How's the zoo in your city?

[Maddy McCall]

How well are the animals kept? How's the habitat? Are animals reproducing--are there many babies? Many really unusual animal exhibits? What's your favorite animal?

Does the zoo have fun activities for families and even for adults only?

Of all the zoos you've visited, which is the best? Which is the worst?

The zoo in our capital city has "Zoo Blues," a day of music, beer, friends, and dancing. The zoo in the city where I teach has a gibbon exhibit that REALLY emulates the wild habitat--and the gibbons there mate for life and make babies :-) . Also has a spectacular lemur exhibit.

[HEyHEY]

1. Pretty well gone - BC is too PC for Zoos. We don't even have "Pet stores"

[GOPisEvil]

2. Austin, I think has a zoo, but it isn't much. San Antonio's Zoo is great.

Consistently one of the nation's better zoos.

I've been to San Antonio and San Diego as an adult. They are both great, but I enjoyed the Wild Animal Park in SD the best of all!

[BiggJawn]

3. We had to close ours....

The Clam died, and there isn't anything else to look at.

[donco6]

4. Denver's Zoo is great.

We send kids there all the time. There's always something or someone new to see. Highly recommended.

[GreenPartyVoter]

5. The Acadia Zoo is small

and there isn't much room for the animals to run around. That makes me terribly sad. :(

The one I visited in Quebec was much larger, but the animals still seemed sad.

However, Busch Gardens in Florida, if I recall it well enough, seemed to have more room for the critters to move around. So I guess I mark that one as being my fave.

[mopinko]

6. 2 great zoos in chicago

both brookfield zoo and lincoln park are great zoos. always working to upgrade habitats. always doing stuff to bring people in. lincoln park has an ice sculpting contest in winter. good docents. many many endangered species breeding in both.

[ewagner]

7. Not too bad

For a long time it was run by a private board of directors who were very well intentioned but not knowledgeable about zoo-keeping in general. The City hired a new director of Parks and Recreation a few years ago and he, in turn, hired someone to manage the zoo who actually knew something. Conditions for the animals improved considerably and a few of the animals were immediately shipped to oter zoos because they were just not suited to the Wisconsin climate.

The private board of directors is still there and they still raise funds to support the zoo, but management is much more professional now. Eventually, I think the zoo will be closed because it is so costly to maintain it in the right way. I won't be too sad.

[nickinSTL]

15. St. Louis Zoo

St. Louis Zoo is generally considered to be one of the country's leading zoos. Admission is FREE, only the Children's Zoo and the Insectarium have admission fees. (and parking, $7)

How well are the animals kept? How's the habitat?

The habitats are at least adequate, some are a bit small, but they are doing major renovations. The Fragile Forest, the ape exhibit is currently closed for renovations, and will have more species and more outdoor enclosures when completed. The elephants have a large space to roam.

Are animals reproducing--are there many babies?

I believe St. Louis Zoo is quite successful in breeding programs of endangered species. It's also considered the top AZA zoo for birth control (which is a good thing)

I should also mention that they are very involved in conservation. They were the source of a significant number of Arabian oryxes which were reintroduced into their natural habitat, and have now become a sizable herd.

Many really unusual animal exhibits? What's your favorite animal?

We don't have a lot of unusual animals. The most unusual I can think of is the takin. St. Louis is the only place I've ever seen one. My favorite...the cats...ALL of them (at least until they get the gibbons):)

Does the zoo have fun activities for families and even for adults only?

The zoo runs a LOT of kid/family activities. It also has a few for adults, although it'd be nice if they had more fun programs, not that I'd have time to go.

Of all the zoos you've visited, which is the best? Which is the worst?

Hmm, the best...probably Brookfield or Berlin. The worst...probably Karlsruhe (Germany). Had two elephants chained to the floor of their enclosures. Terribly disturbing.

[SlavesandBulldozers]

8. the Central Florida zoo

lots of cool big cats. the howler monkeys are awesome too. my favorite animals, by far, though, are the cotton top tamarins - the punk rockers of small primates.

[Maddy McCall]

Ah, another primate fan!

I love howler monkeys. I like colobus monkeys too:

[ewagner]

24. Ou zoo had howlers,

I live across the street from the zoo. 5AM every morning including Saturday mornings they would start howling and not shut up.

Finally somebody figured out that Wisconsin climate wasn't healthy for howlers and they were sent to another zoo.

[ewagner]

23. Is that the one in Sanford?

I'm old enough to remember when it was downtown....across from where the marina is now ...between the old City hall and the lake front. The place used to really, really stink! Isn't it called zoological gardens now?

