I agree with all of this wholeheartedly and I've made many similar comments on ZooChat over the years. Keepers don't make much money in comparison to other professions, work very long hours, sometimes pull overnight shifts on their own time if an animal is close to giving birth, can rarely ever take time off during the peak summer season, etc. They are also focused full-time on their own animals, often not even visiting popular zoos mere hours away. There are some keepers who do travel to other zoos, but mainly only during conferences.
The reason that my wife and I have traveled so extensively in July and August is that we are both schoolteachers and therefore we have approximately 10 weeks off from June 30th to a week into September every year. The wonderful thing with being a teacher is that we have 10 weeks off in the summer, 2 weeks at Christmas and 2 weeks in March for spring break, but the catch is that we cannot travel to a wedding or event at any other time in the year.
Pleistocene891
Well-Known Member
I didn't take a plane. I drove for 8 days in total(to get there and coming back). I didn't do anything in Omaha as there's really not much to do. And yes, the trip was definitely worth the effort as I was blown away by the zoo(I went twice).
Lafone
Well-Known Member
I extended work trips and then used holiday time to visit zoos in the US which was a useful saving!
Wildlife and zoo wise in Western Europe I lived in other countries than the U.K. for work so travelled from there (within / from Germany and then Switzerland to other countries) again for zoos or wildlife trips.
And also the same in a couple of African countries (wildlife trips) as was working there.
So I’ve radiated out trip wise from wherever I’ve been living if that makes sense. And these days it’s the U.K.
From a long driving perspective I visit on my own usually so I just take breaks and a lot of audio books! I also travel to international and domestic eventing competitions to photograph horses / riders so that offers some nice variety. I like the journey part it makes the holiday feel like one.
I have done two major vacations in my life and both were motivated half for something more personal and half for a zoo - those were to Washington DC to visit relatives and Denver for an event related to another hobby. There at least two more similar trips on my bucket list -- northern California might be two personal matters plus a zoo, and I have a relative in Britain who I plan to visit sometime. The California trip may include as many as three zoos! There is also a strong possibility of a second trip to Denver which would involve returning to the zoo a second time, and I'd like to revisit the National as an adult.
I am intending to a small zoo road trip over southern Illinois and St Louis in the near future, but I am also considering just taking public transport to St Louis to see the zoo for a day if the road trip can't be arranged.
All that said, I'm a novice traveler, but nothing makes me want to take a trip more than a zoo, so the idea of a purpose zoo trip is welcome to me.
I am intending to a small zoo road trip over southern Illinois and St Louis in the near future, but I am also considering just taking public transport to St Louis to see the zoo for a day if the road trip can't be arranged.
All that said, I'm a novice traveler, but nothing makes me want to take a trip more than a zoo, so the idea of a purpose zoo trip is welcome to me.
We plan all of our holidays around zoos. For my 40th we visited NYC (from UK) to visit all the WCS collections. It was my wife's 40th this year and we visited Singapore to visit the Mandai zoos but we also spent a lot of time looking for local wildlife (which was amazing!) Next year we've booked to visit southern France for a week and have already planned which zoos we will visit.
I dont travel just to visit zoo. It's just a waste to be in a place and only been to zoos all the time, especially when all of my trips with zoos are overseas and on plane. Of course zoos are one of my focus in a trip (and argubly the main one), but food, culture or other touristy stuff will be on my plan too.
Because of geographical constrain of course it is not as possible and make sense for me to have a "pure zoo" trip.
Because of geographical constrain of course it is not as possible and make sense for me to have a "pure zoo" trip.
SusScrofa
Well-Known Member
So you probably stopped off at other zoos or places of interest during the 8 day drive? If not, wouldn't it have made more financial sense to fly or take an Amtrak? The gas alone must have been more expensive than a roundtrip plane ticket!
Aardwolf
Well-Known Member
I've got to say, most of the keepers I know and work with LOVE visiting other zoos. Yes, I've known a few who have zero interest, but if you are on a zookeeper facebook group, about half the posts are variants of "Hey, a carload of us from Zoo A are going to Zoo B this weekend, can anyone show us around?"
