New book: What Zoos Can Do

Several ZooChat members attended Anthony Sheridan's talk at Chester yesterday, although I am not sure if they would all agree with my comments here.
I can't say that it was the best talk I have ever heard, but I now have a much better understanding of how he rated the zoos in his book. I don't believe he would be easily convinced by flights of fancy from zoo staff. He has accumulated a lot of data and he has thought hard about how to make the ratings as comprehensive and objective as possible, although there is inevitably a considerable subjective element too.
I do think that the English title 'What Zoos Can Do' is a little misleading: 'What Zoos Are Doing' might be more accurate. But this book may help us to think more deeply about the performance of zoos - which I am sure ZooChat members want to do.
We were also told that the author's royalties from the book are being donated to a gibbon conservation project in Viet Nam.

Alan

 

I agree with most of what you have said,apart from that you don't think he would be fooled by flights of fancy from zoo staff,while I do believe that he can be fooled,he still believes that Twycross will do everything that is listed in his book,while I just hope that anything positive happens for the primates at Twycross.

 

All humans are capable of gullibility and of duplicity too. Don't forget that I added the word 'easily'

Alan

 

Thats true I really should read things properly before posting,but the some of us know that he was given aload of ******** by some of the Directors he talked to,and in some cases he fell for it and in other's he didn't,but then some people are just very good at being very convincing when they are talking crap!

 

Sorry for the bumping, but didn´t wanted to start a new thread.
Does anyone know what Portuguese and Spanish zoos this book includes?

Thank you,
Filipinos

 

The only Portuguese zoo covered is the Lisbon Zoo.
Spanish zoos = Madrid Zoo, Barcelona Zoo, and Bioparc Valencia.

 

Thank you very much!
Are aquariums also included?

 

No, only zoos. The book doesn't cover 'stand-alone' aquariums like the ones in Barcelona and Lisbon.

 

Well, thank you very very much again. Very appreciated!

 

Sorry to resurrect this old thread but I felt I had to let off just a little steam. I bought the book recently against the general run of feeling on Zoochat. I have of course been disappointed. The guide to the 80 zoos in the latter part of the book is fun to flip through but without critical analysis and opinion it is just a collection of facts and figures that seems almost irrelevant/superfluous in the internet age.
The ranking system does function as analysis of course, but without access to the weighting of the factors it is impossible to understand why zoos sit where they do. Unlike a lot of members I'm quite happy to rank zoos but I can't possibly agree with the author. The worst example is that Tallinn somehow sits above Helsinki, despite the old half of the zoo featuring the worst enclosures I have ever seen in my life. Baffling and infuriating!