Hi,we went to the zoo with our grandaughter who it 3yr ,it was £8 50p for oh and me as we have disabled badge, but it was £10 for our grandaughter! that was a shocker,she couldn't see much as she was so small and they had no sml windows for the little ones, she had to be lifted up to look at things,we spent 4hr there and the over all thought was that things were sadly run down, animals looked depressed and sad we watch a tiger eyeing the fence up and down ,he wanted to get out and was pacing up and down quite agitated ,it was quite sad the more we went round ,I was glad to get out don't think I go back.
Bristol Zoo used to frustrate me when my children were young - there were hedges round all the cages and I found it exhausting having to lift three children up to see what was going on. I suggested then they should have steps up for the children.
The polar bear looked so miserable I wanted to take it back to the icy north.
Personally I like places like the Cotswold Wildlife park or Longleat which have quite large areas for the animals and the children can see most of the animals well. The animals seem to be happier and more relaxed.
Last time I took the kids to a zoo was at Doué la Fontaine, which is near Saumur in the Loire valley. We thought it was quite nice as zoos go - the enclosures wre large and well lanscaped to seem very natural. The big cats had plenty of trees and wooden structures to climb on and there were large plexiglass sections where you were literally standing next to a lion (which stink to high heaven I must say!). They had lions, tigers, and many smaller cats like lynxes, and panthers and although looking a little bored, they did not actually look crazy. The monkeys were kept on "islands" separated by deep moats - these species do not swim and are mostly afraid of the water so they don't get out. They also had a great bird cage, which was netted over and the birds had a fair amount of space and could fly, as long as they didn't go too high. I found it was clean and the animals mostly looked in good health.
It's a shame that we have to have zoos to protect the species that we are killing off the world over! shame on us.