Best U.S. Zoos: Readers' Choice Award Winners

10Best's Readers' Choice contest for Best U.S. Zoo shattered voting records in all previous contest categories. After a four-week period of intense participation by wildlife enthusiasts and regional stakeholders, Toledo Zoo came out on top. An amazing amount of support from fans, followers, friends and patrons catapulted this respected institution to the No. 1 position in the "Best U.S. Zoo" results.

Landing a very solid second place is St. Louis Zoo, which also had legions of loyal fans voting daily, and even up through the final minutes of the contest.

Cincinnati Zoo takes third place honors, followed by No. 4 Memphis Zoo, and fifth place finisher Columbus Zoo. A special thanks goes out to "Jungle Jack" Hanna, who encouraged animal lovers across the U.S. to vote for the zoo of their choice, despite being long associated with the Columbus Zoo, where he is Director Emeritus. The fourth and fifth place finishers ran a very tight race.

Wildlife educator Jack Hanna took a moment out of his busy schedule to talk to USA TODAY about the roles that zoos play in our lives.

Omaha's popular Henry Doorly Zoo also ran a successful campaign, landing it in sixth place. It was followed by Houston Zoo, Brookfield Zoo in Chicago, Dallas Zoo and San Diego Zoo & Safari Park.

Although 10Best and USA TODAY don't normally make note of finishes outside the top 10, the Oklahoma City Zoo just missed making the list by a small number of votes. The other nine nominees included Bronx Zoo, Cleveland Metroparks Zoo, Dallas Zoo, Denver Zoo, Disney's Animal Kingdom, Louisville Zoo, Minnesota Zoo, Oregon Zoo, Phoenix Zoo, and Riverbanks Zoo in Columbia, S.C.

In addition to the extraordinary number of votes this contest garnered, it was also unique in another regard. Three zoos from one state - Ohio - have landed in the top 10 and a fourth zoo from The Buckeye State secured one of the coveted original 20 nominations.

The Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA) provided no opinions on potential nominees but did offer the data our editorial team used to carefully select the zoos which would vie for the title. Criteria included total acreage, annual attendance, the cost of admission, each zoo's contributions to wildlife conservation efforts, the number of supporting members each has, and recent industry awards which were won.

The winners in the "Best US Zoo" contest category for 10Best Readers' Choice are as follows:

1. Toledo Zoo - Toledo, Ohio
2. St. Louis Zoo - St. Louis
3. Cincinnati Zoo - Cincinnati
4. Memphis Zoo - Memphis
5. Columbus Zoo - Columbus, Ohio
6. Henry Doorly Zoo - Omaha
7. Houston Zoo - Houston
8. Brookfield Zoo - Chicago
9. Dallas Zoo - Dallas
10. San Diego Zoo & Safari Park - San Diego

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Contributed by Libby McMillan, 10Best (a division of USA TODAY)