zoos in South Africa, Madagascar, China, the Ukraine and Sweden

Dear Everyone,

This is my foray on the forum. Many thanks to Nigel.
I recently recieved a Watson Fellowship (a post-undergraduate grant before continuing on to veterinary school) for a 12 month study of zoo architecture. I will look not only at species composition and the macro design of the zoos, but also the way that the enclosures are engineered- and specifically how this reflects the modern shift of the zoo to focus on conservation efforts and present a more uniform picture of the animals' habitat and allow for behavior. I am planning on visiting a variety of zoos in South Africa, Madagascar, China, the Ukraine and Sweden. I am, naturally, very excited about the study- but am unfortunately approaching it with the fresh eyes of one just out of college instead of the wisened eyes of an architect or a zoo director (I have worked with animals from a young age- and have worked in zoos so I do have SOME qualifications).

Any advice or brainstorming on zoos in the countries that I will visit, would be much appreciated.

Hi Catherine, welcome to the forum !!

It sounds like you have an interesting year ahead of you - it should be fascinating and a lot of fun too.

Unfortunately I cannot help you with any suggestions about the zoos in the countries you have specified given that I haven't visited any in those regions (other than Hong Kong - does that count as China ?).

Perhaps you could add your current list of zoo visits to this thread as a starting point so that we can see if we have any common ground to discuss the types of architecture we see in zoos.

We do, of course, expect you to try and keep us updated on your progress in the study - I would love to hear about your adventure and what you find

Dear Sim,

I will most certainly keep you all updated. I am currently building a website: zooark.com (it is still not done- so please wait a few weeks to view it- or I will be embarrassed). There you can see the zoos that I will visit, their webpages (if they have one), pictures from the zoos- and you can post questions/ comments about the site and/or the project. Any suggestions are most welcome as I feel that I have biten off more than I can chew with this project.

I will post my zoo visit list soon.

Catherine, theres at least two Zoos in Sweden which are very much worth visiting, BOras Zoo and Kolmarden Zoo. Both work (Since 1963!!) with a concept of large enclosures where many species roam together.

Boras "Savanna" is apr 22 000 sq meter, and here youll see african elephant, cape buffalo, wildebeast, sebra, giraffe, ostrich, blaesbuck, and rhino together. (When elephants are inside, rhinos are out and vice versa, but in fact rhinos and elephants were in same enclosure until 1977)

Kolmarden has same concept, and even more developed research department. One of the most beautiful dolhinariums, and LARGE areas.

Catherine,

Representative of China are:

Beijing Zoo
Shanghai Zoo
Guangzhou Zoo
Chengdu Zoo

Madagascar:
Antananarivo Zoo
Ivoloina Zoo

Ukraine
Kiyev Zoo
Nikolaev Zoo

Jelle

Hi Catherine, Welcome to our zoo forum, hope to here about your many zoo visits, they should be most interesting.