My personal hack as a zookeeper without much money who wanted to see other zoos was to volunteer for every transport possible (which ended up being a lot). I found that much of the time it was cheaper and logistically simpler to drive to drop off or pick up animals than to muck around with airlines. I was able to squeeze in a lot of new zoo visits that way, usually complete with lots of behind the scenes visits. In a few cases, I also worked in job shadow opportunities (so I can say that I was a keeper at San Diego for one day). In return, I always do my best to accommodate folks who want to see my place - I'm showing around a friend this next weekend.
I usually plan a zoo trip every October to knock out two or three new places in two days, the focus usual being on seeing a species that's disappearing in the US that I want to see before it's too late. For example, the first trip I did was to Cincinnati to see the Sumatran rhino, visiting Newport Aquarium on that same trip. Another year was Minnesota (for monk seal and goitered gazelle - I was too late for muskox), Como, and SeaLife. I seldom call them "pure" zoo trips, though - because zoos and aquariums usually close by 4 or so, I like to have plans for things to see and do in the evening or before the place opens as well.
My personal hack as a zookeeper without much money who wanted to see other zoos was to volunteer for every transport possible (which ended up being a lot). I found that much of the time it was cheaper and logistically simpler to drive to drop off or pick up animals than to muck around with airlines. I was able to squeeze in a lot of new zoo visits that way, usually complete with lots of behind the scenes visits. In a few cases, I also worked in job shadow opportunities (so I can say that I was a keeper at San Diego for one day). In return, I always do my best to accommodate folks who want to see my place - I'm showing around a friend this next weekend.
I usually plan a zoo trip every October to knock out two or three new places in two days, the focus usual being on seeing a species that's disappearing in the US that I want to see before it's too late. For example, the first trip I did was to Cincinnati to see the Sumatran rhino, visiting Newport Aquarium on that same trip. Another year was Minnesota (for monk seal and goitered gazelle - I was too late for muskox), Como, and SeaLife. I seldom call them "pure" zoo trips, though - because zoos and aquariums usually close by 4 or so, I like to have plans for things to see and do in the evening or before the place opens as well.
Lota lota
Well-Known Member
Why did these peole even decide to work as a keeper?
Aardwolf
Well-Known Member
Don't laugh but... I know a few who did it just because it was a job and they got paid.
No, really!
When you start looking at really small zoos that are well off the beaten path, job applicants get fewer and fewer, and since people who do come in from the outside often do so with the goal of getting experience and moving on, there tends to be a bias towards hiring locally, regardless of qualifications. Then you get some folks for whom the zoo is simply a job. I have worked with a few folks at AZA facilities who showed little interest in zoo-ing, but they were definitely outliers.
On many occasions.
I absolutely plan virtually all of my travelling trips around zoos to some degree or another. I’ve had some trips that were specifically in mind purely because of zoological facilities, with no real interest in doing anything else in the given location (glances at Houston). However overall, even if I am planning a trip to somewhere purely because of the zoos there, I will do other things as well, just for my own enjoyment. I usually end up coming back from any trip absolutely exhausted, since even though most zoos only take 6-8 hours of my day (or less), i’m still out running around doing things for a good 15 hours a day.
I’d be curious to hear if anyone that has gone on a vacation just to visit zoos has experienced zoo fatigue on such a vacation. It seems like there are some members (including myself) who have never gone on a zoo-based vacation because we fear zoo fatigue, but I don’t know if I’ve heard of anyone who actually did experience zoo fatigue when going on such a trip.
Lota lota
Well-Known Member
Interesting,I have personally never encountered any unenthusiastic keeper at any zoo visits.I think it mostly has to do with the abundance of smaller zoos in the us,compared to the about 25 zoos/aquariums we have in Sweden.There aren't any unenthusiastic keepers in Sweden because the competiton is so high,it would be idiotic to put in so much commitment to get a job that you think is mundane.
