The reality is that zoos are a safe place for otherwise doomed wildlife, and 21st-century ones are progressive places. Buildings and grounds are expertly designed to help nurture animals in close approximations of the animals’ natural habitat; and many operate in-house veterinary services and programmes to save sick and injured wildlife outside of zoo walls. These five offer the best havens for an array of beasts and humans wanting to escape the urban jungle.

CALIFORNIA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES;
SAN FRANCISCO
This is a wild-card entry as a best zoo because it is not a zoo in the traditional sense. There are no lions or zebras or elephants here. Whereas most zoos generate appeal via small groups of big exotic things, the Academy is a big collection of small exotic things.

The $500-million revamped Academy is home to nearly 40 000 animals, including leafy sea dragons, anacondas, giant octopuses, Amazonian piranhas, Borneo fruit bats, leaf-tailed geckos, tortoises, butterflies and more. The new building houses the Academy’s science labs and admin offices, including a massive library and scientific archive consisting of more than 20-million specimens across its Anthropology (humans), Entomology (insects), Herpetology (amphibians, reptiles), Ornithology (birds) and Mammalogy (mammals) departments.

The Academy is the world’s ‘greenest’ museum and largest public platinum-rated building, earning this rating (the highest possible) for Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design (LEED), a US Green Building Council initiative aimed at encouraging architects to create innovative energy-saving solutions. ‘It’s also the only institution in the world to have an aquarium, planetarium and natural history museum all under one roof,’ says communications manager Andrew Ng.

And it’s a whole lot of fun.

ANIMAL ATTRACTION: Academy staff — 20 curators and 80 other scientists, many of them just as interesting as the wildlife – are pioneers in research to save animals. Healy Hamilton, lead scientist for the Seahorse Research & Conservation Program, has launched a website (www.seahorsesleuth.org) to support wise management of seahorse populations, decimated by commercial fishing.

Seahorses are used in traditional Chinese medicines to treat liver ailments or increase male virility; 24-million seahorses are harvested a year. Seahorse Sleuth enables biologists and resource managers to identify seahorse species using DNA sequences. According to Healy, ‘Seahorses are the most charismatic of fishes.’

NEED TO KNOW: Open Mondays to Saturdays 9.30am to 5pm, Sundays from 11am. Entry $25/about R240; children under six free. calacademy.or

SINGAPORE ZOO, SINGAPORE
Based on the groundbreaking ‘open zoo’ concept, this 28-hectare property houses more than 2500 animals across 315 species, 16 percent of which are threatened — and not just by children wielding digital cameras. Here, proximity is key.

Opened in 1973, Singapore Zoological Gardens was designed with no ugly visible barriers between zoo visitors and the animals. Moats and natural-type barriers are used where animals are deemed relatively harmless; glass walls separate the more dangerous beasts from humans.

Animals live in expansive, landscaped environments that closely mirror their natural habitats. Visitors can watch elephants bathing, then feed them bananas; see Californian sea lions in the Splash Safari Show; witness the shenanigans of more than 80 Hamadryas baboons in the Great Rift Valley of Ethiopia exhibit; or enjoy a spot of water play in the Rainforest Kidzworld. Other exhibits include Wild Africa, Australian Outback and a Reptile Garden with Komodo dragons.

ANIMAL ATTRACTION: The zoo’s much-loved orangutan, Ah Meng, died of old age last year at the age of 48. But her spirit lives on in the world’s first orangutan free-ranging area. There are two species of orangutan, Bornean and Sumatran, and both are under threat of extinction due to habitat destruction and poaching for the illegal pet trade. The zoo’s two free-range areas have tall trees, thick branches and plenty of foliage and vines, which allow 24 orangutans to climb, swing, scramble, wrestle and generally frolic.

Another popular exhibit is the Polar Bear Viewing Area, opened in 1988. This exhibit helped create an atmosphere conducive to the first male cub birth in captivity in 1990 – the first such birth in the tropics.

NEED TO KNOW: Open daily 8.30am to 6pm. Entry S$18/about R110; children (3–12 years) S$9/R55. www.zoo.com.sg

GERALD DURRELL JERSEY ZOO, CHANNEL ISLANDS
The Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust has been saving species — including the Assam pygmy hog and St Lucia whiptail lizard — from extinction for half a century. To celebrate its 50th anniversary in 2009, the organisation has launched the ‘It’s Time!’ campaign at Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trusts around the world. The call to animal arms states: ‘It’s time to take action, to make a difference, to consider the future … because time is running out’, and is trumpeted loudest at its source, the trust’s headquarters at the Gerald Durrell Jersey Zoo on the island of Jersey in the English Channel. The zoo, the trust (established in 1959) and its ongoing mission to prevent endangered animals from being wiped out are all because of one man: naturalist, best-selling author (most famous for 'My Family and Other Animals') and conservationist Gerald Durrell, who died in 1995. He received the Order of the British Empire in 1982 for his contribution to the conservation of endangered species.

There are more than 200 species of mammal, bird, amphibian and reptile at the Durrell Zoo, which has always focused on rare and endangered species. These include Livingstone’s fruit bats, maned wolves, Western Lowland gorillas, black lion tamarins, Burmese pythons, rhinoceros iguanas and red-ruffed lemurs.

ANIMAL ATTRACTION: Desert Discovery is the new mixed-species exhibit in which the zoo’s popular meerkat family will take up residence, along with yellow mongooses (or, if you prefer, mongeese). In addition to guided tours, visitors have the opportunity to become a zoo keeper for the day, helping experienced staff care for the animals.

NEED TO KNOW: Open daily 9.30am to 6pm (5pm in winter). Entry £13/about R180; children under four free. durrell.org