvur Kralove/Slimbridge/Duisburg (in the event of the Dolphin dying). Budapest as you say has great architecture, but is let down by poor collection planning. The Australian part is pretty good, but not really better than what e.g. Pairi Daiza has to offer. The architecture is however so good and with the great rock and the elephant house it has two of the most iconic zoo buildings in Europe, as well as one of the great entrances. That all these buildings stem from the same era is also an accomplishment. So yes if I would do it again, Budapest would be on the list, despite its overcrowding. Zlin-Lesna would also be there, as it is one of the most scenique zoos in terms of location that I know, does a good job of integrating the landscape in enclosures and has a very good collection, especially larger birds, in mostly good to great enclosures. Basel is probably the benchmark zoo of the continent, it does an extremely good job in displaying a wide variety of species and letting people observe the animals up-close. It has a very Swiss attitude towards immersion and there is good landscaping, but the focus is very much on seeing animals, without compromising their welfare. They have some strong and innovative didactic parts as well, particularly the Etosha house. But ultimately there is nothing that really stands out as much as it maybe could. Basel is overall a very good zoo and everything a zoo needs to be, but all the best zoos are better than Basel.
Do I sense a tad bit of pro-Hungarian bias here? Speaking of bias: Tierpark Hellabrunn was "my" local zoo when I grew up as a kid, and I've been before and behind its scenes a couple of times (including helping to squeeze a sedated lion back into its indoor quarters). It's a good zoo in a pleasant scenery (and probably one of the very few zoos in the world where you can legally go skinny-dipping nearby ), but I don't see it in the European top 50 zoo ranking, little ol' Sheridan or not.
I did not include Hellabrun because ultimately though there is nothing really wrong with the zoo (Lion and Rhino house excepted), there is also hardly anything special. Hellabrun was the first geographically ordered zoo, but hasn't managed to execute that better than say Blijdorp. Hellabrun is mostly unique in having some of the prettiest hoofstock enclosures, nicely integrated in the riverine landscape. Ultimately it has less that sets it apart from the zoos that are in the list imo.
The Jungle Tent has been improved considerably (at least in regard to the husbandry conditions for the kept species; biggest retic python exhibit I've yet seen in a zoo), and the lions are going to move to the (then renovated)former brown bear enclosure in the foreseeable future.
Decided to reread this thread today, it seems already it hasn't stood the test of time with the death of Baby and Bristol's imminent closure . Makes me wonder what such a list would look like in 10 years time with how much things can change quickly! There's certainly a good few zoos across the continent that with current growth rates could definitely make the top 50.
Shame that no italian zoo made it into the list, in my opinion at least 3 were worthy to be in the list
Which three would you put on the list? I don't know much about Italian zoo's but I did visit Rome Zoo many years ago.
I'm just at 12/50 ! However I have to say that a number of these 12 I've visited VERY regulary : all dutch zoos visited more then 20 times, Antwerp at least 40 times, Walsrode about 1000 ( ! ) times ( worked there from 1986 to 1989, so was there almost every day during this period ) and Pairi Daiza 600+ times ( lived in the park from 1994 to 1996 ). A good number of the ones not visited yet are high on my bucket-list !
My picks would be Parco Natura Viva, Acquario di Genova and either Parco Faunistico Valcorba or Oasi di Sant'Alessio, the first one being overall the best one for animal welfare, collection, exhibits and masterplan (for what little we know about it), the second being the best aquarium for the same reasons as PNV minus the masterplan and the last two have great animal welfare and collections with some rarities at european level but they're not that famous, but still better than most of the big names
Certainly Oasi di San't Alessio, with incredible bird rarities, the most varied hummingbird collection in Europe (are still here all these species that I saw about a year ago in ZTL???), and various bird of paradise species, deserve to figure in this thread, however, maybe this thread was done before Oasi di Sant Alessio acquiring all these dreamed rarities.
Thing is, this isn't a list of the 50 best zoos in Europe - setting aside the question of whether any/all of the four collections you cite are among the best for a moment - but rather a list of the 50 zoos which give the most comprehensive view of what European zoos have to offer in terms of exhibit focus, style, collection, history, geography and so forth; I would struggle to find any real justification for suggesting there are 3 or 4 zoos on the list which are less important/significant in these aspects than those you cite. That said I definitely don't agree that Parco Natura Viva is the best zoo in Europe, and Acquario di Genova the best aquarium in Europe, as you suggest. May is almost certainly correct that Duisburg would not occur on this list were @lintworm to return to the forum with an update, of course!
Bearing in mind that almost all of the hummingbirds are in an off-site breeding centre (with only two species on-display, these also being present and on-display at Walsrode) and they keep only two species of Bird-of-Paradise (compared to the three at Pairi Daiza and the six or seven at Walsrode) I'm not at all sure that the fact they hold these taxa does make them one of the most significant and important collections in Europe for a zoo enthusiast to visit
