Biggest feather in your cap/bragging point

Tetzoo Quizzer said:
Need to check, it is somewhere around 4,000; more importantly I have seen 224 of 250 bird families in the wild; hopefully 2 more of these will fall in September (Secretarybird and Rockjumpers).
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Secretary birds are so neat. I saw several in Kenya two years ago.
 
I got to feed some leafeater biscuits to giant panda Yang Yang at Zoo Atlanta and observe some of his trained behaviors as part of the zoo's encounter program. Hand-feeding a panda bear is definitely not something most people can say they've done.

As an honorable mention, I've also fed and participated in training sessions with various marine mammals, including California sea lions, harbor seals, bottlenose dolphins, sea otters, and beluga whales. I've pet quite a few different beluga whale tongues! I've also had a quick cuddle with a 3-week-old African penguin.
 
I’m sure it pales in comparison to probably almost everything else that has been posted here, but seeing what I believe are the only black wildebeest in North America at Boulder Ridge Wild Animal Park. Granted, Boulder Ridge was a private facility with some very questionable ethics (which is why I don’t plan on returning for a good few years at least) but it was still awesome to see them.
Black wildebeest - ZooChat
 
My story is nothing impressive when compared to most of the others posted on this thread, but it was a very cool moment that I'm very fond of.

Some years ago, during one of my visits to my local zoo, I was watching one of the jaguars during feeding time. Since all of the big cats are housed in open-air moated exhibits, a quite large group of wild Black vultures would enter the area trying to get a nibble from the meat pieces placed in the middle of the grass. I then witnessed one of the jaguars crawl in the direction of a distracted vulture, observing it just like if it was hunting in the wild. It then pounced, but fortunately for the vulture, it managed to dodge and escape. The zoo crew no longer feeds the big cats on the outdoor areas of the exhibit, but it was really awesome to see an animal display such a natural behaviour.
 
Nile Hippo Expert said:
First to recommend, which is a massive difference from simply just voting for it online, there's not many people out there who have that fact to their name for a zoo animal.
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lol Now maybe, not in the olden days. I named dozens of zoo animals and the names most often stuck. Usually something like Ben, Bobby, Buck, Cindy, Babette, Pierre, Blue, Chi, Cocomo, Judy and a White Peacock we named Stupid. Stupid fell down the Donnybrook Chimney and died but earned the name long before that. Named a baby Hippo Bubbles once but it did not survive the mother, the hippo parents were named Marlin and Perky
 
Riverdale Zoo said:
lol Now maybe, not in the olden days. I named dozens of zoo animals and the names most often stuck. Usually something like Ben, Bobby, Buck, Cindy, Babette, Pierre, Blue, Chi, Cocomo, Judy and a White Peacock we named Stupid. Stupid fell down the Donnybrook Chimney and died but earned the name long before that. Named a baby Hippo Bubbles once but it did not survive the mother, the hippo parents were named Marlin and Perky
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Tbf, peacocks are probably some of the dumbest creatures I've encountered
 
Gosh, so many things! Several of these were because I was lucky enough to participate in Seaworld's summer camps in 2014-16 at Orlando and San Antonio:

-At Seaworld San Antonio, I interacted with a walrus in the water with a gate between us (fed fish, touched its face, etc.). I also swam with penguins in the exhibit pool, helped to clean the killer whale medical pool (sans animal, but still wild to have dipped my hands in their habitat) and set fish on the slideout and stages for the afternoon presentations, did a pacific white-sided dolphin interaction, fed sharks with food on the end of a pole, and held a black and white ruffed lemur

-At Seaworld Orlando, swam in the dolphin show pool, waded in and cleaned the stingray touch pool, snorkeled in a cage in Shark Encotuner with sawfish, slept overnight in the penguin, manatee, and a beluga underwater viewing areas

-At Aqutica Orlando, did a Commerson's dolphin interaction with some of the only individuals in human care

-At Busch Gardens Tampa, got to touch and feed a ground cuscus several years ago now

-At the Stone Zoo, touched the tail of a snow leopard during a blood draw desensitization session

-At Zoo Atlanta, fed the giant pandas

-As far as animal rarities, some of the things I'm most excited about seeing in my life were the aardwolf at Cincinnati, the elephant twins at Rosamond Gifford, the platypus at the San Diego Safari Park, and the whale sharks and manta rays at Georgia Aquarium.
 
Taking photos inside the enclosure with African Golden Cat, Otter Civet, Hairy-nosed Otter, Mountain Tapir, Taruca, Aye-aye, Giant Armadillo, Javan Ferret-badger.

Visiting the private collections of Al Bustan, Fauna Andina, Bioparque M'Bopicuá, PCBA, NUPECCE, CPRJ, CTC, IMMS, Larry Johnson, Shadow Nursery, and an unnamed collection in Jakarta.

Going behind the scenes at some of the biggest zoos in the world such as San Diego Zoo, San Diego Safari Park, Tierpark Berlin, Singapore Zoo, Columbus Zoo, and Moscow Zoo. (But somehow never my home zoo of Bronx- not that I've tried much)

Having my finger nibbled on by and petting a Platypus.

Being gifted a zookeeper's windbreaker from Tierpark Berlin (complete with a Bison silhouette on the back)


CMP said:
I've seen three species of Pangolin. The easiest three, and none wild, so I have some work to do.
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I'm also stuck at 3 species of Pangolin and I've seen 1715 mammal species total- so well done! I've been in range for all of the other 5 species, but have yet to see a Pangolin wild. I'd heard of Ground Pangolins rescued and captive in South Africa, but would've been impossible to get there in the time I had. And I went to India wayy too early in my mammaling-career to figure out where they were held captive (now I know).
 
The one I tend to share is sharing a pool with Naya the beluga at Shedd Aquarium- petting her melon, doing some tricks, feeding her, and the highlight of it all, getting sprayed. But I struggle to think of this as a real "feather in my cap" because it's all stuff that anyone could experience, you know? You've just gotta pay to do it.

One experience that really stands out to me was during a visit to Henry Doorly, at the gorilla enclosure, one of the males- I think Timmy- walked straight up to me. Out of a whole crowd of people, he walked directly to my spot at the glass, made eye contact, glanced at the crowd, and walked away. It felt so magical. So special, to feel seen by such an intelligent animal.

I actually never did identify exactly which gorilla it was. I made this post ages ago to little fanfare lol.
 
When I was 10, my parents contacted Zoo de La Flèche in France to ask if they could do something special for my birthday. At the time, there were no existing options for that kind of request. However, after paying a supplement, the zoo offered us access to two unique experiences: a behind-the-scenes tour of the bird show and a visit to the California sea lion enclosure. I got to see their facilities and even got a hug from a trained male that must have weighed around 300 kg.
 
Definitely not the most impressive thing here, but I was able to go up to the top of the Shedd's Caribbean Reef tank several years back
 
My are

1 is getting to swim and touch a bottlenose dolphin at the indianapolis zoo

2 is seeing the Sumatra rhinos at the cincinnati zoo my home zoo

3 Is getting pounced at by a Sumatra tiger at the fort wayne zoo in indiana

4 is getting licked in the nose by a black and white ruffed lemur at a animal park in Texas

5 is going to 100 different zoos

6 Getting splashed by a cownose ray on my birthday at the Newport aquarium in Kentucky
 
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