How Many Zoos Did You Visit In 2024?

How Many Zoos Did You Visit In 2024?

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2024 was an interesting year for me zoowise!

1. March 27th: Central Park Zoo
1.5. March 27th*: American Museum of Natural History's Susan and Peter J. Solomon Family Insectarium
2. June 20th: Sofia Zoo
2.5**. June 26th: Large Carnivore Education Center, Vlahi
3. July 7th: Tiergarten Schönbrunn
4. July 9th: Prague Zoo
5. July 11th: Budapest Zoo
6. July 29th: Monterey Bay Aquarium
7. July 30th: Monterey Zoo
8. August 2nd: Oakland Zoo (my first time I can remember)
9. September 1st: Pittsburgh Zoo
10. October 24th: Brandywine Zoo
11. October 26th: Bronx Zoo
12. October 29th**: New York Aquarium
13. October 29th**: Prospect Park Zoo
14. December 26th: Saint Louis Zoo

Couple things about why this was an interesting year - this was the year I graduated from college and trekked through Bulgaria, learning about rewilding projects for various species (brown bears, wolves, wisent, griffon vultures, Egyptian vultures, etc.)

This was also the year I almost hit a personal goal of mine, seeing all 8 major bear species! The only one I've missed was Asian black bear, but this year I've seen brown bears (Central Park Zoo, Sofia Zoo, Bronx Zoo, Oakland Zoo, Saint Louis Zoo), polar bears (Tiergarten Schönbrunn, Prague Zoo, Pittsburgh Zoo, Saint Louis Zoo), American black bears (Monterey Zoo, Oakland Zoo), Andean bears (Tiergarten Schönbrunn), sloth bears (Sofia Zoo), giant pandas (Tiergarten Schönbrunn), and sun bears (Oakland Zoo, Saint Louis Zoo).

I also saw a ton of lifers this year (that I still have to catalog :D) in places like Monterey Bay Aquarium, Saint Louis, and even in the wild, like Balkan chamois in Pirin National Park!

Overall, it's been a pretty eventful year, can't wait to see what 2025 has in store!

* I'm counting AMNH's Insectarium since I did both Central Park Zoo and AMNH in the same day, plus AMNH has a sizable insect/arthropod/arachnid collection.
**The Large Carnivore Education Center in Vlahi had some rescued wolves which were ambassadors and some FANTASTIC educational graphics on different large carnivores.
***I did New York Aquarium and Prospect Park Zoo in the same day! Absolutely doable, especially when taking the subway.
 
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68 for me this year. I'm sure I missed one or two, but I don't think I missed any ones that were involved in a "trip" I took. 58 were zoos I had never visited before and are in italics.

United States (42 total, 32 new)
1. Bergen County Zoo
2. Turtle Back Zoo
3. Bronx Zoo
4. Central Park Zoo
5. Queens Zoo
6. Prospect Park Zoo
7. Staten Island Zoo
8. Long Island Aquarium
9. Zoo Atlanta
10. Yellow River Wildlife Sanctuary
11. Georgia Aquarium
12. Chattanooga Zoo
13. Tennessee Aquarium
14. Little Ponderosa Zoo
15. Zoo Knoxville
16. RainForest Adventures
17. Three Bears General Store
18. Ober Mountain
19. Parrot Mountain & Gardens
20. Smoky Mountain Deer Farm
21. Mill Mountain Zoo
22. Virginia Zoo
23. Luray Zoo
24. Catoctin Wildlife Preserve & Zoo
25. ZooAmerica
26. Lehigh Valley Zoo
27. Maymont
28. Metro Richmond Zoo
29. Riverbanks Zoo & Garden
30. Animal Forest at Charles Towne Landing
31. South Carolina Aquarium
32. Lowcountry Zoo @ Brookgreen Gardens
33. Ripley's Aquarium of Myrtle Beach
34. Oregon Zoo
35. Oregon Coast Aquarium
36. Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium
37. Northwest Trek
38. Woodland Park Zoo
39. Seattle Aquarium
40. Jacksonville Zoo
41. Santa Fe Teaching Zoo
42. St. Augustine Alligator Farm Zoo

