A simply outstanding habitat, home to 4 sea otters and possibly the largest of its kind in North America. I see this species of otter all the time as in the Pacific Northwest there is Vancouver Aquarium, Seattle Aquarium, Point Defiance Zoo, Oregon Zoo and Oregon Coast Aquarium ALL with sea otters. The only exhibit that I've ever seen for this species that is better than the one in this photo would be the habitat in the "Russia's Grizzly Coast" section of Minnesota Zoo.
Also, Woodland Park Zoo and Seattle Aquarium both have river otters and Point Defiance Zoo has Asian small-clawed otters so between 5 different institutions in the same general area (all within 7 hours of driving) there are 8 otter exhibits!
Do you mean 7 hours to drive between them all or all within 7 hours from a given point?
Shudder to think how many otter exhibits are within 7hr driving time of me - there must be at least 15 within an 1.5-2hrs (8 or so, with four species, at the Chestnut Centre alone, plus Twycross, Chester (with 3), Blue Planet, Dudley, SeaLife Birmingham...).
Actually, 7 hours (theoretical) one-way drive time from here covers all the zoos from the National Seal Sanctuary (Gweek, Cornwall) to Highland Wildlife Park - in other words every zoo in England, Wales and Scotland that I'm aware of! (maybe excluding the Isle of Wight - ferry'd slow you down!)
The most otter exhibits from a single 7-hour journey would be an interesting, if odd, challenge - though involving Chestnut (8) and Chester (3, plus one at the Blue Planet Aquarium nearby) would be the way to go - that's a dozen from a single 2hr or so run.
@Maguari: I loved reading your analysis! I meant 7 hours of driving from Vancouver Aquarium (the most northern institution) to Oregon Coast Aquarium (the most southern). The other establishments are between those two.
I always get the impression that I could fly to England, toss a rock in the air and it would somehow hit either a zoo or an aquarium. For me to have seen just about every single one of the 60 best zoos in America I had to drive over 40,000 km in two massive road trips encompassing a total of 15 weeks (2008 summer and 2010 summer). Major zoos are hours apart from each other in the region that I live in, which is in Canada and more than 2 hours north of Seattle, and so just for me to drive down to San Diego would mean at least a 24 hour journey! That is basically three full days of driving 8 hours each day, and I'd still only make it through 3 American states! The distances over here are mind-blowing and so any European that has seen around 200 zoos I like to tell them that is the equivalent of about 50 zoos on this side of the Atlantic.
In terms of getting to UK zoos I'm quite well-placed - there's no zoo closer than about 1hr drive away* but as I say, no mainland British zoo is more than 7hr as I'm more or less exactly central (theoretically, the geographical centre of the British mainland is just outside the town).
Are there many other (otterless!) collections (even very small ones) within that 7hr Pacific Northwest drive?
There are 3 major aquariums (Vancouver, Seattle, Oregon Coast) in that 7 hour drive, and all of them are definitely worth a visit. There are 4 major zoos (Woodland Park, Greater Vancouver, Point Defiance, Oregon) and then a few smaller places (Northwest Trek, B.C. Wildlife Park, Cougar Mountain) and a few even tinier, nondescript establishments.
I live in the Province of British Columbia, and I believe that it is something like 8 times larger than the entire United Kingdom. There is 1 major zoo and 1 major aquarium in the Province, and only about 4 million people in such a vast expanse of land. That is why I have to drive thousands of kilometers, across a massive quantity of land, just to tick off the major North American animal collections.
I wonder if it's a factor of the distance thing, but I always find it odd how little you hear of the very small places in the US. They must exist - I guess that over those distances it might be a case of anyone travelling that far wants to go somewhere big.
Just seems we never hear of US versions of the little gems - small specialist places like the Chestnut Centre or the Cotswold Falconry Centre (which would fit in its entirety within, say, Reptile Mesa at San Diego). Or maybe I've just not been paying attention!
A simply outstanding habitat, home to 4 sea otters and possibly the largest of its kind in North America. I see this species of otter all the time as in the Pacific Northwest there is Vancouver Aquarium, Seattle Aquarium, Point Defiance Zoo, Oregon Zoo and Oregon Coast Aquarium ALL with sea otters. The only exhibit that I've ever seen for this species that is better than the one in this photo would be the habitat in the "Russia's Grizzly Coast" section of Minnesota Zoo.
Also, Woodland Park Zoo and Seattle Aquarium both have river otters and Point Defiance Zoo has Asian small-clawed otters so between 5 different institutions in the same general area (all within 7 hours of driving) there are 8 otter exhibits!
