Your Top 5 Zoos (out of 50 plus visited)

Based on this thread: How many zoos have you visited? (poll 2) , we have over 70 members who have visited 50 or more zoos and aquariums. If you are in this category, please rank your five favorite zoos and aquariums. RULES:

1) You must have personally visited 50 or more zoological facilities.
2) Your five favorites must be ones you have personally visited.
3) These are your favorites (which may differ from what you would describe as objectively best).
4) Any exotic animal facility counts (zoo, aquarium, wildlife park, rescue shelter, etc).
5) Please limit your list to five (though I will allow one tie if you honestly can't decide).

 

1. Bronx Zoo - New York
2. Northwest Trek Wildlife Park - Washington
3. San Antonio Zoo - Texas
4. Gangelt Wild Park - Germany
5. Tama Zoo - Japan

 

Is this based on zoos as they currently are or how they were at some point when you visited? For example (and this applies to several UK zoos), London Zoo in the 1970s would have comfortably made my list, but the zoo of 2019 won't !

 

If you visited at the time you liked it (eg 1970's) that is fine. However if you want to clarify that it would not apply now you can make a short comment following your listing.

 

1. Le Parc Des Felins (Lumingy, France)
2. Northwest Trek (Eatonville, USA)
3. Arizona Sonora Desert Museum (Tucson, USA)
4. The Living Desert Zoo (Palm Desert, USA)
5. Project Survival's Cat Haven (Dunlap, USA)

 

If I answered again tomorrow it’d probably be five different ones, but of the nearly 400 I’ve visited, my favourites (not the best, necessarily - although some are!) would be...

1. Berlin Tierpark
2. San Diego Zoo
3. Beauval Zoo
4. Walsrode Vogelpark
5. Antwerp Zoo

...although how I can miss out Berlin Zoo or San Diego Wild Animal Park, I don’t know (to say nothing of Pilsen or Prague or Cincinnati or the Shedd or Wrocław or many, many others....!).

 

Now there’s a left-field choice! What is it about this place that earns it a position in your ‘top five’?

 

1) Parc des felins ( the best zoo in the world)
2) Toronto zoo
3) Zoo de Vincennes
4) Vienna zoo
5) Leipzig zoo

 

Tough question!

1) Zürich Zoo
2) Bronx Zoo
3) Tiergarten Schönbrunn
4) Monterey Bay Aquarium
5) Healesville Sanctuary

 

My favourites:

1. Berlin Zoo
2. Berlin Tierpark
3. Vienna (Schonbrunn) Zoo
4. New York (Bronx) Zoo
5. San Diego Zoo

It was very difficult to restrict the list to five and especially hard to leave out London Zoo as it was my regular childhood visits to London Zoo, when it had one of the biggest animal collections in the world, that inspired my interest in zoology and my obsession with zoos.

 

1)Parco Natura Viva
2)Berlin Zoo
3)Zoo de Vincennes
4)Zoo delle Maitine
5)Alpen-Zoo/Bioparco di Roma

 

Apart from Chester, no other UK zoo would get in my top 5 at this time, but saying that I can only judge the mainland European zoos on single visits. I had thought about this type of question some time ago, so will place Chester alongside Berlin Tierpark, Beauval, GelsenKirchen and Parque de la Naturaleza de Cabárceno for now.

I'll be watching this thread for inspiration.

 

'Favourite' (defined by how much I enjoyed my visit)

1) Frankfurt
2) Singapore Night Safari
3) Melbourne
4) Jihlava
5) Howletts

'Best' (some attempt at objectivity)

1) Zurich
2) Prague
3) Chester
4) Leipzig
5) Walsrode

Honourable mention to Chimelong Ocean Kingdom, which was a little unlucky not to make it onto either list.

 

1. San Diego Zoo
2. Cologne Zoo
3. Bronx Zoo
4. Zoo Antwerp
5. Tie between San Diego Zoo Safari Park and Pairi Daiza

 

Though question, but here is an attempt:

1. Tiergarten Schoenbrunn, Vienna
2. Burgers' Zoo, Arnhem
3. Zoo Zuerich
4. Zoo Praha
5. Tiergarten Nuernberg

Honorable mentions to Jurong, Walsrode, Bern, Apenheul, both Berlins, Antwerp, Paris JdP and Cologne.

 

I’ve visited just over 50 zoos (57 to be exact), and I must say, it’s really hard to narrow it down to just give! After a lot of thinking I think I’ve finally narrowed it down to five zoos.


1. San Diego Zoo (San Diego, USA)
2. Valencia Aquarium (Valencia, Spain)
3. Georgia Aquarium (Georgia, USA).
4. Bronx Zoo (New York, USA)
5. Detroit Zoo (Michigan, USA)

Honourable Mentions: Of all the facilities I’d say Taronga was the closest to cracking my top five; it’s an amazing zoo but Detroit juuust edges it out. The San Diego Safari Park and the Shedd Aquarium weren’t far behind, and I was tempted to put the Living Desert into my top five; it’s a brilliant, unique zoo, but I think it’s a little too small to compete.

 

During my time in Europe it was the zoo I visited most often. Considering which zoos were my “favorites”, I thought of Antwerp or Frankfurt...wonderful urban zoos, just classically beautiful...each superior to London or Amsterdam and each zoos I visited many times. I considered Rotterdam and Koln, outstanding modern zoos. Nurnberg and Munich for their collections and exhibitory. Plackendal was another great collection. Altwetter Zoo, Beekse-Bergen, or Opel Zoo for their use of terrain. I really enjoy Wildparks and maybe Hanau or Han-sur-lese might be just a little better...but Gangelt has just about every large mammal native to northwestern Europe and a couple of representatives of mammals introduced into the region...and of these I believe that only a few deer species are unrepresented...Aoudads too if we broaden our geography to include Spain. The layout of the grounds are very nice. The exhibits are fairly large, and while perhaps not too naturalistic, still very nice. The row of birds of prey on perches is maybe not great...but are the bird’s needs met? Probably. I enjoyed the illusion of discovery presented...the collection did demonstrate a functional and naturalistic megafauna ecology. Perhaps adding an exhibit complex for Harbor Seals, European Otters, and European Beavers (and maybe Nutrias) would be cool. Maybe trade out their “Tarpan” for Przewalski’s Horses. Shoot for the moon and add an “Aurochs” exhibit...Musk Ox, Reindeer, Wolverine, Raccoon Dog, Golden Jackal...Polar Bear? Why not Persian Leopards, Onagers, or Turs? Ultimately it was a nice walk through the woods. Every season brought something new. Some days I’d visit in the late afternoon following work, on others I’d visit early in the morning and stay most of the day. I loved it best in the Autumn, but I visited 7 or 8 times a year. It’s the one place of all the places I’d like to see again.

 

Well, once I visit my 500th different zoo this summer my list might look different, as I'll be visiting several world-class Dutch, Belgian and German zoos, but for now here is a look at my Top 5.

Top 5 Favourite Zoos:

1- San Diego Zoo
2- Omaha's Henry Doorly Zoo & Aquarium
3- Saint Louis Zoo
4- Bronx Zoo
5- Polar Park

The 5th place 'wild card' was known as the Alberta Game Farm for many years, becoming Polar Park in the 1980s and closing down completely by the late 1990s. When I was a young child, growing up in Edmonton, I was a frequent visitor to the zoo and I marveled at the hundreds of species on display. A truly astonishing collection is highlighted on this thread and at one point the zoo had approximately 90 species of hoofstock:

Edmonton's Polar Park