Each year, USA Today Readers’ Choice Awards holds an online voting competition. The 2020 nominees for “Best Zoo Exhibit” were released on Monday, March 16. Voting was temporarily halted due to the pandemic, but is now back. Voting is open now thru July 6, and voters can vote once daily. The winners will be announced on July 17. See below for our recap of the nominees.
Click here for our article on Best Zoo voting.
The Favorites
While it’s common for zoos to appear each year in the Best Zoo competition, top exhibits don’t always repeat. Despite reaching out to multiple zoos, I haven’t been able to find out how the nominees are selected. However, we believe it to be a submission process, with the USA Today panel choosing the nominees from among the submissions.
That said, 2019’s champion, the Lied Jungle exhibit at Omaha’s Henry Doorly Zoo, isn’t in this year’s voting. Omaha’s 2020 contender is their newly opened Asian Highlands exhibit. We think there’s a strong chance this exhibit keeps the title in Omaha.
Another exhibit with a strong chance to take the top spot is the St. Louis Zoo’s Sea Lion Sound. This exhibit placed third in 2019, and first in 2018. The exhibit is situated in the middle of the St. Louis Zoo, and to many is the main attraction. At certain times of day, there may be a line of people waiting to go through the underwater tunnel for a chance at viewing a sea lion overhead. The zoo also puts on a sea lion show.
The Underdog
For us, the underdog for the Best Exhibit is Russia’s Grizzly Coast at the Minnesota Zoo. We really enjoy this exhibit. It starts with their sea otter exhibit. You continue onward through the Russian forest of birch trees, and find yourself at the Grizzly exhibit. The exhibit contains plenty of room for the residents, as well as a den for them to relax. Both of our visits to this zoo have seen the grizzlies very active.
Exhibits We Just Missed
Three exhibits among the 20 nominees come from zoos that we’ve visited, but failed to see the exhibit itself. None of the three were open during our visit, but we feel each has a chance to place in the top ten.
- Deveraux Tiger Forest, Detroit Zoo
- Boyd Family Asian Trek, Knoxville Zoo (we will be revisiting in mid-July)
- Expedition Peru: Trek of the Andean Bear, Nashville Zoo (we will be revisiting in mid-July)
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