Favorite zoo Memories.

A few notable experiences come to mind:

"Work":
- Keeper experience days at Exmoor Zoo as a child... such experiences rooted my passion for wanting to work in the industry.
- Week long placements at Bristol, Noahs ark and YWP.
- Living and Working in Blackpool Zoo - there's nothing quite like the sound of a zoo at night.
- Current placement at Paignton Zoo.
- Recently secured my first paid job in the zoo industry.

Animal Interactions (the most exciting ones):
- Pygmy Hippo, Nato, at Bristol Zoo (Now passed).
- Slow Loris at Bristol Zoo.
- Short-Beaked Echidna, Bruce, at Paignton Zoo.
- Kiwi at Paignton Zoo
- Spectacles bears, Tupa and Sonco, at Noahs Ark.
- Hyacinth Macaw at Tropical Birdland.
- Fossa at Lakeland Wildlife Oasis (Target training).

Zoochatters:
- Meeting @migdog 's wife before him at a conference and saying "Hold on a minute, I know who you are!" The look of dread on her face was fantastic ;):p
- Putting many names to faces during the IZES meeting at Hamerton this summer.
- The many messages and positive interactions I've had since have been great - I've certainly made some fantastic friends.

I can think of many more... but I don't want to flood the thread :p
 
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I think the ones that i can think of right now would be:
- petting free roaming piglets in Tierpark Krüzen
- seeing walruses for the first time in Hagenbeck
- catching an escaped pelican at Berlin Zoo
- getting peed on by an orang-utan at Zoo Rostock (luckily there was a glass wall between that:D)
- first time seeing dolpins at Zoo Duisburg
- being in the Gondwanaland in Zoo Leipzig at 35 degree celsius outside temperature
- seeing the elephant Rani growing up in Hagenbeck, then going to Leipzig and having her first child there
- being chosen as voluntary in a bird show in Wildpark Schwarze Berge and feeding a peregrine falcon in order to that
- the first time i went through the, at the time new, Eismeer in Hagenbeck
- interacting with a silverback gorilla at Erlebnis-Zoo Hannover
- having a crowned pigeon following me through a tropical hall at Vogelpark Walsrode
- feeding elephants at Tierpark Hagenbeck
- feeding penguins in Münster
- seeing fighting gelada males at Zoo Zürich
and last but not least, not really a zoo memory, but after a visit in Tierpark Hellabrunn on a really hot summer day i went to the Isar to dip my feet into the water

As i said these were the first ones that came to my mind and since i am only 15, i hope there are many more to come.
 
Mine are certainly nothing extraordinary, but they did spark my passion for zoos nevertheless.

-Gharials, California Condor, Giant Panda, Gelada, and Shoebills as San Diego
-Hearing The Lemurs calls early morning in San Diego’s Africa Rocks was one of the greatest things I’ve ever experienced in a zoo.
-Mountain Tapir, Moose, and Mexican Wolves at Cheyenne Mountain
-Up close with a Wallaby Joey at Cheyenne Mountain
-Lion Cubs, Clouded Leopard Cubs, Addax, Aye Aye, and Lake Titicaca Frogs at Denver.
-Petting and Feeding a pregnant Okapi at Denver
 
Tim May said:
• my first marbled cat (Los Angeles)
Click to expand...

Just going to pretend I am not jealous...

My first oncilla was quite a cool moment, as well as getting up to the canopy walk in Gondwanaland. I have more, including lots of leopard and jaguar experiences.

EDIT: Seeing a Wallcreeper for the first time was really great as well.
 
Detroit Zoo: trying to climb into the pool at the butterfly house as a tiny kid, seeing the Polk Penguin Conservation Station for the first time, a time in the winter I went on my birthday and no one was there and the wolves and wolverines were out.
Columbus Zoo: my first and so far only okapis and pallas cat, the muntjac following me throughout the pheasantry.
Lincoln Park Zoo: my first and so far only sand cat.
The Wilds: all of it! It was beyond incredible.
 
My favorite zoo memories:
when I touched a Muntjac in Budapest
my first Black rhino and African painted dog in Győr
my first Genet and Polar fox in Kecskemét
my first Hartmann's zebra, Anoa, Roan antelope, Fossa and Goitered gazella in Szeged
when I was in Budapest zoo with my class... maybe this is my best zoo memory, not because of the animals:)
 
All of my favorite zoo memories have taken place at the Pittsburgh Zoo and PPG Aquarium because that’s the only zoo I’ve attended.

