Discussion Thread #1 - What are your favourite real-life zoos?

Its a tie between chester and Yorkshire wildlife park. Chester was the first big zoo i remember going to and we always spend a full day there and feel like we could spend a lot more.

Yorkshire wildlife is more local and we will be going for the 5th time this year this weekend. The enclosures are amazing and open. And its expanding all the time x
 
I grew up in Indianapolis, so that's probably my favorite for purely nostalgic reasons. They've got quite an extensive Oceans collection, which spoiled me because I didn't realize that it was unusual (something I've since learned on these forums).

Incidentally, I'm also old enough to vaguely remember the old Indianapolis zoo before they moved to their current location in the 1980's, and sometimes have ideas in my mind that I'm sure came from that prior era. While most of the enclosures were definitely NOT up to today's animal welfare standards, I really wish I could find more pictures from that time to build a nostalgic park theme, or just see how close it is to what I remember.
 
Yo, I love this!

That's an easy answer for me, the Cincinnati Zoo! It's my local zoo as I grew up and still live in the metro area (which is like 2.2 million people or something). My family still to this day gets membership passes so I go at least a couple of times a month.
@Bearcat9948, small world! I live midway between the Cincinnati and Columbus zoos, about an hour from each, and I love them both.
 

Eltanin Casciani

Community Manager
their new giraffe house at the top of the hill
I'm so glad to hear that it's open! They were just finishing it off when I was there a few months back but I managed to catch them feeding the giraffes in their temporary enclosure, I'll have to revisit and see it done!

Hi Eltanin - little off topic - but it is so nice to see your personal photos of the person who actually works for Frontier and communicates with us in these Forums and such a nice Zoo to boot :)

Adds a really nice touch to the Forums. Thank you - regards :)
Thank you very much, this was incredibly sweet! I interact a lot with some of y'all over on Twitter, but it's nice to have a chance to be a bit more personal with you here too! 💛

My fondest memory of the car safari is probably from when I was a lot younger and you could strill drive through the lion enclosure. There was this lioness with 3 or 4 cubs she was trying to get to one specific location on the left side of our car. The cubs of course would scamper when their mother's back was turned as she was going to get the next cub. We stood there for a good thirty minutes or so as we didn't dare move the car and accidentially hit a cub. It was pure magic.
This sounds absolutely incredible and I really loved reading this story. Thank you so much for sharing!
 
My favorite is Busch Gardens Tampa Bay. It merges my love of theme parks with zoos and excels at both. They have gorgeous theming and their huge Serengeti plains is just gorgeous from all angles of the park
 
I have mixed feelings on Zoos, partly because of my love of the natural world, partly because of the need for education and partly because of my memories when I was young. It is interesting to note I think, that Elephants are set to be banned in all UK zoos, because there is simply not the space to keep them in conditions they need.

My favourite zoo is Colchester Zoo (UK) it is reasonably local to me and I first went about 35 years ago :)

It was not a good place. As I grew up I heard it had a bad reputation and it was easy to see why because the conditions for the animals were not great and the enclosures were too small, it was only 25 acres at the time. I first went back again about 15 years ago, and the change was huge. They had managed to acquire more land (the site is now 60 acres), rehomed some of the animal species in other zoos, and redeveloped a few of the enclosures. Over the last 15 years it has gone from strength to strength, the education that is provided across the zoo, not just in notice boards at the enclosures themselves, but at various show and tell points around the zoo is great. The enclosures themselves have been improved massively, with a lot of planting native to the animal's natural habitat, and lots of enrichment for the animals too.

They have also have a charity arm called Action for the Wild, which among other things helped set up a Nature Reserve in Africa, which focuses on restoring natural habitat and educating the local population. I think that they are a shining example of how to turn around a bad situation, into one that shows benefits in multiple countries.

All my photos are just of the animals ;)
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OHMYGOSH that red panda!!! :love: That's waaaayy too adorable!

If you get the chance to post them at any point, I'd love to see them! Also, you said it'll change soon, do you have future zoo plans? 👀
Tried uploading them multiple times just now but they're all too large bizarrely! :oops:

I've been intending on giving ZSL London Zoo a whirl (despite hearing some negative reviews) and I might even be inclined to take a drive down the M3 and visit Marwell as I haven't been in at least 15 years. 😮
 
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Tried uploading them multiple times just now but they're all too large bizarrely!
Have you tried literally dragging the file into your post from your desktop/folder? I'm never able to get images to upload by using the forum tools, but it always seems to work if I just drop them straight in from my PC.
 
Have you tried literally dragging the file into your post from your desktop/folder? I'm never able to get images to upload by using the forum tools, but it always seems to work if I just drop them straight in from my PC.
That was the first thing I tried. Same error message appears. :ROFLMAO:
 
My two favorite zoos would be Sacramento zoo and San Francisco zoo. Those two zoos are amazing. I have been to both zoos, one on my birthday and the other before I moved up to Redding, and it would be fun to see them in the game.
 
I have been to over 120 zoos but I don’t always go to every zoo I can. For example I’ve never been to Kolmården despite it being a major Swedish zoo because I don’t like theme parks.

My favourite zoo is probably Korkeasaari Zoo in Helsinki.

It has a calm and relaxing atmosphere without rides or theming and as @Aramar mentioned it has a unique location on a rocky island.

There are some small-ish tropical houses but most of the enclosures are quite simple and take advantage of the natural landscape. Most of the species are those which can cope with Finnish winters including for example mishmi takin, snow leopards and Przewalski’s horse.

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The island also has some old buildings like this restaurant

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There are other old buildings too and you can see how bears were kept in the 19th century.

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In general my favourite zoos feature European and cold climate species but I also love European city zoos like Antwerp, Basel and Berlin.

And I’ve never been there but for some reason I have a soft spot for Auckland Zoo.
 
My heart zoo is Hagenbecks Tiergarten, Hamburg, Germany.
Which is a bit funny because I've never been to the zoo myself (but soon o.o I hope I don't have to cry)
I've known the zoo for years from TV and I feel that my heart is there. There are a number of zoo series in Germany. The best known is certainly "Elefant, Tiger & co" from the Leibzig Zoo. The series about Hagenbeck's zoo "Leopard, Seebär & Co" has been with me for many years, there aren't many episodes (around 200), but I still like to see it in the 6th repetition.

I really can't wait to see the animals.
I'm really looking forward to the orangs (especially Tuan) and hope that my favorite elk stag Joschi is still around. I hope I can see the capybaras running freely through the park with the maras. And also of the walruses, the sea bird enclosure with the puffins and the albino fur seal, which was born last year.

When I think about it, I almost cry again with joy.

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Walrusses are the cutest things ever
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Here is Toba with her little son Batu
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And here is the albino fur seal Elsa (yeah...Frozen Elsa) and her mum Lucy

Can't wait, can't wait guys, ahhhhh!
 
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