Favorite Zoo/Aquarium Memories

ThylacineAlive

ThylacineAlive

Well-Known Member
10+ year member
Yes, yes, I know. I made another thread. This time I'd like to see what your favorite zoo and aquarium visiting memories are.
Here's mine,
Interacting with a Beluga Whale, throught the exhibit glass, at Mystic Aquarium.
Seeing a Red Panda on a branch within reaching distance with no barriers in between on the Asian Monorail at the Bronx Zoo.
Visiting the Beardsley Zoo for the first time and seeing lots of species I hadn't in the past and learning, for the first time, about conservation and endangered species.
Visiting the Smithsonian National Zoo for the first time since I was about 2 years old.
Seeing a Giant Panda, at the Smithsonian National Zoo, for the first time since I was about 2 years old.
Playing with a Western Lowland Gorilla through the exhibit glass at the Bronx Zoo (I have a picture of this gorilla and will post soon).
The mind-boggling sensation of seeing an Aldabra Giant Tortoise (my first giant tortoise) for the first time at the Smithsonian National Zoo.
 
Visiting the Louisville Zoo when I was six and having my three year old brother get spit on by a camel. Mom told him to stand near it and it puckered up and spit all over him. At the same zoo they did elephant rides and the elephant ignored every bystander except my dad and tried to grab his sunglasses. I don't think any zoo lets you get this close to elephants anymore.
 
elefante said:
Visiting the Louisville Zoo when I was six and having my three year old brother get spit on by a camel. Mom told him to stand near it and it puckered up and spit all over him. At the same zoo they did elephant rides and the elephant ignored every bystander except my dad and tried to grab his sunglasses. I don't think any zoo lets you get this close to elephants anymore.
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I rode an Asian Elephant at a fair once. It looked tired and overheated. They had a Dromedary Camel there but it was just resting in the shade because no one wanted to ride the camel with an elephant there.
At the same fair they had two California Sea Lions and they wouldn't let them go into their pool and just left them to swelter out in the heat. They also had seven Ring-Tailed Lemurs in a tiny cage, two macaws in two even smaller cages, and a tailess South American Coati.
 
Having a keeper at the Central Park Zoo tell my father how knowledgable I am when it comes to animal stuff and continuing to hold my end of a conversation with him on tropical birds (a topic I am not too familiar with) and penguins (I'm a little more knowledgable there).
 
Visiting Dublin Zoo for what might have been the first time (I was about 3 or 4) with my cousin and my aunt. All I can remember of the trip was that I enjoyed it immensely, and that my aunt tried to take a photo of the two hippos in the water but couldn't get them both in the shot because whenever one surfaced the other would go under the water. :p
 
According to zootierliste, Lisbon had 3 subspecies of black rhino in the '90s. I´m almost sure i got to see them all, but i only remember 2.
Other cool things were seeing the mediterranean monk seal and the iberian lynx, even if the first isn´t that clear.
Also, i was in the Lisbon Oceanarium when the blue sharks were released. It was also nice to see the manta ray, even if i saw it much more times.
 
filipinos said:
According to zootierliste, Lisbon had 3 subspecies of black rhino in the '90s. I´m almost sure i got to see them all, but i only remember 2.
Other cool things were seeing the mediterranean monk seal and the iberian lynx, even if the first isn´t that clear.
Also, i was in the Lisbon Oceanarium when the blue sharks were released. It was also nice to see the manta ray, even if i saw it much more times.
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Your lucky to have seen those animals. Mediterranean Monk Seals, Iberian Lynx, Black Rhinoceros, and manta rays are all on my Animal Bucket List. As I read more and more of what you guys post on that thread, the larger my list grows.
 
ThylacineAlive said:
Your lucky to have seen those animals. Mediterranean Monk Seals, Iberian Lynx, Black Rhinoceros, and manta rays are all on my Animal Bucket List. As I read more and more of what you guys post on that thread, the larger my list grows.
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That´s because i live in Portugal. I bet there are many animals that i haven´t seen, that you take for granted, for example, the coyote.
 
filipinos said:
That´s because i live in Portugal. I bet there are many animals that i haven´t seen, that you take for granted, for example, the coyote.
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I have seen many a Coyote.

- Visiting the first zoo opened to the public in the U.S.; the Central Park Zoo (I would perfer if we didn't start a debate on weither Central Park or Philadelphia was really the first U.S. zoo).
 
