Have you ever visited a zoo for a specific species?

LowlandGorilla4 said:
The first time I went to the Smithsonian National Zoo was almost solely for the elephants.
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Are you telling me that some people go to the National Zoo for purposes other than seeing the giant pandas!?
In all seriousness, the first of my two visits to the National Zoo was on a school trip that allowed one hour for the zoo. My priorities were Clouded Leopard and Black-footed Ferret. I managed to see the Asia Trail, Elephants, Small Mammal House, Reptile House, Lemur Island, and Cheetah Area at the fast pace of animal, sign, picture, next.
 
Neil chace said:
Are you telling me that some people go to the National Zoo for purposes other than seeing the giant pandas!?
In all seriousness, the first of my two visits to the National Zoo was on a school trip that allowed one hour for the zoo. My priorities were Clouded Leopard and Black-footed Ferret. I managed to see the Asia Trail, Elephants, Small Mammal House, Reptile House, Lemur Island, and Cheetah Area at the fast pace of animal, sign, picture, next.
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I don't have elephants here in Detroit :p, to be honest I couldn't give a hoot about pandas
 
The only reason I went to animal adventures a few months back was to go see the pale fox they have there. When I saw it I was amazed I was able to see it and it’s probably my proudest life list animal.
 
To be honest, I think most of the reasons I visit "new" zoos (I.E. Ones I've never been to before), especially outside the UK, is to see specific species. I've been to so many zoos and seen so many animals that right now I'm largely ticking off lists of "must-see" animals...and that list gets smaller and smaller each year (aside last year, for obvious reasons).
 
I have made some of those trips, as everybody here I guess :D . The ones I can remember for a single species are Apenheul, for the Proboscis Monkeys, Duisburg, for the obvius one, Harderwijk, for White-beaked Dolphin, Tudejen (a small falconery center near my place) for Wahlberg´s Eagle, and my last zoo trip, Lisbon Oceanarium, for the Leafy Seadragon. I also have returned to Berlin Aquarium each time I have visited the city to try to see Tuatara, with no luck.

TeaLovingDave said:
I can't actually think of any point in time when that trumpet manucode was the only Bird of Paradise in Europe - nor a time it was offshow? When was this? :)
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On my first trip to Berlin, in October 2016, the Manucode was off show, we asked to a couple of keepers about it but nobody seemed to know what we were asking about. I saw it the next year but my friend, who had come from US and is a big fan of Birds of Paradise, is still dissapointed about that. The fact that the flamingo enclosure was on renovation and James and Andean flamingos were also off show didn´t help to save the day XD
 
Merintia said:
I also have returned to Berlin Aquarium each time I have visited the city to try to see Tuatara, with no luck.
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I visited Berlin Zoo and Aquarium and was lucky enough to see a keeper retrieve the tuataras from their enclosure. There were 6 enclosures and I hadn't seen any of them before the keeper arrived.
Merintia said:
The ones I can remember for a single species are Apenheul, for the Proboscis Monkeys, Duisburg, for the obvius one, Harderwijk, for White-beaked Dolphin, Tudejen (a small falconery center near my place) for Wahlberg´s Eagle, and my last zoo trip, Lisbon Oceanarium, for the Leafy Seadragon.
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Before I visited Duisburg Zoo in 1985, I read that it had a good collection of marsupials but I only saw red and grey kangaroos. I hadn't been told about the zoo having 4 species of whales - bottle-nosed and Commerson's dolphins, belugas and two Amazon river dolphins.
 
Because of my age, whenever I visit a zoo it’s always with family members or rarely other adults that take me there. I feel like there’s never been a zoo that I was motivated to visit just to see one species, however when we went to San Diego Zoo we all wanted to see the giant pandas and koalas. It was a similar story with the giant pandas at the Toronto Zoo, which had cubs the year we went.
 
Loads of them, most recently (for a new species) was probably London for Antsangy. I didn't see them though but fortunately did see the Water Rats, which were (fortunately) new for me.
Birmingham Sea Life Centre for Sea Otter was also last year, pre-pandemic, and then there's a plethora of other smaller places like All Things Wild (Golden Jackal), Hoo Zoo (African Civet, Zorilla, Cape Genet, plus two new cat species to see on my next visit), Hamerton (loads of stuff), Exmoor (loads of stuff).

I do go to zoos for the sake of going to zoos as well, but I always check the species list to see what might be new beforehand.
 
Merintia said:
On my first trip to Berlin, in October 2016, the Manucode was off show, we asked to a couple of keepers about it but nobody seemed to know what we were asking about. I saw it the next year but my friend, who had come from US and is a big fan of Birds of Paradise, is still dissapointed about that. The fact that the flamingo enclosure was on renovation and James and Andean flamingos were also off show didn´t help to save the day XD
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Closed exhibits on a first zoo visit, is there anything more horrible for zoo nerds?
 
aardvark250 said:
When you go to a zoo for a specific species, the exhibit is open, the animals are there, but you somehow miss the animal. This happen to me with Higashiyama zoo volcano rabbit.
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That have happened to me all the time with Short-beaked Echidna. I have visited at least six zoos that keeps them, and the most I have seen were few quills among the barks of the floor :(
 
When I was either 7 or 8 I visited the Toledo Zoo mostly to see the Elephants. I don't normally get to see elephants because I live in Michigan. If I were to visit again today I would go just because it's a really fun zoo and probably one of my favorites.
 
I haven’t done any specifically yet, although when I was young the okapi and Brazilian tapir was my main motivation to go to Bristol (like, really young), and I intend to do a few when lockdown restrictions are lifted, such as Edinburgh for the Giant Pandas and Whipsnade for the Sloth Bears, and definitely more in the future
 
I currently plan to go to Bearizona for Rocky Mountain Goats. There are photos that show they used to have Dall Sheep but the website doesn't list them anymore.
 
When I visited the main island in Hawaii, I went to the zoo there to specifically to se their white tiger. Mind you I was very young at the time, so I hadn’t realized that it had already passed away months before I visited.
 
Dhole dude said:
When I visited the main island in Hawaii, I went to the zoo there to specifically to se their white tiger. Mind you I was very young at the time, so I hadn’t realized that it had already passed away months before I visited.
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I know that feeling. My first visit to Berlin Zoo was less than a year after the death of their old giant panda, Bao Bao...although fortunately, I was aware of his passing prior. Equally fortunately, I was able to visit years later to see Jiao Qing and Meng Meng.
 
Dhole dude said:
When I visited the main island in Hawaii, I went to the zoo there to specifically to se their white tiger. Mind you I was very young at the time, so I hadn’t realized that it had already passed away months before I visited.
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Though I didn’t go there with the specific intention of seeing the tiger, the one time I visited the zoo in Hilo was also relatively soon after she passed away.
 
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