Zooscape 2020: Sheridan´s Handbook of Zoos in Europe 2015 -2030

Zooscape 2020: Sheridan´s Handbook of Zoos in Europe 2015 -2030 Hardcover

The former Zurich zoo director Alex Rübel joined Anthony Sheridan for the 2022 edition of Sheridan´s Handbook and it's hard to resist not to pre-order. Looking forward to January 17th 2022.

"...Again Anthony Sheridan gives us an extensive overview over the leading European Zoos, which he is rating in updated versions of his ranking lists concerning visitor factors, education and conservation, management and organisation. In 2016 his survey contains around 120 Zoos in 28 countries. Besides numerous information about landscape design, ex-situ and In-situ conservation, fi nance and marketing strategies, the author deals with the role of the zoo director and special examples, friends of the zoos and national zoo associations. A forward-looking book for all people interested in zoos – sceptics, enthusiasts, visitors, sponsors, zoo owners, politicians, wildlife conservationists and all those working in and for zoos!..."

Information for the previous editon

 

His new book is one that will cost me 37.50 Euros (plus 20.86 Euros to ship to Canada), which totals 58.36 Euros. That equals an eye-watering $85 Canadian, but without a doubt I'm going to order a copy as I love his other books. Yes, the statistics and rankings of zoos are highly controversial and far from perfect, but generally all of Sheridan's top zoos are the same ones that everyone else chooses! Quite often there are very few surprises, but zoo nerds don't have all the statistical mumbo jumbo. That being said, usually at least 50% of his books are a series of essays on a wide range of topics in European zoos and this new book is hardcover and 480 pages and therefore I will definitely get a copy for my collection. I love all the various essays and Sheridan's books are packed with useful information in regards to attendance figures, acreage, number of species, zoo maps, etc., for 120+ zoos.

It will be interesting to see how this new coauthor setup (with former Zurich Zoo director Alex Rubel) changes the finished product. Sheridan's previous books (2011, the 2013 short update, 2016) were wonderful resources for someone like me who enjoys planning future European zoo trips. I know that in the past the magazine Zoo Grapevine & International Zoo News sold Sheridan's books at a slightly discounted price, and so we'll see if @Tim Brown and company do the same this time around.

 

The NHBS review is the one relevant to the new edition. The Amazon description is copied from the 2016 edition.

"...This book has been compiled and written jointly by Anthony Sheridan, European zoo analyst and author of three previous books on this subject, and Dr Alex Rübel, Zürich's highly respected and successful zoo director (1990-2020). It is Sheridan's latest and most comprehensive analysis of the 126 leading zoos and includes a further 11 specialist zoos in Europe. It ranks zoos in terms of animal collection, enclosure quality, visitor attractiveness, education, research, conservation, management, and marketing.

Many examples in these areas enable the interested zoo enthusiast, sceptic, visitor, sponsor, donor, politician, conservationist and all those who work in zoos to obtain information and make comparisons among zoos. Each zoo described is presented. The first experiences with COVID-19 in the zoos are described.

The proceeds from the sale of the book will go to the Gibbon conservation project in Vietnam organised through Stiftung Artenschutz.

Contents
Chapter 1. Why Zooming in on Europe's Zoos? 7
Chapter 2. Anthony Sheridan’s Evaluation of Zoos 9
Chapter 3. Plants in Zoological Gardens 15
Chapter 4. Enclosure and Landscape Design 19
Chapter 5. Zoo Directors 23
Chapter 6. Professional Animal Care 37
Chapter 7. Education and Educational Design 41
Chapter 8. Research 47
Chapter 9. Ex-situ Species Conservation 49
Chapter 10. In-situ Species and Habitat Conservation 56
Chapter 11. Friends of the Zoo 64
Chapter 12. Finance, Marketing, Communication and Service 74
Chapter 13. The Importance of lconic Species in Zoos 79
Chapter 14. Zoo Associations 85
Chapter 15. Europe's Three Best Zoos 98
Chapter 16. Developments in Eastern European Zoos 107
Chapter 17. Other European Specialist Zoos of Significance 111
Chapter 18. Zoo Profiles 118
Chapter 19. 2020 Ranking Lists 372
Chapter 20. Star Rating of lconic Species Table 382
Chapter 21. lnteresting Zoo Facts 397
Chapter 22. How Zoos Deal with Disasters 413
Chapter 23. Acknowledgements 417.."

 

The book arrived today and the first impression is very good. It follow the approach from the previous editions, but the quality of the editing and the pictures is definitely improved.

The newest Group A ( 1 Million+ visitors) ranking is:

Vienna
Leipzig
Zurich
Berlin Zoo
Beauval
Chester
Pairi Daiza
Stuttgart
Munich
Prague
Basel
Arnhem
Rotterdam
Cologne
Budapest
Copenhagen
Berlin TP
Dublin
Amsterdam
Hannover
Osnabruck
Wroclaw
Loro Parque
Nuremberg
Karlshruhe
Rhenen
Hamburg
London

 

I haven't been to enough of the list to make much comment, but I am surprised how low in the list Prague (10th) and Wroclaw (22) are! There are plenty of better zoos than London, but most of them don't get 1m visitors.

