If you could go back in time...

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Panthera1981

Well-Known Member
10+ year member
A bit of fun here-

If you could travel back in time and visit any zoo (or even your favourite zoo) where would you go and what point in time would you choose?

I fondly remember my first visits to the Aspinall parks in the early 1990's (when the collections were unique), so I'd visit at a point where I could see those frustratingly elusive (for me) Sumatran rhinos! I never saw them, and will probably never have another opportunity to see the species.

I'd also want to visit London at a time when the collection was at it's peak (50's/60's?) though I'd probably need some help from fellow 'chatters as to exactly what time to pick!
 
1950/60s:
Zoo Frankfurt, Germany, because of the Duiker species, the Giant Forest Hogs, the Gerenuks, the Emperor Penguins, the Masai giraffes and, and, and....
Zoo Duisburg, because of the Giant Armadillos ...
 
Panthera1981 said:
so I'd visit at a point where I could see those frustratingly elusive (for me) Sumatran rhinos! I never saw them, and will probably never have another opportunity to see the species.
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Just to rub it in, I have a 'trophy' photo of myself feeding Torgamba!.:)

For me it would be any time/any Zoo where I could have seen a Thylacine.:(
 
I'd go to Monkey World in the late 1990s and see all the chimps I love as babies or young adults. Not to mention seeing the late Charlie again!
 
If it was possible I would do a lot of time-traveling - but I hope I'm allowed to take my digital camera with me !
Rotterdam at the end of the 1970-ties - beginning 1980-ties just to take photos of their rare cat-collection ( I only have 1 bad picture of their Flat-headed cat :(, see http://www.zoochat.com/36/flat-headed-cat-341934/?highlight=flat-headed, their birds of Paradise - I loved the male Wilson's ( no pictures at all from this one :( ), the Yellow-headed picathartes ( see http://www.zoochat.com/36/white-necked-picathartes-342444/?highlight=picathartes and http://www.zoochat.com/36/white-necked-picathartes-342446/?highlight=picathartes and so on !
After that I would visit Walsrode around the same period and take pictures of the Spix macaws, yellow-eared conures and the different Caraibean amazon-parrots. I've taken care for all these species during the period I worked there but only some Amazon-pictures :( ( see http://www.zoochat.com/142/imperial-amazon-parrot-341832/?highlight=Imperial+amazon ). Not a single of the Spix macaws and Yellow-eared conure !!
 
Only one choice for me, I'd return to my beloved Flamingo Park of the 1960s but with a camera and camcorder (I did not get my first camera until 1970). Southern Elephant Seals, Cuddles the Killer Whale from November 1968 (and maybe see Winnie the Pilot Whale in 1966), the forever changing Elephant population in the new house, Freddie and Emily in the old one, the Tapir House.................and just the vast number of mammal and bird species on display then. Oh, and I'd buy a guidebook and not lose it like I have the joint one with Cleethorpes from that time.

P.S. I must have been lucky too with the Sumatran Rhinos at Port Lympne.
 
Panthera1981 said:
If you could travel back in time and visit any zoo (or even your favourite zoo) where would you go and what point in time would you choose?
Click to expand...

London Zoo in the Victorian era:-

quagga; thylacine; Falkland Island "wolf"; Javan rhinoceros; Schomburgk’s deer;
bubal hartebeest......

Unfortunately there was never a time when all these were on exhibit simultaneously
 
I'd definitely want someplace where I could see a now-extinct animal. But it's so hard to decide what species to go with! The New York Aquarium had my beloved Caribbean monk seal. There was a facility that had one of the last baiji, they named him Qi Qi, though I'm not sure if he was on public display. If he was, I'd go for that. As others have mentioned, any place with a thylacine! Maybe I could go for a place with a dodo? Cincinnati Zoo had Martha, the last known passenger pigeon. I believe they also had one of the last Carolina parakeets, I think they might've had it at the same time they had Martha. Two extinct birds for the price of one! Uh, yay? I just made myself sad...
 
Tim May said:
London Zoo in the Victorian era:-

quagga; thylacine; Falkland Island "wolf"; Javan rhinoceros; Schomburgk’s deer;
bubal hartebeest......

Unfortunately there was never a time when all these were on exhibit simultaneously
Click to expand...

The priority, of course, would be the Dusicyon considering no photographs of a living animal are known to survive......
 
Panthera1981 said:
Curse you Pertinax!:p
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I saw the Sumatrans about four times. I did not see the first female however. I had been wanting to see this species for about thirty years. I wanted to travel to Copenhagen to see the female 'Subur' that lived there in the late 1960's, but it never happened. Later on I thought I might find one in a Zoo in South East Asia too, but failed in that too.
 
vogelcommando said:
Not a single of the Spix macaws and Yellow-eared conure !!
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Its classic that we often don't bother to take photos of something we see every day, and then come to regret it after the opportunity has been lost.;)

I guess that Spix is the bird/parrot species I would most like to see but chances seem even more remote than ever now.
 
H'mm. Be careful what you wish for! The best run zoos of the Victorian era (say) might well have had a host of lovely species, but I doubt that we would come away happy with what we'd seen.

For instance, any Spix's Macaw kept at that time would very likely have been kept as a lone specimen, quite possibly chained to a perch. And I don't imagine that many of us would relish an inspection of any Ape House before 1950.

Personally, if we could magically get back to the world of 1600, with its infinitely smaller human populations, vast areas of wilderness - and complete with Great Auks, Dodos, Huias, Thylacines, Quaggas, Koupreys, and Aurochs - whilst keeping today's scientific and medical knowledge, social attitudes and technology, I would be very happy indeed!
 
Tim May said:
London Zoo in the Victorian era:-

quagga; thylacine; Falkland Island "wolf"; Javan rhinoceros; Schomburgk’s deer;
bubal hartebeest......
Click to expand...

TeaLovingDave said:
The priority, of course, would be the Dusicyon considering no photographs of a living animal are known to survive......
Click to expand...

I think that is very sound logic but, personally, I would find seeing quaggas and Javan rhinoceros more exciting than seeing Falklands Island “wolf” (Dusicyon).

I would also like to be able to visit Paris (Vincennes) in the late 1930s to see the type specimen of kouprey.......
 
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