Budapest Zoo among Europe’s best

The Budapest Zoo and Botanical Garden became the first among the Hungarian zoos and the 17th best one of the 110 leading zoos in Europe.

According to Hvg, zoos are not officially rated in the world, but there is a widely-accepted measuring system able to compare the leading zoos in Europe. The founding father of the system is a British businessman, Anthony Sheridan, who, in fact, became very successful in the electronics industry. However, when he retired in 2007,

he decided to visit Europe’s leading zoos and created criteria to evaluate and rank them.

His list, the detailed description of his method and some further experiences of his were published in 2011 in a book titled What Zoos Can Do. Since then, Sheridan has been visiting the most important zoos in Europe in order to regularly update his list.

According to a statement, he visited the Budapest Zoo and Botanical Garden a couple of days ago, where he gave a speech about the actual trends of the development of the European zoos and mentioned his list as well.

Photo: www.facebook.com/FővárosiNövény-ésÁllatkert

On his most recent list – like on the previous ones -, the Budapest Zoo stands in the first place among the zoos in Hungary. He analysed and ranked 110 European zoos, among which there are four Hungarian ones. The zoo in Budapest received 189 while those in Nyíregyháza, Szeged and Veszprém received 189, 157 and 113 points based on

visitors’ experience, the level of services,

the professional work being done in the zoo and some further criteria.

In Europe, Budapest Zoo is the 17th best one and received

as many points as the zoo in Copenhagen and Dublin.

Interestingly, Budapest Zoo falls behind the zoo of Berlin (193), Rotterdam (203) and Amsterdam (191) but precedes the zoo of London (183), Antwerp (181), Frankfurt (175), Barcelona (171) and Edinburgh (170).

As we reported before, Budapest Zoo is home to 8,807 animals of 856 species, which makes the collection one of Europe’s most diverse ones. In fact, a total of 131 species of mammals, 152 species of birds, 125 species of reptiles, 32 species of amphibians and 204 species of fish are on display at the zoo. There are also 206 species of invertebrates, around half of which are insects.

If you want to read about Hungary’s brand new spectacle open at Budapest Zoo’s Holnemvolt Castle, the first shark school in the country, click HERE.

And here are the famous kissing polar bears from the zoo:

Source: hvg.hu