Zoo "Confessions"

NNM. said:
That’s not as hot a take as you might think. I find Stone Zoo just kind of weird, because it has an insane series of extreme highs and lows. The good exhibits are great and better than anything at Franklin Park Zoo, but the bad exhibits are some of the worst things I’ve seen at any of the zoos I’ve visited.
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I know, Yukon Creek & Windows to the Wild & Treetops and Riverbeds are terrible while Himalayan Highlands & Treasures of Sierra Madre & Caribbean Coast are amazing. In Franklin Park Zoo, the best exhibits are the Children's Zoo aviary, parts of Bird's World, and parts of Tropical Forest. Everything else is mid or bad ( but will be better with the updated African experience soon)
 
JVM said:
I am losing my interest and faith in zoos.
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May I ask why? I liked zoos as a child, then grew indifferent and skeptical towards them in my teens and early 20s, but now my appreciation for them has grown as I've gotten older. Of course there are bad and inadequate zoos out there, and I'm lucky enough to live near a zoo that's often ranked in America's top 5 among Zoochatters, but there's so much negativity in the world - both online and off - that my local zoo and aquarium are among the few places I can escape from it all. Even following the social media accounts of various zoos/aquaria has allowed me to learn and care about many animals that would've otherwise never crossed my mind. By forming emotional bonds with individual animals, I've become inspired to support efforts to protect their species.

A shared passion for wildlife and zoos has also allowed me to make new friends. I've been surprised by how many people in my peer group also like visiting the zoo, even though they don't have children. This includes many cooler-than-thou types who I would've expected to sneer at zoos. It's given me a sense of community that's increasingly hard to find these days.

I've enjoyed your posts here, and I hope you don't plan on departing.
 
JVM said:
I am losing my interest and faith in zoos.
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This does sound serious; I'm prescribing you the following therapy: A trip to Salzburg, Austria. Three local zoological institutions as well as plenty of beautiful touristic sights, cultural attractions, sportive & outdoor activities and delicious food. And if that's not enough to reinstate your interest & faith, you'll at least have enjoyed a splendid holiday.
 
JVM said:
I am losing my interest and faith in zoos.
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'Interest' is very understandable, and I am sorry to hear that but respect it. Although I can't see my own enthusiasm for zoos has never dissipated completely, it has varied quite a bit in strength over the years. My ZooChat activity reflects this - for every day in which I post upwards of ten times, there is also a fortnight when I post once. If memory serves, this time last year I posted twice in the whole month of November. I still liked zoos, but between not having visited any in a while and having other preoccupations, I simply had nothing to say on here.

I am slightly more curious about your mention of 'faith.' Not a criticism (again, this is clearly a very subjective matter so I have no right to tell you what to think), but if you don't mind sharing, may I ask what, if anything, in particular caused this change of heart?
 
JVM said:
I am losing my interest and faith in zoos.
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If it’s faith I can totally understand, every day I wake up to hear bad news about this that and am just waiting to hear that zoos are unethical again then to close 90/ of them. Interest is something I totally should lose, many of us revolve our lives around zoos but there is much more than it.
 
USZOOfan42 said:
If it’s faith I can totally understand, every day I wake up to hear bad news about this that and am just waiting to hear that zoos are unethical again then to close 90/ of them. Interest is something I totally should lose, many of us revolve our lives around zoos but there is much more than it.
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Is it really that bad? I'll occasionally see an anti-zoo comment on Reddit, but these are vastly outnumbered by the pro-zoo comments, which tend to be more knowledgeable and receive more upvotes. The same pattern holds true for the occasional anti-zoo comment on Instagram. I'm not sure about TikTok because I don't use it as much and rarely read the replies. Anti-zoo activism seems almost entirely absent from Twitter/X and this was true both before and after the recent...changes. I started using BlueSky and don't see any anti-zoo activism there either.

I'd say unless you frequent vegan/ARA communities or seek out that content, you won't be exposed to it much. In the coming years I suspect politically engaged people will have much more pressing concerns than debating whether or not zoos are ethical.
 
