The Greatest Zoo Exhibit Complexes of All Time

Well part of this is rating exhibits across time, in which case Desert Dome/Kingdoms of the Night would still deserve a spot.

~Thylo

 

Why, the Desert Dome is 8 years younger than Burgers' Desert and was outdated when it opened, though improvements have been made. For Kingdoms of the Night I don't know enough about the real quality...

 

The

The Desert Loop Trail at ASDM is another classic and outstanding exhibit complex—and as I recall feels connected to the brilliant Life on the Rocks.

Earlier but historically notable are the Riparian exhibits (otter/beaver/fish/bighorn sheep) especially with the later addition of coatis, and the Small Cat complex.

 

For the American zoo world it was pretty revolutionary in overall design.

~Thylo

 

Kingdoms of the Night does a better job of providing adequate space than the vast majority of nocturnal houses. It also has some very impressive "sets" -- the seemingly barrier-free cavefish pool, the huge bat cave, the beaver swamp. The scale is of course massive. Like most Omaha exhibits of that era, though, there are little flaws that are noticeable to the detail-oriented: axolotls in with the cavefish, suspiciously geometric formations in the bat cave, light fixtures in the beaver swamp's night sky.

 

Based on all my multiple visits over the past year, Africa Rocks in San Diego Zoo is among one of those I’d consider the best complexes. The aviary alone is amazing to take a short break in or stay for a long time, very open and photographer friendly. The primate exhibits for the geladas and Hamadryas baboons allow for visitors to to view from multiple vantage points. I do also dig the 2 multiple lemur species meshed exhibits where they can interact with one other daily, being swapped out into either exhibit and it makes for great enrichment. The fossa and ratel exhibit may be a bit difficult to see them, they do seem to take advantage of the rocky wall to climb around and be super rambunctious. The dwarf crocodile exhibit so reminds me of the slender snouted crocodile exhibit near the pygmy hippos, another great lush home for crocodilians. And for their mega stars, African penguins, they have a rocky beach to show off to spectators and a pool that connects into an aquarium like setting and at times has a wave machine to create some tides. The addition of leopard sharks and opaleye fish as their swimming partners is just a bonus. My only gripe is the leopard exhibit, a bit small although the leopard will use the artificial tree as a vantage point or to eat their meaty treats. Overall, I keep going back every time and I never cease to love it. It accommodates for larger crowds and has a bit of something for everyone, truly a well rounded exhibit complex in my opinion

 

What about Detroit's Arctic Ring of Life?

 

An exhibit I failed to mention would be Assiniboine Park Zoos Journey to Churchill. A relatively simplistic looking zoo elevated to new heights thanks to this 94 million dollar (The most expensive zoo exhibit of all time?) complex. Six humungous grassy and rocky exhibits for polar bears (the zoo has about 11) with an underwater viewing tunnel and a restaurant with a beautiful panoramic view of one of the exhibits, making for perhaps the worlds greatest polar bear exhibit (Yorkshire may come close?). Other exhibits include large grassy yards for caribou and musk ox (a zoological rarity), plus seals, arctic foxes and the greatest snowy owl aviary I have ever seen. This is a complex that I need to see to believe.

 

Although I’ve never been, I always wanted to visit Georgia Aquarium for their Ocean Voyager Exhibit. The exhibit is just one massive tank filled with species including fifteen species of ray, green sea turtle, and six species of shark including blacktip reef shark, zebra shark, tasseled wobbegong, spotted wobbegong, sandbar shark, and whale shark. I believe the exhibit is the largest indoor tank in the United States which should earn it a spot on this list even without the whale sharks and manta rays and other rare species. I’d also highly recommend watching the Zoo Tours video tour of the exhibit.

 

Ocean Voyager definitely doesn't have 15 species of ray. I recorded 9 species across the entire aquarium, though most will have been in the tank.