ThylacineAlive said:
I have seen many a Coyote.

- Visiting the first zoo opened to the public in the U.S.; the Central Park Zoo (I would perfer if we didn't start a debate on weither Central Park or Philadelphia was really the first U.S. zoo).
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I've seen coyotes in town where I live. It is interesting what we take for granted that we see in the wild. I would find it interesting to see a kangaroo in the wild in Australia whereas someone there would not think anything of it or probably be more concerned about hitting it with their car.
 
elefante said:
I've seen coyotes in town where I live. It is interesting what we take for granted that we see in the wild. I would find it interesting to see a kangaroo in the wild in Australia whereas someone there would not think anything of it or probably be more concerned about hitting it with their car.
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It's funny that you should mention running into them. I've never seen a wild wombat alive but see them as roadkill nearly every time I drive along the freeway to my parent's house.

I've joined the discussion now so may as well add my favourite memories.
For individual animals-
>Seeing (and hearing) the male lyrebird at Healesville Sanctuary performing. It is one of the most incredible things to behold. Try and find a video on Youtube if you can. The constant stream of bird calls without a single pause is bewildering.
>Feeding a black rhino at Dubbo Zoo on a behind the scenes tour. And then feeding manatees at Singapore Zoo.
>Getting my first glimpse of an okapi at Chester Zoo. I missed out a couple of months earlier at London Zoo.
For particular zoos-
>Going to London Zoo last year because it was the first zoo I visited outside of Australia. It was a glorious Autumn day and I saw so many new species. Aardvarks, toucans, bactrian camels, hornbills, pottos, armadillos and on and on and on.
>Antwerp Zoo has always been near the top of my zoo bucket list and I ticked it of at the start of this year. If I had a zoo (and money wasn't an issue) it would resemble this historic institution right in the centre of the coolest city that I've visited.

I'm sure there are a lot more but these spring to mind first.
 
There are 3 that come to mind:

About 1987, I think it was, being at the San Diego Zoo with my parents and brother. It was just before 5pm and there weren't a whole lot of people around as I think they were closing soon. We were near the lion exhibit they had at the time when suddenly the male rolled onto his back and started roaring up a storm. People came running from all over. My brother and mom still talk about that.

2010 I was at a sanctuary and got to "play" with a tiger. I was leaving the area of the exhibit and she started to walk alongside the fence with me and when she reached the end of her exhibit she jumped up on the nest box and watched me. I walked back and she followed me again, chuffing and scraping her body along the fence like she wanted me to scratch her. I couldn't, of course, but still...

At Sea World California in 2007, I think it was. I was down in Shamu Close-Up and the youngest whale, Kalia, was in the pool with her mom and "aunt" (an unrelated adult female). I had a small stuffed whale in my hand and when she saw it she bobbed her head up and down then blew bubbles out of her blowhole. I have a photo of me holding the stuffed whale and she's looking at it.

Oh yeah. And being at a wildlife park in camp verde, az with a stuffed ring-tail lemur. It's about the size of a real one and the lemurs in the exhibit were jumping all over the place and being real vocal. I took video of it on my cell phone, but I didn't know much about taking cell phone videos so it came out sideways. I did take pictures, though.
 
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azcheetah2's Lion story reminded me of another one I think I forgot to add earlier. Being at the Smithsonian National Zoo and hearing my very first Tiger vocalization. I was really amazing. Tigers are one of my favorite animals and hearing my first Tiger call at the first zoo I ever visited (as an infant) made me really happy:)
 
Trotters world of animals
Participated in tapir enrichment(hand feeding)
Participated in meerkat enrichment (hand feeding)
Participated in lemur enrichment (hand feeding)
Keeper let me hold a Asian palm civet
Saw my first fishing cat and Canadian lynx

Edinburgh zoo
Interacted with chimpanzee through viewing window at budongo trail
Lilac breasted roller landed on my shoulder

Zoo de jurques
About 10 cockatoos land on my shoulder/head

Affenburg Salem
Hand feeding japenese macaque and fallow deer

And aquarium
112 metre long walkthrough tunnel at deep sea world.sand tiger sharks,angels harks,various rays and much more

Unfortunately I haven't been to lucky with experiences like these.
 
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