Biggest feather in your cap/bragging point

Some of my most memorable experiences at zoos/aquariums have been:
  • I saw Keiko the killer whale of "Free Willy" fame at the Oregon Coast Aquarium in 1996
  • I pet dolphins at Marineland of the Pacific back in the 1980s (park closed in 1987)
  • I rode an elephant and camel at the Los Angeles Zoo in 1985
  • I saw kangaroos mating at the Los Angeles Zoo in 2000
 
In terms of species seen, Eastern Gorilla, Scarlet-chested Sunbird, Bearded Pig and Grandidier’s Vontsira are probably my proudest. In terms of encounters, having Walruses spray jets of water from their noses scarily close to us, being offered a worm by a Chestnut-backed Ground-thrush, seeing a wild Cuckoo, getting two inches away from a wild European Badger and seeing the only breeding pair of Garganey in Southwest England (at the time of the encounter) by complete chance all spring to mind. Watching King Penguins dive at full speed also stands out to me, but I suspect most members have seen that at some point.
 
Dr. Wolverine said:
Saw small-tooth sandtiger shark at Hakkeijima Sea paradise. Im pretty sure im the only zoochatter to have ever seen one. I looked it up on the site, and apperantly no one has ever even mentioned the species on here before.
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Adding on, I’ve seen all 4 species of sea cow, dwarf sawfish, great slaty woodpecker, Philippine eagle, and bearded pig. Many other Zoochatters will have probably seen some of them.
 
Nothing too impressive but some good memories.

  • Petting a tenrec
  • Getting completely soaked by a breaching bottlenose dolphin after getting close to the show pool
  • Being hissed at by a black-footed cat
  • Followed by a male great argus in a walkthrough aviary out of everyone else nearby
  • Handling and moving several McCord's box turtles indoors during my time as a zoo volunteer
  • Also as a zoo volunteer, being able to hold and use different artifacts such as a mandrill skull, a lion tooth, and more.
  • Touching a Port Jackson shark
  • Witnessing a young gorilla playing in a tree
  • Seeing a gorilla unintentionally holding out its middle finger in our direction (Being flipped off by a gorilla seems like something worth mentioning)
 
I had the following experiences, among others :
  • Seeing the very first moments of public display of a Tasmanian Devil in a French zoo (Beauval) ;
  • Seeing a Persian Leopard cub (not already noticed on the official communication of the zoo) and the first meal of a Galah chick in Beauval ;
  • Catching a picture of a 15-day old Chimp ;
  • Having been locked in the Vivarium of the Ménagerie du Jardin des Plantes (Paris) after the daily closure hour (the curator locked the exit of the pavilion without looking after the presence of visitors) ;
  • Having spent the first months of my life a few hundreds of meters away from the former private zoo of Georges Basilewsky (and from Mr Basilewsky himself, who was still alive !)
  • in the wild, having spotted a Pygmy Owl Glaucidium passerinum in a ski resort in Southern France, also a (quite scary) wild Sheltopusik on an island in Croatia, and a Black Stork over a village in Poland ;
  • having handled and rescued a Peregrine Falcon, a Common Swift and an Arctic Tern, all three counting among the best performers of the bird world regarding to flight.
 
I saw not only one of the last two pandas in Chapultapec Zoo but also one of the last pandas not owned by China.

I also saw Asiatic lions in the Minnesota Zoo before they shipped out (and are now no longer in North America).

Kind of gross but I nearly got snotted on by a giraffe at Como Zoo.
 
Not necessarily bragging points but some of my favourite wildlife and zoo related memories:

  • My first visit to Chester. I remember like it was yesterday and how much I enjoyed the monorail and Islands in Danger (as it was at the time).
  • Seeing wild roller & flamingos
  • Finding a Great northern diver fishing in a Scottish loch
  • Spending a couple of days birdwatching Spurn
  • My first time reading Zoo Grapevine
  • Almost being sprayed by the skunk at Hamerton
  • Feeling the base of an elephant's foot at Blackpool
There will be more but this is all that springs to mind.
 
Tetzoo Quizzer said:
I guess mine remains seeing 2 Slender-billed Curlews at Merja Zerga, Morocco in the late 1980s; the strong likelihood is that the species is now globally extinct.
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Always something of a bitter bragging point, that one; my similar example is having seen Partula faba at Bristol Zoo a little over a decade ago, some years before the captive population collapsed and the species ultimately went extinct.
 
Not merely luck; I fancied seeing all the species in the European guide (Collins), and it became known that a tiny population (originally 4, which gradually declined over several winters) was regular, so planned a trip to include the site. Success was guaranteed thanks to guiding by a local, Hassan Dalil.
 
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In the past few years, I have handled or petted several nice species including tuataras, Galapagos land iguanas, aye-ayes, clouded leopards, echidnas, koalas, wombats, Naultinus geckos, tree kangaroos, great blue turacos, deep sea isopods, dugong, giant flying squirrels, fishing cats, alligators, pangolins, etc.

One of the funniest things I did was photographing living Arctic fishes behind the scenes in an aquarium. Outside it was 20+ degrees Celsius, but these fish were kept in a cold box that was in an old, unstable building. So there I was, with my ski jacket, gloves and construction helmet photographing fish in a walk-in freezer.
 
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