Zoo With the Least Amount of Species

What zoos have the least number of species? And what species do those zoos keep?

 

My friend keep 2 goldfish in his tank. Do this count?

 

Not really...

 

Trentham Monkey Forest - Barbary macaque.

 

Based on zoos with 100.000 visitors or more in Europe, this would be the Bärenpark in Bern, which only keeps European brown bears and gets roughly 1.5 million visitors per year. It is however a publicly accessible place near the medieval city centre. So it is not a traditional zoo.

When looking at other zoos Monkey world Wareham (22 species), Knuthenborg Safaripark (27 species), Wildnispark Langenberg Zürich (28 species), Knies Kinderzoo Rapperswill (29 species) and the Highland Wildlife Park (30 species) would make the top 5.

When looking at zoos that get most visitors per species kept (attendance divided by total species number, excluding invertebrates) the top five consists of Skansen Zoo (excluding aquarium), Wareham Monkey World, Yorkshire Wildlife Park, Dublin Zoo and Knies Kinderzoo. This excludes the freely accessible Bärenpark Bern and Lyon Zoo.

This is based on data from the International Zoo Yearbook.

 

Pack it up, we've found it.

 

Also Zoo delle Maitine in Italy doesn't hold a lot of species

 

Lone Elk Park and Stevens Point Herptelogical Society hold 3 species each.

 

They only have 27 species now? They had around 40 species until just recently. They have/had around a dozen bird species in their walking area, so it seems they like they may have demolished these aviaries as they are becoming more of a theme park than a zoo.

Back on-topic: Sweden has several moose parks which keep only, well, moose. I guess they also count.

Denmark (and to my knowledge, also many other European countries) also has around 20 deer parks ("dyrehaver", lit. "deer gardens") where they just fence in some hectares of woodland and let deer run free. These are not licensed zoos, but the animals are still captive, and all of these deer parks only keep one or two species.

 

I think it's worth noting that in order for me to consider a facility a zoo, it has to have at least three species.

 

High Park Zoo in Toronto, Ontario has the following species:

1. Llama
2. Domestic Goose
3. Rabbit
4. Capybara
5. Highland Cattle
6. Yak
7. Emu
8. Bennett's Wallaby
9. Barbary Sheep
10. Mouflon
11. Reindeer
12. Peafowl

Bruemmer Park Zoo in Kewaunee, Wisconsin has even fewer:

1. Whitetail Deer
2. Bobcat
3. Domestic Goat
4. Domestic Sheep
5. Arctic Fox
6. Indian Peafowl
7. Domestic Chicken
8. Domestic Duck
9. Domestic Goose

 

It's just something he said that makes a good point, but it is suspiciously close to the amount of species in those other two places he mentioned

 

If it has one species, is it really a zoo?

I don't what I would call the Trentham Monkey Forest, but as far as I'm concerned it's not a zoo.

 

I will call Stoke council today and tell them that you don't consider it a zoo, I am pretty sure they think differently as do I. Because you pay an entrance fee and you see a species of animal that's a zoo, admittedly not a big one but it is a zoo. Either that or its a fenced area to protect the monkeys, from the animals free roaming round the city of Stoke on trent.

 

To help with this debate, here is the definition of a zoo according to Google.

An establishment which maintains a collection of wild animals, typically in a park or gardens, for study, conservation, or display to the public.

 

As stated on this site many times before, the legal definition of a zoo (in the UK) is a collection of animals not normally domesticated in the country, which is open to the public on 8 days or more in any year. It does not require an entry fee, define which spp or how many spp are displayed. The Google definition given above is not legally correct (in the UK) as it says OR display to the public, when it is the display to the public which defines the zoo.

 

Interesting. In the Netherlands, there's also an additional rule that you need to have more than ten species (excluding domestics). This part was added so that not every school with a fish tank or children's farm with a few budgies would need a zoo licence. A facility like Trentham Monkey Forest cannot exist in the Netherlands, as you need to have a licensed zoo to keep any primates and to get a zoo licence you need to have (among lots of other things) at least ten non-domestic animal species.