1. Petting a female Ball Python and Australian Blue-Tongued Skink (June 2018-I never got up close and touched a reptile’s skin before and I was surprised at how docile they were and how leathery their skin felt).
2. Having an Angola Colobus monkey come all the way up to the glass in the Tropical Forest Complex and interact with me (September 2019)
3. My very last zoo visit with my Grandfather (August 9th, 2007)...he was my absolute favorite person to visit the zoo with as he knew how much I loved animals and regardless of how many or what species we saw he always magically made the experience more memorable.
4. Seeing Polar Bears in a zoo for the first time (August 9th, 2007) at Water’s Edge
5. Petting one of the female elephants (August 2010)
6. Meeting Nifty, the male Reticulated Giraffe (Their last reticulated giraffe died in early 2007, and they acquired Masai giraffes in June and they’ve been on exhibit since Labor Day 2007) up close and personal, while getting bitten by a mosquito during Animal Adventures Zoo Camp in 2005.
7. Getting a behind the scenes look at the African Lions and Amur Tigers off-exhibit in the off-exhibit holding areas (2008; 2009; 2010)
8. Getting to see Eastern Black Rhinoceros, Azizi and her calf, Kesi...2019).
9. Watching the then infant Bornean orangutan, Giwa play (August 9th, 2007)
10. Getting to see the mother Canada Lynx and her kittens (2019)
11. Staring straight into the eyes of an Eastern Diamondback Rattlesnake (2017)
12. Standing face to face with a meerkat (2017)
13. Feeling very pleasantly surprised to see my favorite new world monkey, White-Faced Sakis, when I was expecting to see Tufted Capuchins in their exhibit (2018 and 2019)
14. Being half-entertained and half scared when male, Northern White-Cheeked Gibbon, Picard kept leaping and jumping on the glass with great athleticism, agility, intensity, and power.
15. Seeing Amur Tiger cubs, Andre and Tesha in the 2018 and then seeing how much they grew when I visited in 2019.
16. Going behind the scenes in the PPG Aquarium’s Open Ocean shark tank (well not technically in the tank, but we were almost above the water in the area where the aquarists feed the sharks) and seeing how the aquarists feed the Blacktip Reef Sharks, Zebra Sharks, and Bonnethead Sharks during Zoo Camp 2005.
 
Memorable rather than favourite, I can remember accompanying a school group to an aquarium in Northern France. The piranhas were just being fed. One of them was accidentally injured and started to bleed; within seconds the others attacked and stripped it. Scary cannibalism!
 
Some good memories where when...

I first saw honey badgers, coconut crabs, crowned eagles, kagus, and geladas at San Diego zoo.

Slender horned gazelles at blank park zoo

Shoebills at San Diego zoo wild animal/Safari Park, an Indian rhino got a few inches from me and pooped right in front of me at San Diego zoo wild animal/Safari Park

And Seeing the Hawaiian monk seals at Minnesota zoo (many times)
 
The one zoo memory I have currently in my mind was when I saw Jack Hanna (from a distance) in the flesh at Seaworld Orlando during a special event several years ago..
 
Some of my favorite zoo memories:
Seeing my first (and only) Polar Bear at the EcoTarium
Seeing my first Giant Pandas at Pairi Daiza
Getting into Southwick's Zoo for free because no other visitors were there and it was raining so they just let me and my friend in
 
Here's what I have

Seeing lemurs for the first time in the Bronx with my mom when I was 9 years old
Seeing Baby Izmir (Turkey's first Asian elephant calf) at the new Izmir zoo/wildlife park
Going to Berlin zoo (I even remember having a night before which was a weird chorus which looked like a knock off of "Thankful heart" from a Muppet Christmas Carol. I guess I was too excited)
Seeing baby orangutans play in Berlin
Seeing a young gorilla harass an older family member in Cologne
Summer camp at the Bronx zoo
Seeing a brushtail possum (I didn't expect to see it) in Tama zoo and taking it's photo
Feeding squirrel monkeys in Nagasaki bio park
Seeing a bateleur eagle in a show
 
Seeing elephants up close were one of my biggest childhood memories. Magnificent giants that roamed Africa for many years.

Now it seems many zoos seem to be cutting down on them thanks to certain animal rights groups. Brookfield IMO just didn’t feel the same without them. As for Lincoln Park, the new animal exhibits they’ve added easily make up for it. Other than the obvious fact that the zoo is too small to accommodate for such large animals.
 
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