Nearly! Only missing out on Loro Parque.... Yikes - what a thought! I have rather more hair, and better taste in music, than the Vancouver version...
It is interesting that zoos in U.S. have relatively much higher attendance than zoos in Europe (excluding Russia, Belaruss, Ukraine and Turkey) despite Europe having 550+ millions of population (EU 500+); some logical explanations would be: -More zoos in Europe (Germany 1,050+ zoos, UK 350+, France 190+, Spain 100+, etc.) per capita than in U.S. (750+ (?)); -Generally more sunny climate of the U.S. (with hotter summers) stimulating people to go outside and also visit zoos; -U.S. have higher per capita income than European (or EU) average, assuming American people travel on bigger distances throughout USA and also visiting zoos; -Seems that gap in respect to size and diversity, between giant and small zoos is bigger in the U.S. than in Europe, and the more gigantic zoos in U.S. attracts the very wast majority of zoo attendances, while situation in Europe is that zoo visits are more evenly distributed in more zoos with gigantic and intermediate (also more numerous in Europe?), sizes and diversity , and in small zoos. Maybe total zoo attendances data for the U.S. and for Europe (or for the EU), will clear the reasons behind this trend. Will you agree with all, most or some statements?
I've only done 11 collections in the list, myself. It's a pretty solid collection, but not as good as some of the other German collections in the list.
Given the vast distances involved, I doubt most Americans travel inter-state to visit a zoo. Another factor you've overlooked, mentioned earlier in the thread, is that some significant American zoos (with, unsurprisingly, large visitor numbers) offer free entry.
Food for thought: Munich is one of Germany’s larger cities and quite a popular touristic destination; one particular, little known event attracts millions of international visitors every September/early October, of which some also happen to visit the zoo.
Hopefully before their daily visit to the event as it could lead to interesting situations if they decide the zoo afterwards.
@DDcorvus: such "interesting situations" have already taken place. American breaks into Munich zoo & befriends tiger Versuchter Totschlag in Hellabrunn | Regionen
Crazy people :S. I m wondering if Munich Zoo increases the security in September? On a side note does anyone know where Sheridan got his numbers from as Pairi Daiza's last years numbers were 1.5 million and not 1.8.
You might actually be a strong candidate to be the "Snowleopard of Europe" (amongst at least half a dozen other ZooChatters) as by next summer you and I will both have each visited 360-375 different zoos and the extraordinary thing is that there are likely very few repeats in there as your zoo visits are mainly all in Europe and mine are for the most part in North America. Just think...together we will surpass 700+ zoos and agree that Bruce Springsteen is a legend. However, my beloved football club is better than yours. Of interest is that the book Zooming in on Europe's Zoos lists the top 5 zoos that have dramatically increased their annual attendance between 2010-2015. 1- Wroclaw - an increase of 1.3 million annual visitors (the Afrykarium complex greatly contributed to the inflated numbers and there is a wonderful 6-page review of Wroclaw in the Winter 2015/16 issue of Zoo Grapevine magazine) 2- Pairi Daiza - an increase of 900,000 3- Beauval - an increase of 600,000 4- Munich - an increase of 500,000 5- Karlsruhe - an increase of 400,000
@snowleopard, which source does Sheridan give for these numbers as Pairi Daiza indicated yesterday they had 1.5 million visitors in 2015 not 1.8 and some of the other numbers seem not to correspond with news from the zoos as well.
I have not visited seven zoos of the list: Munich, Basel, Karlsruhe, Beauval, Dublin, Nuremberg and Colchester.
It looks like most visited zoos in the USA are located in the touristy southern part of the country. In Europe only Loro Parque fits this trend. There is no European version of Lowry Park - no mass visited zoo/animal theme park targeting holidaymakers from the north anywhere in the Mediterranean coast of Spain, France, nor e.g. Morocco, Tunisia or Turkey. A hole in the market?
On page 443 of his new book Sheridan devotes 6 paragraphs describing exactly how he attains his visitor numbers. I'm not dodging your question but I'm also not typing it all out. He discusses total "footfall", how he accounts for zoos that do not include free entry, the accumulation of seasonal tickets, etc. To be honest I think that when I compiled all of my visitor figures for the USA zoo attendance thread my system of using Google is potentially more accurate than anything Sheridan does! His book is deeply flawed in places (such as the complicated ranking system of 115 zoos) but at the same time the book is a fantastic overview of almost all of the truly best zoos in Europe and there is an absolute wealth of information inside its pages. Until someone else writes a book on Europe's zoos then Sheridan's is the best one around and in terms of physical quality (binding, weight, hardcover, thick pages, colourful images) it is truly superb.
