Talk:Tierpark Berlin

Europe's largest zoological garden - Not

The article made the claim:

At 160 hectares it is Europe's largest zoological garden.

based on a citation of the zoo's own web site. Unfortunately it is unwise to rely on such a source for superlative claims like this, and in this case it is clearly wrong. A check of our article on Whipsnade Zoo shows that it is 242 hectares in size, nearly half as big again. There may well be bigger.

I've removed the claim. -- Starbois (talk) 14:38, 27 May 2011 (UTC)

I've also removed the claim from Berlin#Recreation -- Starbois (talk) 14:44, 27 May 2011 (UTC)

There's no source for Whipsnade Zoo's size either, and most of the sources in that article are from zsl.org, so they're also self-published. On the other hand, this page describes the Tierpark as Europe's largest Landschaftstiergarten. I don't know what the exact definition of a Landschaftstiergarten (literally "landscape zoo") is, but perhaps it describes something different from what Whipsnade Zoo is. —Angr (talk) 16:33, 27 May 2011 (UTC)

I wasn't quoting Whipsnade Zoo as a good example, merely pointing out that WP was internally inconsistent. But WP does not make any superlative claims about Whipsnade Zoo, just quotes its size and says it is 'one of the largest' (which I would personally prefer it didn't). I have not removed the size data from the Tierpark article. I'm quite happy to regard the web site of a reputable zoo operator as being authoritative on the size of their zoo as they ought to know and are unlikely to lie.

But when it comes to statements like 'our zoo is the biggest in Europe' I think it is different. Firstly, how do they know?. Is there is a list of zoo sizes in Europe that they have consulted?; if so we should be able to locate that and cite it; if not they are probably just guessing or going by rumour. And there is an obvious status advantage to them in guessing one way.

As for what a Landschaftstiergarten is, I don't know either. I find it a bit difficult to conceive of a definition of a "landscape zoo" that includes the Tierpark but excludes Whipsnade (having been to both) but that is really neither here nor there. I'm sure the Tierpark's marketing department, if forced to do so, could come up with some definition (if it was me, I'd put the word urban in there somewhere as Tierpark is actually in Berlin whilst Whipsnade is in the country some way from London), but that is their job, not ours. Ours is not to mislead our readers with overly tendentious claims, which is what that would be. -- chris_j_wood (talk) 15:38, 29 May 2011 (UTC)

Well at any rate, it's certainly the largest zoo in Berlin! ;-) —Angr (talk) 16:23, 29 May 2011 (UTC)

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• Logo Tierpark Berlin.jpg

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