America's Best Zoos Updates

zooman said:
Mate lets not split hairs we will never get along.
I think we look at the world very differntley.
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Agreed! Thanks! Honestly, I don't think our views of the world are all that different. As you've learned, both Jon and I didn't even know that we could be contributing financially to ZooChat. Now we know, thanks to you (and I think we both agree now that insulting us was never necessary).

By the way, to respond to your previous points about whether or not I have a lack of "appreciation" and "gratitude" for my position as coauthor of this book, you are absolutely correct that I have a LOT to be thankful for! And believe me, I know it! In this year alone, I've already been to 19 zoos and aquariums in California, Mexico, and Florida -- and I love it! But do understand that it's not all fun -- it can be exhausting at times. Trying to squeeze in as many zoos as I can in the short time I take away from my family, I sometimes get to 2 or 3 a day -- if they're close enough together. I often whip through the zoo, camcorder in one hand, zoo map in the other, and rarely stop to simply "enjoy" the wondrous animals in front of me. And yes, I do also very much appreciate ZooChat -- and its many readers. Thanks everyone!

And again, sorry everyone for bringing up "socialism". But since I know too many personal friends (from many different nations) who have literally suffered as a result of this freedom-robbing form of government, it was just too hard not to respond when I thought (wrongly) that someone was tacking on positive code-words for socialism.
 
tigertiger said:
I personally was also looking for more of a "this is why you should go to this zoo if you're in xxx city" but instead it was more like "The xxx zoo cost $$$ and has these exhibits." It was less like a book and more like a collection of facts.
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I'm sorry you feel that way, Mr. Tiger-squared!
I would challenge you to look again at our book, if you haven't gotten rid of it. You'll find that one of our prime goals was to spotlight how each zoo is different and why "you should go to this zoo if you're in xxx city" -- even if you already have a great zoo in your own hometown. For example, we point out which zoos are best for children's exhibits (Pittsburgh, Lowry Park, Brookfield, Fort Wayne), which zoos have great cultural exhibits (Memphis, San Diego WAP, Disney's AK, Kansas City), and which zoos are best for various types of animals (San Diego- birds, bears, reptiles; Cincinnati-cats; Miami- pachyderms). We also tried very hard to point out which zoos give you opportunities to see animals that are seen are very few other zoos (pandas -- 4 zoos; koalas -- 9 zoos; manatees -- 3 zoos; giant otters -- 2 zoos).

To illustrate this last point, Mr. Gingrich (in his Foreword) says the following about our book:
"During my adult lifetime, I've lived near two excellent zoos -- Zoo Atlanta and Washington's National Zoo. But no one zoo can possibly have everything. While my zoos in Atlanta and Washington are wonderful for watching giant pandas and orangutans, neither of them has koalas or polar bears. To see one of these enchanting creatures, I would need to go to San Diego, or some other zoo. Maybe I want the experience of watching massive hippos, looking graceful as they swim underwater. If I'm near Toledo, Ohio, I'm in luck!"
>> It was a major goal of ours to tell people like Mr. Gingrich and you exactly where you could go to experience the things you can't do or see at your local hometown zoo. I hope that maybe you can see this, as you look at the book again.
 
Jon, I'll look forward to seeing you when you visit Fort Wayne on June 13!African Journey will be open by then--hope you enjoy it! The lions went out for the first time on Wednesday and seem to be enjoying their spacious new exhibit. Same for the hyenas although they really don't care for the water feature in their new home!
 
Interesting updates on the Minnesota Zoo. What zoos will be featured next in your blog? Will you be coming to the Bay Area anytime soon? Would really like to know what's next for the San Francisco Zoo
 
Reduakari, unfortunately I won't be coming out to the Bay area anytime soon. I am really interested in what SF Zoo wants to do next as well. Hopefully the first few months will have interviews about new exhibits opening this year. Can't give you a list now, but I will be updating the blog regularly all week, catching up on posts that I worked on while the new site was under construction. You can subscribe to the blog using email in the upper right corner so it will send you an email when a new post has been put on.

Rookeyper, I sent you a PM about my visit, I am so excited. I loved the old African area, and am so much looking forward to seeing the new project. I very well might be coming up several times this summer, so I'll keep in touch.
 
I really enjoyed listening to the interview with the director of the Minnesota Zoo, and I rate that particular establishment as perhaps one of the best dozen zoos in all of North America. It's great to hear about the seasonal, 6-acre African Savanna opening again this summer, the leafy and weedy sea dragon tanks that will be new additions to the Discovery Bay building, next year's DeBrazzas monkey/colobus monkey/fruit bat/red river hog/dwarf caiman exhibit in the Tropics building, and the 2011 opening (or thereabouts) of "Heart of the Zoo", with meerkats, klipspringers, Japanese macaques, penguins, and possibly bison and elk to be seen from outside the zoo.

A relatively young zoo, opening in 1978, it seems as if Minnesota is going to set an all-time record in terms of attendance over the past fiscal year. "Russia's Grizzly Coast" is one of the best set of habitats of any zoo I've ever seen, and so it is fantastic that it has revitalized the zoo. It was also interesting to hear about the long-term future that could possibly include a large-scale African area, but to build that would surely cost tens of millions of dollars.
 
I just listened to the interview with Bruce Bohmke, deputy director of the Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle. It was great to hear some interesting facts about the brilliant new Humboldt penguin habitat, and to learn about the upcoming expenditure on the 2010 west entry, 2010 meerkat exhibit and future sumatran tiger enclosure. The tiger exhibit will surely be a minimum of 2 years away, but the current ancient grotto will hopefully be transformed into something like Jaguar Cove.
 
Budorcas, has there been any thought towards offering the interviews from the blog in mp3 format? They are a little long and I would love to be able to listen to it in the car.
 
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Definitely. From the beginning, the designer of the website and I wanted to put the interviews on Itunes partly for that reason. Before doing so, he wanted me to get a few episodes done to get my feet wet. That plan is still in place, however July is an extremely busy month for both of us and we have not yet gotten to this step. In August we'll get around to completing it so that the interviews are more convenient to listen to.

Originally, the intention was to keep the interviews around 30 minutes, which is manageable from both ends. However, for several reasons even with all the editing that I do, a few of the discussions have stretched past 45 minutes and one close to an hour. I just did another one today that lasted an hour. I have enjoyed the extra time getting each individual perspective and having plenty of questions, but do realize that it's a little inconvenient at the moment for listeners. We're working on it and hopefully next month have a downloadable format available.

Thanks for your interest, hope you are enjoying what we have so far. If you (or anyone) has a suggestion for a person they'd like to hear, please PM me or leave a comment on the blog. Right now, I'm continuing to interview representatives at institutions opening new exhibits this year, so that should give you a clue into some of the upcoming posts.

Cheers. Jon
 
Hey Jon, are you planning on updating this anymore? I've enjoyed listening to the interviews thus far.
 
I also listened to many of the interviews with zoo directors, but I see that there have been no updates on this thread for about 9 months now. Someone could have had a baby in that time period!:)
 
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