In America's Best Zoos, Allen Nyhuis and Jon Wassner tour sixty of America's best and most renowned zoos and safari parks. It is an update of a previous work by Nyhuis years earlier. Since the initial version, some zoos have been down-listed, some up-listed, and at least one - Nashville Zoo - brand new to the scenes. Each zoo is described in detail, with special attention to its signature exhibits.
Besides descriptions of the zoos featured, the book provides other useful information. It provides rankings and listings of zoos according to various criteria (best Children's Zoo, best bird collection, etc). It provides information on unusual zoo animals (i.e., clouded leopard, bonobo). It provides tips and advice for visitors to get the most out of their zoo visit. I would have loved for these sections of the book to have been expanded upon in greater detail - more zoo history, more tips, more animals, more insider info, etc. Perhaps the most important information provided by this book, however, is insight into why folks should consider a visit to the zoo. Too many potential visitors seem to think that all zoos are the same, and therefore that there is no reason to add a trip to the zoo to their travel or vacation plans. Nyhuis and Wassner show that this is not the case.
The book is written for the general visitor, and it caters to that audience, not the zoo professional. I also suspect that it will go out of date fairly soon - I read Nyhuis' previous book ten years after its publication, and most of the zoos described are unrecognizable. This is no fault of the authors, of course - a good zoo should be constantly changing and striving to improve itself. If I have one objection to America's Best Zoos, it is that it is sometimes too extravagant in its praise. Every zoo is described with such lavish acclaim that everything is made to seem... perfect... which we all know is not the case. If we make everything seem extraordinary, we shortchange those things that truly are.
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