I'm grateful to say I've been to 19 of the European zoos on the top list plus Antwerp, Frankfurt and Dresden on the almost-made top list, and to ALL 41 of the top US zoos (most several times). Having volunteered, interned or worked at six US zoos has made visiting zoos, aviaries and wildlife Parks , plus seeing animals in the wild a priority/
I tend to agree with this; indeed, I made a very similar comment, in another thread, early in October. I think it is a shame that the (understandable) controversy around the ranking system detracts from the wealth of detailed information within this volume which makes it a very useful reference work. Incidentally, further to your comment at the start of this thread, I have visited 29 of the 35 zoos listed.
More or less: It is true that the zoo-amusement parks that are in the very top in terms of visitors are in the south (DAK, Busch Gardens, combined SeaWorld's). However, among "full zoos" (not zoo-amusement parks combo) the pattern is far less clear: San Diego in the south is first, but just after are Lincoln Park, Saint Louis, National, Bronx and Brookfield, which certainly aren't southern. Nevertheless, one could argue for a major South European zoo. However, GDP per capita in southern Europe is generally well below that of northern Europe, and they would likely have to rely heavily on tourism. Additionally, the Gini coefficient of southern Europe is lower than the US, but it is generally far higher than northern Europe (with the notable exception of UK). Things that point toward a smaller middle class -- the exact group that most zoos rely on for visitors. A major zoo in touristy parts of Northern Africa (Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt) or Turkey? Perhaps, but those regions have lost some appeal recently due to politics and terror risk. If only things calm down. Walsrode receives remarkably few visitors (c. 300,000) for a world top aviary and has struggled to keep alive for this exact reason. It is located a bit off the beaten track and being only birds means that some people unfortunately disregard it.
Sheridan never includes bird parks or aquariums in his list. That it's the reason for vogelpark -or any aquarium- continues out of the ranking.
Gaziantep has a very good zoo according to the locals, though that's definitely not the touristy party of Turkey I haven't been, however all the locals swear it's the best zoo in Turkey and a lot of Turks from other parts of the country tell me the same thing. I call Gaziantep "Turkey's Phoenix" (ugly, sprawling, way too hot, and incredibly xenophobic), however seeing as it's known for its food and its zoo it might also be Turkey's San Diego. Any rate, when I was in Gaziantep I never got around to visiting. Seeing the old city and the Zeugma Museum and stuffing my face were higher priorities, and Antep isn't the sort of place you want to spend more time than you have to (at least not in the summer). There's a lot in that part of Turkey I still want to see (I'd planned to make a circuit of eastern Turkey then realized I couldn't find a car rental place in Antep that offers automatics, so I need to either learn to drive stick before trying it again or rent a car further west), so if I make it to Antep again I'll check out the Zoo and say how it compares to American standards. I'd completely forgotten until it was brought up that I've been to the Zoo in Izmir Kültürpark. It's free admission (or free admission after a certain hour; I forget) and completely unimpressive. From what I recall there's deer, waterfowl, and a fair number of reptiles. If you're in Izmir, there's so much do do in and especially around the city that a zoo wouldn't necessarily be a priority. However the Kültürpark is right in downtown Izmir, and the zoo could probably be expanded and improved at least somewhat. And Izmir is the only Turkish city with a half-decent light rail system, so I could see a proper zoo on the outskirts. There's a bird sanctuary on the northern periphery which is supposed to be quite nice, however it's something I only learned about as I was leaving Izmir. That's fewer than Parrot Jungle received in its last year in its old location over a decade ago. Since moving to the new, more accessible location and de-emphasizing parrots for species the owners assumed visitors would be more interested in seeing, the visitor numbers first stagnated and then went into decline. Since the new location is uglier, more expensive, and deemphasized parrots even before it became "Jungle Island," it's not clear to what degree each of those factors played in that. So how many land mammals does an attraction need for Sheridan to consider it worthy of his attentions?
