This thread could be subtitled: “Is ZooChat slowly dying?” (Traffic on this site has steadily eroded and many long-time regulars have left.)
My entire life I’ve been obsessed with zoos and even at a very young age I would collect plastic toy animals from the local zoos, draw extensively detailed zoo maps or read books about wildlife on a daily basis. I amassed a huge collection of 800 small zoo animals and I’d construct elaborate zoos in my bedroom and wherever my parents would allow me the space for such endeavors. As I got older I collected zoo maps, guidebooks and other knick-knacks and now that I’m an adult I continue to add to my collection of 150 guidebooks and 1,200 maps from zoos across the globe. By the time I was in my late twenties I’d visited approximately 40 zoos and aquariums and I was a workaholic who had received barely any vacation time until I became a high school teacher in the late 2000’s. Since then I’ve got married and had 4 children, plus 3 university degrees (including a Master’s in Education) and yet my zoo obsession has actually intensified. I devote a ton of time to my family and teaching career but I still spend a crazy number of hours planning extensive road trips and researching zoos around the world. Due in no small part to being a teacher and having entire summers off work I will have visited approximately 310 zoos lifetime by the first week of August and I have plans to co-author a zoo and aquarium book that will hopefully be published in 2016.
Other passions that I’ve had over the years has included reading (nothing beats a great book), movies (I watch 150 each year) and soccer (I watch approximately 40 English Premier League matches a year). None of those interests have waned and while I might not spend as much time as I could doing those things if I wasn’t working full-time and having 4 young kids at home…those passions, hobbies and obsessions have always stuck with me for close to 40 years now. When I hit my 40th birthday later this year I will still spend loads of time with my wife and kids, still watch soccer and movies, read as many books as I can squeeze into my crazy life, and zoos will remain incredibly vital to my existence.
What I have noticed over the years of perusing ZooChat is that many folks are not like me at all. There are quite a few zoo nerds that have similar stories in that they grew up idolizing zoos and everything those venerable institutions stood for; those individuals collected maps, cups, guidebooks, etc., and now those same people are also at 300+ zoos and enjoying every minute of their obsession. However, there are many others that have joined ZooChat and had a flurry of activity for months and then they’ve suddenly vanished into thin air. Some folks have been very young and thus they have now gone through university and achieved their dream of obtaining employment in a zoo. I’ve met and kept in contact with a large number of people in the zoo industry and many of them either cannot post anything on ZooChat for fear of losing their job or they only have a passion for their local zoo and they do not have the time, money or inclination to travel vast distances to see other facilities.
There are still others who have loved zoos for years and then suddenly there is a complete turn-around and they give up studying zoos altogether. They become involved in the industry and quit ZooChat; they become obsessed with hiking, bird-watching, whale-watching, train-watching and anything else but zoos. Folks go back to school or move to a new country, join the military or perhaps simply lose interest in captive wildlife. It is fascinating and while I have already mentioned that I’ve kept many obsessions I freely admit to one hobby that I do not partake in any more. I used to own over 800 CD’s and I once gave away hundreds of them for free; I have not purchased a new album since 2008 and have readily thrown in the towel when it comes to modern music. My final couple of concerts featured the elderly Rolling Stones and ironically the “Strolling Bones” are still touring…haha.
Zoos and aquariums are wonderful facilities that inspire conservation, education and a love for all animals. The future has never been brighter as modern zoos demolish outdated exhibits and build shiny new ones for their animals. I wish that all zoo nerds were as passionate as me but I fully understand that life goes on regardless and the world that we live in offers up many other interesting hobbies beyond anything involving zoos. It really is too bad that ZooChat has lost many excellent members but I’ll continue to stick around and hopefully things will pick up again in the future. If you have been one of those that has gained employment in the industry then congratulations, but otherwise where have the rest of the regulars disappeared to? Was your zoo obsession just a brief flirtation and not a lifelong romance?
My entire life I’ve been obsessed with zoos and even at a very young age I would collect plastic toy animals from the local zoos, draw extensively detailed zoo maps or read books about wildlife on a daily basis. I amassed a huge collection of 800 small zoo animals and I’d construct elaborate zoos in my bedroom and wherever my parents would allow me the space for such endeavors. As I got older I collected zoo maps, guidebooks and other knick-knacks and now that I’m an adult I continue to add to my collection of 150 guidebooks and 1,200 maps from zoos across the globe. By the time I was in my late twenties I’d visited approximately 40 zoos and aquariums and I was a workaholic who had received barely any vacation time until I became a high school teacher in the late 2000’s. Since then I’ve got married and had 4 children, plus 3 university degrees (including a Master’s in Education) and yet my zoo obsession has actually intensified. I devote a ton of time to my family and teaching career but I still spend a crazy number of hours planning extensive road trips and researching zoos around the world. Due in no small part to being a teacher and having entire summers off work I will have visited approximately 310 zoos lifetime by the first week of August and I have plans to co-author a zoo and aquarium book that will hopefully be published in 2016.
Other passions that I’ve had over the years has included reading (nothing beats a great book), movies (I watch 150 each year) and soccer (I watch approximately 40 English Premier League matches a year). None of those interests have waned and while I might not spend as much time as I could doing those things if I wasn’t working full-time and having 4 young kids at home…those passions, hobbies and obsessions have always stuck with me for close to 40 years now. When I hit my 40th birthday later this year I will still spend loads of time with my wife and kids, still watch soccer and movies, read as many books as I can squeeze into my crazy life, and zoos will remain incredibly vital to my existence.
What I have noticed over the years of perusing ZooChat is that many folks are not like me at all. There are quite a few zoo nerds that have similar stories in that they grew up idolizing zoos and everything those venerable institutions stood for; those individuals collected maps, cups, guidebooks, etc., and now those same people are also at 300+ zoos and enjoying every minute of their obsession. However, there are many others that have joined ZooChat and had a flurry of activity for months and then they’ve suddenly vanished into thin air. Some folks have been very young and thus they have now gone through university and achieved their dream of obtaining employment in a zoo. I’ve met and kept in contact with a large number of people in the zoo industry and many of them either cannot post anything on ZooChat for fear of losing their job or they only have a passion for their local zoo and they do not have the time, money or inclination to travel vast distances to see other facilities.
There are still others who have loved zoos for years and then suddenly there is a complete turn-around and they give up studying zoos altogether. They become involved in the industry and quit ZooChat; they become obsessed with hiking, bird-watching, whale-watching, train-watching and anything else but zoos. Folks go back to school or move to a new country, join the military or perhaps simply lose interest in captive wildlife. It is fascinating and while I have already mentioned that I’ve kept many obsessions I freely admit to one hobby that I do not partake in any more. I used to own over 800 CD’s and I once gave away hundreds of them for free; I have not purchased a new album since 2008 and have readily thrown in the towel when it comes to modern music. My final couple of concerts featured the elderly Rolling Stones and ironically the “Strolling Bones” are still touring…haha.
Zoos and aquariums are wonderful facilities that inspire conservation, education and a love for all animals. The future has never been brighter as modern zoos demolish outdated exhibits and build shiny new ones for their animals. I wish that all zoo nerds were as passionate as me but I fully understand that life goes on regardless and the world that we live in offers up many other interesting hobbies beyond anything involving zoos. It really is too bad that ZooChat has lost many excellent members but I’ll continue to stick around and hopefully things will pick up again in the future. If you have been one of those that has gained employment in the industry then congratulations, but otherwise where have the rest of the regulars disappeared to? Was your zoo obsession just a brief flirtation and not a lifelong romance?
