This is a great thread. As you guys might remember from other posts, when I visit a zoo I like to indulge in the illusion of discovery and imagine I’m documenting an actual ecology. To that end I often combine zoos near each other, for example the San Antonio Zoo and the Natural Bridge Wildlife Ranch. Or the Alaska Zoo and the AWCC. I’ll also include wildlife I see at the zoo or enroute to the zoo. And of course I count domestics and imagine them as representative of their wild ancestors.
I have also recently been traveling through Alaska conducting inventories of every public display of live animals or natural history exhibits (mostly taxidermy…but also life sized models) I can find.
Not so publicly, I have also been using a mapping system to develop Zoo Constellations. Basically creating a radius of about an hour’s drive around every zoo and documenting which other zoos fall within that radius. And then combing their collections into one “ecology”. Just for the fun of it.
Along the line of this thread, within an hour’s drive (about 40 minutes actually) of the Alaska Zoo you can find seven facilities open to the public that exhibit live animals.
They would be:
The Muskox Farm
The Reindeer Farm
The Anchorage Museum at Rasmussen Center
Starr (Anchorage’s Downtown Reindeer along the Park Strip)
The Alaska Zoo
Indian Valley Meats
The Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center.
We also have the seasonal Alaska State Fair in Palmer Alaska during the last two weeks of August. The state fair, in addition to livestock (which in Alaska includes Reindeer and Yaks), you’ll find an annual traveling Reptile Zoo, and this year a Raptor Demonstration. I’ll count those this year as well.
Now let’s leave out the Anchorage Museum (Snapping Turtle and some tide pool fish…once several species of turtle and American Alligators), Starr (a lone Reindeer famous for taking walks around downtown Anchorage), and Indian Valley meats (Reindeer and domestic fowl).
I will also not include The Alaska SeaLife Center which is about an hour and a half south of the AWCC, which this being Alaska is only just over the next town (Moose Pass if you were wondering). The ASLC exhibits Harbor Seals along with the Alaska Zoo.
So let’s assign numbers to the “Zoos” within an hours drive of The Alaska Zoo (on a good day you could probably make it from the Muskox Farm to the AWCC inside of 1.5 hours or less):
Muskox Farm - 1 (Palmer Alaska)
Reindeer Farm - 2 (Palmer Alaska)
Alaska Zoo - 3 (Anchorage Alaska)
AWCC - 4 (Portage Alaska…technically about 10 miles past the Anchorage Municipal Line).
Reindeer/Caribou: 2.3,4
Muskox: 1,3,4
Moose: 2,3,4
Bison: 2,4
Wapiti: 2,4
Brown Bear: 3,4
Black Bear: 3,4
Sitka Deer: 3,4
Red Fox: 3,4
Coyote: 3,4
Canada Lynx: 3,4
Porcupine: 3,4
Great Horned Owl: 3,4
Bald Eagle: 3,4
Alpaca: 2,3
Domestic Yak: 2,3
Domestic Turkey: 2,3
Domestic Chicken: 2,3
Domestic Rabbit: 2,3
The Wolves (3,4) of the Alaska Zoo have died off and the Horses (2,3) found in the adjacent stables (visible from the wolf and tiger enclosures) at the Alaska Zoo have been moved as the Alaska Zoo has acquired the land housing the stables.
So quite a bit of overlap with Moose, Caribou/Reindeer, and Muskox being shared among 3/4ths of the facilities.
The facilities also frequently transfer animals among each other (this includes the AZA member Alaska SeaLife Center).
Anyway Great Thread
@TinoPup