Enzo said:
I have seen an Amazonian manatee, a bald uakari, a Brazilian merganser, a chimango caracara, a silky anteater, black lion tamarins, blond capuchins, buffy-tufted marmosets, Lear's macaws, neotropical river otters, short-tailed parrots and Southern muriquis, as well as Gray's bald-faced and Uta Hick's bearded sakis.

However, I have never seen a black rhinoceros, a Canada goose, a coyote, an Eastern gray kangaroo, a greater kudu, a red river hog, a reindeer, a wild turkey, a white-tailed deer or a yak.
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Ok, now I feel even more ashamed for not seeing a white-tailed deer, as I just saw a yellow baboon this Wednesday.
 
I only visit zoos to see zebras. I do not care to visit unless they have them. A few others like Minnesota, Dallas and Fort Worth may be an exception but they have lowered in my needs to visit.
 
Enzo said:
Ok, now I feel even more ashamed for not seeing a white-tailed deer, as I just saw a yellow baboon this Wednesday.
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Add red-browed amazons, Spix's macaws and a multitude of South American amphibians to that.

Plus I have never been to a lorikeet aviary or a nocturnal house.
 
SeaOtterHQ said:
Is it really that bad? I'll occasionally see an anti-zoo comment on Reddit, but these are vastly outnumbered by the pro-zoo comments, which tend to be more knowledgeable and receive more upvotes. The same pattern holds true for the occasional anti-zoo comment on Instagram. I'm not sure about TikTok because I don't use it as much and rarely read the replies. Anti-zoo activism seems almost entirely absent from Twitter/X and this was true both before and after the recent...changes. I started using BlueSky and don't see any anti-zoo activism there either.

I'd say unless you frequent vegan/ARA communities or seek out that content, you won't be exposed to it much. In the coming years I suspect politically engaged people will have much more pressing concerns than debating whether or not zoos are ethical.
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I see a lot of anti-zoo comments on tiktok and youtube. I have learned to never check the comments of videos that are obviously taken at zoos due to the swarms of "this is actually so sad", "you can see the sadness in his eyes", "set him free", and similar comments.
 
SeaOtterHQ said:
Is it really that bad? I'll occasionally see an anti-zoo comment on Reddit, but these are vastly outnumbered by the pro-zoo comments, which tend to be more knowledgeable and receive more upvotes. The same pattern holds true for the occasional anti-zoo comment on Instagram. I'm not sure about TikTok because I don't use it as much and rarely read the replies. Anti-zoo activism seems almost entirely absent from Twitter/X and this was true both before and after the recent...changes. I started using BlueSky and don't see any anti-zoo activism there either.

I'd say unless you frequent vegan/ARA communities or seek out that content, you won't be exposed to it much. In the coming years I suspect politically engaged people will have much more pressing concerns than debating whether or not zoos are ethical.
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Just reading this now, the general public is another big one, just one look at google reviews and sheesh.
 
Ueno Zoo, which was my local zoo, had these these species. So I thought they were pretty common in zoos. But after looking at information from a lot of zoos and Zootierliste, I now realize they are quite rare.

Chinese Pangolin
Spectral Tarsier
Lesser Mouse Deer
Aye-Aye
Galapagos Giant Tortoise
Komodo Dragon
Giant Panda
Okapi
Pygmy Hippopotamus
Indian Lion
 
Toki said:
Ueno Zoo, which was my local zoo, had these these species. So I thought they were pretty common in zoos. But after looking at information from a lot of zoos and Zootierliste, I now realize they are quite rare.

Chinese Pangolin
Spectral Tarsier
Lesser Mouse Deer
Aye-Aye
Galapagos Giant Tortoise
Komodo Dragon
Giant Panda
Okapi
Pygmy Hippopotamus
Indian Lion
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Komodo dragons, and Pygmy hippos aren’t that rare worldwide. Indian lions are common in Eurasia.
 
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