Have you ever visited a zoo for a specific species?

Davdhole

Davdhole

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5+ year member
Where I live, my local zoo is the only major zoo in the state, and I'd make visits as a guest or when I volunteered, scheduled a shift around a time we got a new species I never saw before. However, since this zoo is the only major zoo near me, I've had to make visits to zoos in nearby states for a specific species, usually an animal I've really wanted to see. Some examples:

Made a trip to DAK to see their African wild dogs, an animal I've wanted to see badly for years and years.

Made a trip to Zoo Miami to see their dholes.

Went to Chattanooga Zoo to see their snow leopards, and unfortunately, didn't succeed in this.

Went to Jacksonville Zoo upon finding out they had an Amur leopard, among other species like their Coquerel's sifakas, bonobos, and a few other animals.

Visited Georgia Aquarium to see their new shark gallery, mostly for the tiger sharks.

Also years before, went to the aquarium to see the puffins and other seabirds.

Chehaw Zoo to see the red wolf

Still trying to make it to North Carolina Zoo for polar and grizzly bears

So, have any of you ever planned a trip to a zoo or aquarium to see a specific species you've always had a strong desire to see?
 
My visit to Osaka Aquarium was pretty much just to see the Whale Sharks. OFC I was excited to see other species like Japanese Spider Crab, Arapaima, their collection of deep sea and polar species as well, but it was primarily for the Whale Sharks.

Same for Tokyo Sea Life Park, went there pretty much just to see the Bluefin Tuna. Everything else was just extra. I wanted to go to an aquarium while I was in Tokyo (there are a lot), and ended up deciding on Tokyo Sea Life Park just because they had the tuna (and seemed to be one of the few without cetaceans).

My (extremely brief) visit to Ueno Zoo was with a friend who just wanted to see the Giant Panda (we had about half an hour to kill), and most of that time was spent just queuing in front of the exhibit lmao. There wasn't enough time to see anything else except a quick look at the elephants (not sure which species) and I took some quick pictures of some aviaries on the way out. I'm annoyed we didn't have more time, Ueno looked to be an amazing zoo.
 
I imagine a large proportion of Zoochatters have visited a zoo specifically to see a certain species - some of us have even gone specifically to another country to see a specific animal at a specific zoo.

I'd imagine a lot of "normal" people (i.e. non-Zoochatters) have also visited a zoo for a single species - DaLilFishie's mention of Giant Panda is a good example where that would be the case.
 
For myself, the one I think of first was going to Australia for the weekend specifically to see the Long-beaked Echidna at Taronga.

I visited the Suzhou Zoo specifically for Yangtze Softshell Turtle, but I was already in China at the time and Suzhou is only an hour or so outside Shanghai.
 
For me, it’s always been more of a coincidence. At Singapore Zoo, I saw Polar bear, Mandrill and False gharial for the first time; and at Colchester Zoo, Siberian tiger and Amur leopard. These were all highlights for me, but I would have visited those zoos regardless.

Aside from the obvious example of visiting because an animal at one of my local zoos has given birth; the only exception for me has been my recent visits to Auckland Zoo. I wanted to see the new orangutan exhibit; and see the elephants before they leave this year. They will likely be the last elephants ever held in a New Zealand zoo:

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Charlie on the Aerial Pathway

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Yes, a good few times.

From memory as a visitor:

Parc des felins for their Asiatic golden cats.

ZSL London for their pottos, Malagasy giant jumping rats, Australian water rat, narrow striped mongoose, Hanuman langur, whited naped mangabey and slender loris.

Instituto Butatan for their Alcatraz Island and golden lancehead pit vipers.

I'm sure there will be more in South America and Europe in the future but the one that I would like to see hopefully this year would be the Brazilian merganser at zoo Itatiba.
 
I've never specifically gone to a zoo to see a specific species, except for when deciding between multiple facilities. For instance, this summer I chose to go to Stone Zoo to see the bush dogs. I could have chosen to go to a different zoo instead, but chose to see the rare species I've never seen before.
 
So far I have not, but I have more than one such trip in mind. Want to pop over to Sequoia Park Zoo for Bush Dog, and return to SDZSP to see the Platypuses. Georgia Aquarium for Whale Sharks and Manta Rays too.
 
When I first visited Brookfield Zoo a little over ten years ago, the one disappointment was just barely missing the aardvark house because I hadn't seen one before. One year later, I returned with the goal of making sure I saw an aardvark, which I succeeded in!

A couple other examples on my end include DeYoung Family Zoo for primarily black-backed jackal, but the other firsts (zeedonk, zorse, Eurasian brown bear, Barbary lion, Carpathian lynx, bonnet macaque, crab eater macaque, and pigtail macaque) were nice bonuses; and Special Memories Zoo for Geoffroy's cat, booted macaque, and rhesus macaque (with demoiselle crane, impeyan, and Syrian brown bear being more bonuses).
 
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I flew to Berlin solely for the opportunity to see, at the time, Europe's only (?) bird-of-paradise - the trumpet manucode - plus their kiwi and short-beaked echidna. Neither bird was on display, and the short-beaked echidna was a complete no-show the entire day. Woe!

Ticked off a whole long list of other rarities and 'firsts' though, so all good.

Also, second Arizona Docent's statement above - you know where you are, right? Paha.
 
Yes. Numerous times. I went to Rotterdam Zoo just to see polar bears, Berlin Zoo just to see giant pandas, Berlin Teirpark just to see manatees, Duisberg Zoo just to see dolphins and koalas...heck, I even went to Great Yarmouth's Sea Life Centre just to see a Green Sea Turtle.
 
Tea_and_Biology said:
I flew to Berlin solely for the opportunity to see, at the time, Europe's only (?) bird-of-paradise - the trumpet manucode - plus their kiwi and short-beaked echidna. Neither bird was on display, and the short-beaked echidna was a complete no-show the entire day. Woe!
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I can't actually think of any point in time when that trumpet manucode was the only Bird of Paradise in Europe - nor a time it was offshow? When was this? :)
 
gentle lemur said:
I went to Basle to see the gorillas in 1972. I went back in 1973 to see them again, carrying on to Cologne to see the mountain gorillas, and then to Antwerp to see the Grauer's gorillas. I went to Howletts to see the gorillas in 1974. Have you spotted the pattern yet? :D
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Funny how times change isn't it? I've done all those things in the past too, but on my trip to Paira Daiza there were so many other things I wanted to see that the gorillas weren't on the list at all- I did still see them obviously (or rather half of them, one volcano was closed because the two young males had just arrived.).;)
 
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