@snow: from your 180 zoo/aquarium visits what would you say is the most frequent animal exhibit that you have seen?
I would guess that otter exhibits might be the most common mammal exhibit (especially North American river otters) given their ubiquity in many (most?) zoos and aquariums.
Reptile-wise I would guess crocodilian (primarily American alligator).
There are definitely loads of river otter exhibits, and penguins have certainly exploded in popularity during the past decade thanks in part to Happy Feet, Happy Feet II, Mr. Popper's Penguins, March of the Penguins and other penguin-themed Hollywood films.
I have probably seen over a thousand poison dart frogs; and other animals that are regulars in American zoos are some kind of crocodilian, some species of rattlesnake, bald eagles, hawks, black swans, emus, wallabies, meerkats, cotton-top tamarins and golden lion tamarins. Most big zoos have marquee animals such as lions, tigers, giraffes, zebras, some species of antelope, etc. I get very excited when I see a cool, rarely exhibited animal, such as the woolly monkeys at Louisville Zoo, the walruses at Point Defiance Zoo, or the Japanese serow at the Seattle and Calgary zoos. I could go on forever...