[uberotto]

9. I would rate our Local Zoo an 8.5 out of 10...

it is small and maintained mostly by local volunteers but the few animals they have seem to be well cared for. One of the things that make it so enjoyable to me is it's "community" feel.

http://www.brevardzoo.org

Since it is small, we don't have many large Animals, although the zoo did recently add an African exhibit with Giraffes and Rhino's. One of the Giraffes will come up to the observation deck and let you pet it.

[rockymountaindem]

10. The Cheyanne Mountain Zoo

is the highest in elevation in the US. They also have a famous giraffe breeding program. That's about all I know.

[northzax]

11. well, we used to

but if you read the papers, you'll notice the National Zoo has been taking a beating lately...

[Chovexani]

12. The Bronx Zoo is awesome.

They had this really neat exhibition of tigers recently (I think it's still going on, not sure). The animals look like they're well taken care of and the habitats are as interesting to look at as they are. From what I understand they do some good conservation work too.

[supernova]

13. NC Zoo is very nice

It's a great place to walk around on a nice day. I sometimes get the feeling that it's the humans who are on display for the amusment of the animals. ;-)

Some folks from the NC Zoo have helped the Baghdad Zoo get back on it's feet.

http://www.nczoo.org/

[Chovexani]

17. That's so cool!

I'm so glad they're helping out the Baghdad Zoo. The human toll of the war is horrific enough but the cultural toll has been bad too. It's good to see Americans stepping up to the plate.

[XNASA]

14. Which one? We have 2 major zoos here.

Lincoln Park and Brookfield.

As zoos go, they're both pretty cool, especially Lincoln Park.

But going to the zoo makes me sad.

The best zoo I've ever been to is San Diego.

The worst? I dunno......Houston I suppose.

[Kellanved]

16. Two major Zoos; both are good.

The famous Berlin Zoo, one of the Kaiser's pet (;-) ) projects and the Tierpark in the former east Berlin.

The old Zoo shows it's age and seems a little on the small side. On the other hand it's located in the city center and has more species, some of them very rare , than any other Zoo.
The Tiergarten is far bigger, even more modern. But it's lacking the atmosphere of the original Zoo.

The animals in both Zoos look healthy, even happy (:shrug:) and are breeding (with the exception of the pandas).

[CPschem]

18. The National Zoo's great here in DC

[GoddessOfGuinness]

30. If only they could keep the animals alive...

I hope it gets better; but I have my doubts since the dingbat (Dumbya-appointed) that heads the Smithsonian hasn't the faintest clue about what makes a good zoo director.

[ironflange]

19. Calgary's zoo may be the best in Canada

We've just opened a huge new African area.

http://calgaryzoo.com

[beanball]

20. The Crawford Texas Zoo

is missing one of its chimps.

[SlavesandBulldozers]

21. ahhahahah

hhahahha.

[Bridget Burke]

22. Houston's zoo keeps improving....

Newish primate areas, newish big cat house, constant upkeep on the existing areas. A new aquarium, as well.

San Antonio's zoo is really excellent. It was built in an old quarry, so the setting is interesting & natural. Houston does suffer from flatness. Also, you're in danger of heatstroke if you come in the hottest part of the year (about 5 months long). The animals hide then, too.

Generally, San Antonio is the city most Texans go to when they want a brief vacation

[adriennel]

25. Detroit Zoo

the Detroit Zoo (yes, Detroit has a zoo!) is pretty nice. I haven't been there in years but they do have at least one special exhibit each year.

[ScreamingMeemie]

28. The polar bear exhibit at the Detroit zoo is absolutely stunning. You

walk through a tube under water and the polar bear messes with you. He stands on top of the tube and looks down at you. He tries to whoosh a ball through the water at you...it's just great!

[bif]

29. Check out the polar bear exhibit at the Detroit Zoo

I'm not a big fan of zoos. But the polar bear exhibit is very cool There a huge tundrascape along with a huge pond for them to swim in. You can go under water and watch them swim along with some sea lions.

[SmileyBoy]

26. The Red River Zoo is a glorified petting zoo.

At least it's a zoo. When I grew up here, you'd never think there would ever be a zoo in Fargo.

The best zoo I've been to is the Minnesota Zoo in Apple Valley, MN.

[frylock]

27. san diego zoo, arguably the best on the planet..

animals are healthy, awesome habitats rather than just cages. We also have the Wild Animal Park, but I wouldn't really consider it to be a zoo.

[ScreamingMeemie]

31. The Lincoln Park zoo has a really great gorilla exhibit.

:hi: I remember when Sampson's (largest gorilla every in captivity at the Milwaukee County Zoo) daughter was there as a baby. We were in D.C. last year and actually saw her all grown up. It was pretty neat. Mandara is her name. :hi: