After a request from forumster Dan I have attempted to make a personal list of the "TOP 10 ZOOLOGICAL ESTABLISHMENTS IN DENMARK". This list includes zoos, wildlife parks, tropical zoos, aquaria and terraria. The zoos below have been judged by the following points (in no particular order): The quality of the exhibits (for both animals and visitors) The visitor experience The visitor facilities The collection (number of animals and species) The educational value And the TOP 10 ZOOLOGICAL ESTABLISHMENTS IN DENMARK according to Toddy are (drumroll): Odense Zoo Ree Park – Ebeltoft Safari Randers Tropical Zoo Copenhagen Zoo Givskud Zoo Aalborg Zoo Scandinavian Wild Animal Park AQUA Freshwater Aquarium North Sea Oceanarium Jesperhus Junglezoo Also, Knuthenborg Safaripark almost made it to the list but was just topped by Jesperhus Junglezoo. Remember that this is based on my personal opinion.
Thanks so much for indulging me, Toddy! This list is of course very interesting to me since I live in the south of your neighbor country Sweden, where Danish tv can be seen -and I have watched so much on Danish zoos featured in your tv-channels. Danish tv does a much better job at covering what happens in the country´s zoos than the Swedish tv does when it comes to Swedish zoos. I have also studied the web pages of most Danish zoos in detail, not to mention the Danish gallery here at ZooChat. I think that I in fact have learned so much about Danish zoos via tv, the internet and the pictures here at ZooChat that I think I understand much about your ratings and what made you rank the the zoos the way you did. Highly interesting to know that you actually place Odense at the top spot, especially since I can go there and get back in one day if I get up early. I will visit in within a not to distant future, if not during the winter - though who knows? - then absolutely when spring comes! Just as you write in a gallery comment - and I am judging by your own very pictures - the overall exhibit standard in this zoo seems to very high, indeed! Also, the future looks bright: the Kiwara exhibit will be ready in 2010, right? Big African savanna with crocodiles in an adjoining outdoor enclosure! The new aviary that you show in your pictures with flamingos and pelicans flying free without having their wings clipped! Great! From my very own personal preferences I still suspect that Ree Park and Scandinavian Animal Park would have topped my list If I had actually visited most (or all?) Danish zoos as I suppose that you have done. But, again, I live in a neighbor country so eventually I might start to visit many of your Danish zoos and this list will be very helpful!
@Dan: Yes, I have visited all the Danish zoos except for three of the smaller ones (Lintrup Zoo, Blaavand Zoo and Jutland's Park Zoo). As you can see I have also ranked Ree Park very high on the list and it is a park that I love very much. However, it does not have any indoor exhibits and therefore is a downer in rainy weather. Also, there are no reptiles or amphibians on display. Therefore Odense Zoo slips above it in my chart. The Scandinavian Wild Animal Park have some truly great exhibits but lack somewhat in the educational value (the only places you can really learn something is at the talks and these are only in Danish) and their collection os quite small neglecting the small mammals, birds and reptiles. About your visit to Odense Zoo I am surprised that you have not thought of this before as you can easily reach Odense from Malmö in a day. However, I would wait until summer if I were you. The zoo looks so much more beautifull when the leaves are green and this will also give the trees and plants in the new aviary some more time to settle. And if you are interested in the new Kiwara project I suggest you check out the thread about the subject that I have created. Here I say that the new savannah won't be ready until 2011.
@Toddy: thanks for the list! I might never go to Denmark, but I adore all kinds of lists ranking things and thus I have thoroughly enjoyed researching through the Danish zoos since you posted your own opinion of the top 10 establishments.
Oh, I checked out that thread but must have missed that Kiwaru doesn´t open until 2011. I very much appreciated the architectural plan for Kiwara enclosed in your post. Would you like to explain the details of it a little bit further, if you know them? The big grassy plain speaks for itself - this is where the giraffes and zebras etc will be seen. But then there is also a "wetland savannah" and what appears to be another, very small, enclosure northwest of the wetland enclosure? Is that a bridge stretching across the wetland savannah? What about the crocodiles? --- Anyway, I am pretty sure that I will visit Odense well before next summer. I will just have to work out the logistics on how to get there and then I will probably start to visit it on a regular basis, just like Copenhagen Zoo and Skanes Animal Park.
Sounds like a good idea. Odense Zoo is very easy to get to and my personal favourite Danish zoo. You will love their exhibits for lions, tigers, chimpanzees, giant tortoises, squirrel monkeys, manatees and antarctic penguins. Regarding your questions about Kiwara I have attempted to answer them in the Kiwara-thread
