The Leipzig Zoo has defended its second place in the European zoo ranking and is number one in Germany. The basis for this ranking is the international survey by the British zoo expert Anthony Sheridan.
The zoo specialist Anthony Sheridan recently presented the latest results of his survey, which is published every two years. The top position in Europe has been taken again by the Tiergarten Schönbrunn in Vienna. The Zurich Zoo completes the trio with third place.
"We are very proud, that we have been newly judged as one of the greatest zoos in Europe and that our investments for our masterplan to be a zoo of the Future now also finds appraisal", said the director of Leipzig Zoo, Prof. Jörg Junhold.
This year alone, the Kiwara-Kopje, a new rock and savannah landscape for black rhinos, cheetahs and hussar monkeys, as well as the Affeninseln (monkey islands) and the Bärenburg (bear fortress) playground were newly opened within the Zoo.
The Sheridan-Ranking, which is regarded as unique and independent, is created on the basis of three different categories: visitor factors, education and species protection, as well as economic factors. Altogether 40 aspects are evaluated. For the edition of 2015, Sheridan has examined 113 zoos in 28 different European countries. "The zoos in Vienna, Leipzig and Zurich are the three leading zoological gardens in Europe", Anthony Sheridan explains. The trio belongs to the group of zoos with more than 1 million visitors.
In the group from 500,000 to 1 million visitors Rostock, Frankfurt, Münster and Osnabrück take the leading positions.
Leipzig ranks among the zoos with the greatest progress. Furthermore, Sheridan estimates that since 2011 the zoos in Wroclaw (Poland), Leipzig, Pairi Daiza (Belgium), Zurich and Beauval (France) have improved strongest.
"The zoo's developments are right and necessary and have to continue for the next years in order to satisfy visitor expectations and the ever increasing legal guidelines in the future", zoo expert Sheridan demands.