~Thylo

 

My apologies, it seems that I must have miscounted and was incorrect. Thanks for pointing that out! According to their website (All Animals At The Georgia Aquarium | Georgia Aquarium), they have the following ray species in the Ocean Voyager:

1. Bowmouth Guitarfish
2. Cownose Ray
3. Giant Guitarfish
4. Leopard Whipray
5. Lesser Devil Ray
6. Long Comb Sawfish
7. Manta Ray
8. Pink Whiptail Ray
9. Pointed-Nose Stingray
10. Porcupine Ray
11. Roughtail Stingray
12. Round Ribbontail Ray
13. Southern Stingray
14. Spotted Eagle Ray

Just to be clear, I'm considering rays as members of Batoidea which would include Guitarfish and Sawfish. Also thought that I'd add that the exhibit features 63 total species. Also, sorry I didn't notice that the Ocean Voyager was already mentioned by you in the thread.

 

Some great complexes in my opinion
Dallas Zoo - Wilds of Africa region (arguably the nicest elephant exhibit in America, and one of the few mixed-species ones out there. Also home to apes, hippos, okapis, Nile crocodiles, lions, and a big smattering of hoofstock)
Bronx Zoo - Congo Gorilla Forest (one of the top-three greatest gorilla exhibits in America, and also home to monkeys, birds, herptiles, and okapis)
Columbus Zoo - Heart of Africa (huge savannah exhibit [can be viewed from food court] and nice periphery exhibits for lion, cheetahs, and vervet monkeys)
Lincoln Park Zoo - Regenstein African Apes (great indoor-outdoor gorilla and chimp exhibits, and with great views of the city of Chicago all around)
Shedd Aquarium - Abbot Oceanarium (great marine mammal exhibits, except for California sea lion)
Akron Zoo - Grizzly Ridge (home of a great North American bird aviary and a nice grizzly bear exhibit)
Cleveland Zoo - Wolf Wilderness (huge wolf exhibit and a great beaver exhibit [you can see inside the lodge] and you can see both species at the some time, but obviously in separate exhibits, but it looks like there's no barrier)

 

Personally I found Dallas' Giants of the Savanna underwhelming. It's a damn good exhibit to be sure, but I prefer the likes of Elephants of the Zambezi River Valley and Omaha's exhibit to Dallas'

~Thylo

 

Hmmm, what did you not like about Giants of the Savanna? I liked it a lot, the Elephant exhibit is easily the best I've seen and the supporting exhibits are good as well.

 

There’s one more where I struggle to call an exhibit or exhibit complex that I think is stellar despite its size: The LAIR at the LA Zoo. It’s composed of the main LAIR building, arroyo Lagarto, desert LAIR building, and crocodile swamp. It has roughly 60 plus species of reptiles, amphibians, and invertebrates. Some true gems that many visitors are drawn to like chinese giant salamanders, gray’s monitor, vipers, frogs, and false gharials. Each section is different, very well built habitats for all their residents. Another one that may be exhibit complex would be Reptile Walk in San Diego Zoo. Love the outdoor exhibits and the coupling of buildings for their smaller critter along the pathway. Very lush homes, ending with a pond filled Indian gharials and turtles of various species and some endangered as well. Both the LAIR and Reptile Walk are fantastic exhibits that feel and look like exhibit complexes, may be I’m wrong and please feel free to tell me so!

 

Don't get me wrong, I really liked it. I'm not really sure what I found disappointing about it tbh. I think it was just too over-hyped before I visited is all. There also weren't many animals of any species out in it that day for some reason so that might also be why.

~Thylo

 

I personally really love the new "Eissmeer" in Tierpark Hagenbeck Hamburg, it`s great rebuild of the original with massiv exhibits, lots of great exhbits for extraodinary animals like walrusses or king penguins and it still has the look of the old one with the panorama including polar bears and walrusse. But honestly all of the here mentioned exhibits are great and it`s difficult to compare for example a tropical dome and a polar complex.

 

From a historical point of view: Mappin Terraces in their heydays.

 

I was starting to think of European exhibits that were world-class, but the main problem with this is that the European zoos don't tend to have 'exhibits' as such, more like rough areas delineated by different colours on the map or just a hodge-podge of exhibits. Obviously Masoala would be near the top of the list this side of the pond, along with Islands at Chester and possibly Gondwanaland in Leipzig (at least for me )

 

I agree to an extent, but I think it depends on the age of the zoo. Just going off of personal experience, zoos like Valencia or Paris Vincennes which are "new' zoos are divided into clearly defined exhibits, while older zoos like Barcelona or Rome are more scattered and aren't divided into clear exhibits.