Lafone
Well-Known Member
Some of the epic zoo trip folk (who are doing amazing trips!) might be better placed to comment as I've only done a week or so at once, but I've never experience being bored of visiting a number of zoos in a series of days nor indeed the same zoo on a couple of days in a row. I am a keen photographer and that's the main reason for my trips - I find with a camera it's hard to be bored or not interested. I find there's always something to see in a collection, whether an animal that was asleep before or a brand new species or particularly nice exhibit. It may depend on how you spend your time; for me visiting collections with my camera is a 'happy place' and stringing a few together just makes it nicer still.
Nope! I only ever feel regret (majorly) for not being able to go to more.
I started out with doing 2-day trips to the North Carolina Zoo where I would book a hotel room for a single night in Asheboro (about 2 hours from my residence). I did this at least once per year up to 2019. At the time, I wasn't really in a place to do more involved trips that weren't family gatherings.
Starting in 2022, with COVID-19 restrictions no longer an obstacle and being in a better position, I managed to embark on 3 zoo-centric trips this year.
First was Orlando in January, where I did Jacksonville Zoo, Sea Life Orlando, Disney's Animal Kingdom, Florida Aquarium, Zoo Tampa, SeaWorld Orlando, and GatorLand USA (this one was long because I was also meeting with family down there). I will admit, I did experience a little "zoo fatigue" towards the end of this trip. I was originally planning to do both Brevard and Central Florida in a single day, but I scrubbed that in favor of GatorLand, which was not far from my hotel.
I also did Atlanta during Memorial Day Weekend, after attending a family gathering in Charlotte that weekend. This trip included Sea Life Charlotte-Concord, Lazy 5 Ranch, Greenville Zoo, Georgia Aquarium, Zoo Atlanta, and Tennessee Aquarium.
My most recent trip had my returning to Central NC, where I stayed in Asheboro for a week and did the North Carolina Zoo twice, Greensboro Science Center, and various parks and attractions in the area (such as Town Creek Indian Mound and Morrow Mountain) that were otherwise awkward for me to plan day trips around. This last one wasn't purely zoo-centric because I wanted to incorporate some local attractions into my itinerary; after my Atlanta trip, I got the slight feeling that I wasn't really "experiencing" the area I was visiting.
Starting in 2022, with COVID-19 restrictions no longer an obstacle and being in a better position, I managed to embark on 3 zoo-centric trips this year.
First was Orlando in January, where I did Jacksonville Zoo, Sea Life Orlando, Disney's Animal Kingdom, Florida Aquarium, Zoo Tampa, SeaWorld Orlando, and GatorLand USA (this one was long because I was also meeting with family down there). I will admit, I did experience a little "zoo fatigue" towards the end of this trip. I was originally planning to do both Brevard and Central Florida in a single day, but I scrubbed that in favor of GatorLand, which was not far from my hotel.
I also did Atlanta during Memorial Day Weekend, after attending a family gathering in Charlotte that weekend. This trip included Sea Life Charlotte-Concord, Lazy 5 Ranch, Greenville Zoo, Georgia Aquarium, Zoo Atlanta, and Tennessee Aquarium.
My most recent trip had my returning to Central NC, where I stayed in Asheboro for a week and did the North Carolina Zoo twice, Greensboro Science Center, and various parks and attractions in the area (such as Town Creek Indian Mound and Morrow Mountain) that were otherwise awkward for me to plan day trips around. This last one wasn't purely zoo-centric because I wanted to incorporate some local attractions into my itinerary; after my Atlanta trip, I got the slight feeling that I wasn't really "experiencing" the area I was visiting.
Visited Sorocaba and Itatiba on late July because I hadn't gone to these zoos for a couple of years. So, yes, if that answers your question.
Besides this, it's almost certain I'm visiting a new zoo everytime I go travelling with my family. My parents even joke about it.
Besides this, it's almost certain I'm visiting a new zoo everytime I go travelling with my family. My parents even joke about it.