 

The criteria of this ranking is never been clear. None of the three factors that comprise the total score (Visitors, Education & Conservation and Commercial & Organisation) is really explained.
Nevertheless, I don't think there anything that come close to this book, when it comes to European zoos Handbook and the ratings are something really subjective.

And just for fun my personal top 15 ranking currently would be: 1. Berlin zoo 2. Zurich 3. Chester 4. Prague 5. Vienna 6. Arnhem 7. Cologne 8. Leipzig 9. Pairi Daiza 10. TP Berlin ( this can reach top 5 in a few years ) 11. Beauval (haven't visited, so not completely sure) 12. Wroclaw 13. Rotterdam 14. Munich 15. Nuremberg

 

This ranking is what it is but seeing Beauval and Pairi Daiza before Chester and Prague is something I can't understand from all point of views. Of course, the french one has seen big improvements in the last years for animal cares (brand new vet centre for example) and conservation but is still far behind Chester and Prague for breeding, animal welfare and exhibits. Regarding the belgian Disney my thoughts will not be fair : I can just recognize the general visitor experience is something special.

 

I’ve never gotten over how disappointing I found the first edition. I really wish he would stop churning out new editions, because he’s only clogging the market for more competent and compelling writers.

 

After revisiting Europe in October 2019, after many years of visiting British zoos only, I found the old book quite useful in making plans for more trips. Of course I had to abort the plans because of the virus. I hope things will be better in 2022, and so I think I will have to buy the new volume to make sure that I see as much as possible when I have another opportunity.

 

I personally find the zoochat forum much more helpful than that book... Especially as it only includes a rather random selection and omits many good, but slightly smaller zoos.

Based on comments from people who have bought the newest one, it is apparently already quite outdated with faulty information....

 

The two sources are uncompearable. The Sheridan's book shows some data and short review on the zoo profile page, which is more for the broad public, than for a zoo entusiast. In many cases the information is pre-2019, indeed, but is a good catalogue with some valuable statistic data and photo materials.

In ZooChat there are threads with more information and an enormous photo album. The news are coming hourly.

We are missing a book, like America's Top 100 Zoos & Aquariums or the forthcoming The zoos of Great Britain and Ireland, but for the top, let's say 200 European zoos. Full of history and interesting information about breeding success, iconic exhibits, work with rare spieces, etc. Why not with a new ranking list, based on votes or more clear criteria.
Let's hope it's coming soon

 

No longer 'forthcoming'! I have my copy and it is very good indeed.

 

I've never met or corresponded with Anthony Sheridan, but I really enjoy his books because there is literally nothing else out there that can be compared to his publications. There are plenty of books on London Zoo and British zoos in general (enough to fill an entire bookshelf!), plus loads of German books (and Abenteuer Zoo is superb even though it's only in German), and guidebooks galore...but in terms of an overall look at European zoos then it's Sheridan or nothing.

His latest follows the same pattern as the others. It's a hardcover, a hefty 424 pages, a lot of interesting essays about a wide range of zoo topics, and then 126 zoos profiled with each getting two pages. His books contain a lavish number of photos and they act as snapshots of the top zoos on the continent. Would I appreciate longer, more in-depth reviews of each zoo? Absolutely! I'd do it myself if I had the finances and time to spend years going all over Europe to the best zoos, but realistically Sheridan is the only individual in the game.

The most controversial part of his books are the rankings. There's always a chapter on 'Ranking Lists' and another chapter on 'Star Rating of Iconic Species' where he gives a lemur exhibit a mark out of 6 in terms of how good it is in his own mind. I totally get that those two chapters are controversial, especially when a number of European zoos lap up the publicity and announce where they stand in the latest 'Sheridan Rankings', but the new book has 25 pages of rankings and that totals just under 6% of the total pages in the book. If someone really doesn't like to see the charts and graphs, just ignore those pages and read the other 94% of the book. At the end of the day, all of Sheridan's top zoos are basically the exact same ones that all zoo nerds love...just in a slightly different order.

Vienna, Leipzig, Zurich, Berlin, Beauval, Chester, Pairi Daiza, Stuttgart, Munich and Prague is a fairly predictable top 10 list. Right after those are the likes of Basel, Burgers, Rotterdam, Cologne, etc., and I think that he comes up with private formulas to justify what most of us agree with anyway!

 

Mmm. Each to their own, but I'm not going to heap praise on a bad book purely because I lack an alternative. Indeed, what I meant above was that Sheridan's constant revisions are potentially helping get in the way of a better book.

I don't care about the rankings - I care about the poor quality content overall.