USA Today: OKC Zoo #11 in Nation

[venture]

Not too shabby.

Best U.S. zoos: Readers' Choice award winners

Although 10Best and USA TODAY don't normally make note of finishes outside the top 10, the Oklahoma City Zoo just missed making the list by a small number of votes. The other nine nominees included Bronx Zoo, Cleveland Metroparks Zoo, Dallas Zoo, Denver Zoo, Disney's Animal Kingdom, Louisville Zoo, Minnesota Zoo, Oregon Zoo, Phoenix Zoo, and Riverbanks Zoo in Columbia, S.C.

That's pretty good that they almost beat out the San Diego Zoo which normally always seems to rank high. Here was the Top 10 and Ohio pretty much cleaned house in the Top 5.

1. Toledo Zoo - Toledo, Ohio
2. St. Louis Zoo - St. Louis
3. Cincinnati Zoo - Cincinnati
4. Memphis Zoo - Memphis
5. Columbus Zoo - Columbus, Ohio
6. Henry Doorly Zoo - Omaha
7. Houston Zoo - Houston
8. Brookfield Zoo - Chicago
9. Dallas Zoo - Dallas
10. San Diego Zoo & Safari Park - San Diego

[Plutonic Panda]

Maybe my memory is shabby, but didn't we used to be like 2nd or 3rd?

[Dennis Heaton]

San Diagans have always known they have the BEST Zoo...that's why they didn't have to vote in a "Reader's Choice." OKC Zoo can be very proud. They have come along way in the past 10-12 years. Kudos to the OKC Zoo...gotta love them Lorikeets!

[Pete]

I went to the Zoo last fall for the first time in a very long time and so much was new I barely recognized the place.

It's a great zoo and the staff there does a great job.

You could spend a long time there and not see everything properly.

[venture]

Maybe my memory is shabby, but didn't we used to be like 2nd or 3rd?

I don't remember OKC ever being that high on the list, but I've seen it Top 10, maybe as high as 5th, depending on the source. I tend to like the reader's choice type rankings a bit better since it is people voting versus some mysterious formula we never see. I've visited a few on the list, especially #1 and 3 when I lived back north. I really can't disagree with the rankings when it concerns them because they are pretty fantastic.

[Urbanized]

Last year it was named 3rd best in the 10best Readers Choice survey, and a couple of years before that it was named 3rd best zoo in the country for children by Child magazine.

[Cocaine]

I wish they had listed Animal Kingdom as one of the tops because that is probably the best Zoo in the nation. They literally have everything well mostly exotic animals but not many domestic animals. If you ever get chance to go you should. Mostly because of how close you can get to the animals especially on the safari ride. You get so close it's actually kind of scary.

The only thing I think the OKC Zoo needs to do to improve would be to it's aquarium everything else is pretty good.

[jerrywall]

I can't stress my love for the OKC Zoo enough. We don't get out there much anymore since our kids are older, but we still renew our Zoofriends membership every year. It's our little way to support it.

[RadicalModerate]

When I was a kid, and we would come down here in the summer, the OKC Zoo was a "must-go" place. Even then, it put the Denver Zoo to shame. We went to the zoo, a couple of years ago, when relatives from Minnesota were visiting. It was awesome. Everything about it was fantastic. The OKC Zoo puts the Como Park Zoo, in St. Paul, to shame as well. (we, the relatives from here, went there on a visit up north. As nice as the Como Park Gardens and Conservatory are, the Myriad Gardens and Crystal Bridge now come close to equaling or surpassing those places, too.)

[HangryHippo]

Our little zoo is fantastic. I'd really like to see the aquarium exhibits completely redone and some love shown to the bears' areas. Other than that, it's top notch.

[reverend]

The Great EscAPE is 20 years old, and is starting to show it's age. Would be nice if they went back through and spruced it up.