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Zoos

AceMentor

By AceMentor
in Urban Design & Architecture

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goodbye Metropolitan Area

goodbye

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The Greenville Zoo is interesting because it is so tiny. Developers had strongly considered building a completely new large regional zoo along the Reedy River near downtown, but most citizens complained, saying that the current 14-acre zoo is awesome and beautiful enough. This was a few years ago, so I wonder what people would say now? In any case, it is a very nice zoo, but it's like finding a diamond ring in a rock garden -- a tiny hidden surprise. :D

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Southernyank Hamlet

Southernyank

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Hollywild Animal Park in Inman (near Spartanburg) is one of the largest collections of rare and exotic animals in the Southeast USA. It is located on over 100 acres of safari-like land, and you can see famous animals from countless television commercials and over 60 Hollywood production movies here. This place is well worth a visit! :shades:

I went to HollyWild on a field trip in the 9th grade (man, I'm getting old). From what I remember, It was a great experience. :)

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Inkdaub Whistle-Stop

Inkdaub

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San Diego Zoo is actually a let down...super expensive...but it has some cool stuff. They have more animals than I've seen anywhere else easily. They also have that ski lift tram deal that runs over the entire zoo and provides great views of the zoo and downtown SD.

Washington Park Zoo in PDX is not that great but again has some good points. Pachy the elephant is the coolest elephant I've ever seen. This guy is so massive he looks like a dinosaur. They also have a museum at the zoo that has some Dali originals in it. They have a cool petting area for goats and I love goats.

Woodland Park Zoo is fine and also has a good petting area with goats and some others. I haven't been to this zoo in a long time and don't remember much else. I know they had a mean circus guy helping train the elephants and they were beating them and chaining them up...what sort of advice did they think they would get from a circus guy? They also have a huge bald eagle that can't fly so isn't in a cage. He just sits on a wooden stand or hops around.

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teshadoh Burg

teshadoh

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I'll suck up a bit to Atlanta, I like our zoo - though it's not likely award winning or among the greats. But I like the history of it, it's a traditional urban zoo - having started 80 or 100 years ago from amusement attractions that occupied the 100+ year old victorian era Olmstead park that is Grant Park. We do have pandas & up to 10 gorillas - so there are some rare animals. But I still like the monkeys the best :)

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sleepy Burg

sleepy

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I'll suck up a bit to Atlanta, I like our zoo - though it's not likely award winning or among the greats. But I like the history of it, it's a traditional urban zoo - having started 80 or 100 years ago from amusement attractions that occupied the 100+ year old victorian era Olmstead park that is Grant Park. We do have pandas & up to 10 gorillas - so there are some rare animals. But I still like the monkeys the best :)

I would say the Memphis zoo is a bit like that, built in a 100 yr. old park--the Overton Park Zoo. Were it not for stopping I-40 from plowing through the middle of town in the 70's, the zoo and park would have been severely damaged.

Along with Atlanta, DC, and San Diego, it too has pandas.

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teshadoh Burg

teshadoh

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I would say the Memphis zoo is a bit like that, built in a 100 yr. old park--the Overton Park Zoo. Were it not for stopping I-40 from plowing through the middle of town in the 70's, the zoo and park would have been severely damaged.

Along with Atlanta, DC, and San Diego, it too has pandas.

I think there is a greater distinction for the historic urban zoos, partucularly their strong civic connection. Especially that they are accessible to most social groups, including the poorest is another big plus - they are great places to experience the cross-section of a city's people.

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DruidCity Hamlet

DruidCity

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Animal Planet is currently running a 13-part documentary series on the Alabama Gulf Coast Zoo in Gulf Shores. This zoo has the distinction of successfully evacuating 3 times in the last 2 years.

Birmingham's zoo was built over an old cemetery with unmarked graves, and workers have unearthed human bones during construction of new exhibits.

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TheGerbil Burg

TheGerbil

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I'll toss some info on the Pittsburgh Zoo into this discussion. It's over 100 years old but has modernized very well. The Children's Zoo there is among the top 3 in the nation.

They're currently adding a new exhibit called Water's Edge that should be nice. It will include a new polar bear exhibit and also add walruses to the zoo.

There is also a nice Tropical Forest exhibit and an aquarium.

Also, the zoo is opening a large elephant sanctuary for research and breeding. Can't seem to find a link about that though :/

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ironchapman City

ironchapman

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I'll suck up a bit to Atlanta, I like our zoo - though it's not likely award winning or among the greats. But I like the history of it, it's a traditional urban zoo - having started 80 or 100 years ago from amusement attractions that occupied the 100+ year old victorian era Olmstead park that is Grant Park. We do have pandas & up to 10 gorillas - so there are some rare animals. But I still like the monkeys the best :)

Atlanta's Zoo isn't the best by any means, but I like what we've got.

Zoo Atlanta

Birmingham's zoo was built over an old cemetery with unmarked graves, and workers have unearthed human bones during construction of new exhibits.

Surely there must be some ghost stories surrounding the zoo.

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sleepy Burg

sleepy

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I think there is a greater distinction for the historic urban zoos, partucularly their strong civic connection. Especially that they are accessible to most social groups, including the poorest is another big plus - they are great places to experience the cross-section of a city's people.

Good point.

In Mexico, Sunday is a big family day where people go to parks and stroll around. I first realized that there were a lot of Mexicans in Memphis when I went to that zoo on a Sunday and there were Mexican families, with their little girls all dressed up in Mexican dresses.

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dimebag1980 Metropolis

dimebag1980

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My city has always lacked a zoo. We had a small one years ago, which then expanded into Hamel's Amusement Park & Zoo, but it was never much of anything.

I like the Fort Worth Zoo, and I really like the Audubon Zoo in New Orleans. The small city of Tyler, TX, has a decent zoo, and up until just a couple years ago it was free!

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Aporkalypse City

Aporkalypse

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An unusual thing about DFW - the nicer zoo is in Ft Worth. It's clean and first class with a recreated Western town in the center as a hub and all of the regions of Texas represented in one area and the world regions in another. Dallas' zoo has a monorail and some nice points but is dated.

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