South Africa (15 new)
43. Johannesburg Zoo
44. Bothongo Rhino & Lion Nature Reserve
45. National Zoo of South Africa
46. Zululand Cat Project @ Edmoneni
47. Zulu Croc
48. St. Lucia Crocodile Park
49. Umgeni River Bird Park
50. Mitchell Park Zoo
51. uShaka Marine World
52. East London Aquarium
53. East London Zoo
54. Birds of Eden
55. Monkeyland
56. Jukani Wildlife Sanctuary
57. Two Oceans Aquarium

Sri Lanka (5 new)
58. National Zoological Gardens of Sri Lanka
59. Sea Turtle Hatchery Habaraduwa
60. Ridiyagama Safari Park
61. Pinnawala Open Zoo
62. Water World Aquarium

United Kingdom (6 new)
63. London Zoo
64. Golders Hill Park Zoo
65. SEA LIFE London Aquarium
66. Battersea Park Children's Zoo
67. Howletts Wild Animal Park
68. Wingham Wildlife Park
 
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Fourteen facilities, which will probably be my record for a good while unless I reach the levels of Zoochat's best and brightest.

United States
Brookfield Zoo
Lincoln Park Zoo
Milwaukee County Zoo
Racine Zoo
Indianapolis Zoo
Omaha's Henry Doorly Zoo

United Kingdom
London Zoo
Whipsnade Zoo
Hamerton Zoo Park
Battersea Park Children's Zoo
Birmingham Wildlife Park
Chester Zoo
Yorkshire Wildlife Park
Johnson's of Old Hurst
 
Was able to hit twenty (so about 1 every 18.3 days) but all of them came in the span of less than 2 months. New ones in bold.

Tennessee Aquarium (TN)
Georgia Aquarium (TN)
Chattanooga Zoo (TN)
Saint Louis Zoo (MO)
Lone Elk County Park (MO)
Omaha's Henry Doorly Zoo and Aquarium (NE)
Rolling Hills Zoo (KS)
Sedgewick County Zoo (KS)
Lee Richardson Zoo (KS)
Cheyenne Mountain Zoo (CO)
Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge (CO)
Denver Zoo (CO)
The Wild Animal Sanctuary (CO)
Arizona Sonora Desert Museum (AZ)
Alameda Park Zoo (NM)
Living Desert Zoo and Gardens (NM)
ABQ BioPark Zoo (NM)
Rattlesnake Museum (NM)
Bearizona Wildlife Park (AZ)
Los Angeles Zoo (CA)
 
I visited exactly thirteen this past year (Fourteen if you count the Bell Museum, which has a small ectotherm collection). Here they are, in no particular order.

1. Minnesota Zoo
2. Como Park Zoo & Conservatory
3. Hemker Park Zoo
4. SeaLife Minnesota
5. Paul Bunyan's Animal Land (regrettably)
6. Lincoln Park Zoo (Chicago)
7. Brookfield Zoo
8. Shedd Aquarium
9. Dallas Zoo
10. Dallas World Aquarium
11. Forth Worth Zoo
12. Great Plains Zoo
13. Butterfly House & Aquarium

I visited fewer zoos in my home state of Minnesota than I usually do, but I'm still quite satisfied with what I did visit this year. I was able to visit longtime targets like the Shedd Aquarium and Fort Worth Zoo and finally got back to the Dallas & Brookfield zoos, which I had not visited since 2019 and 2015 respectively. This is also the first time in a decade that I did not visit the Lake Superior Zoo in Duluth, which I had visited once a year since 2014.
 
  1. Chester Zoo
  2. Welsh Mountain Zoo
  3. Anglesey Sea Zoo
  4. Pili Palas
  5. Thrigby Hall Wildlife Gardens
  6. Leeds Tropical World
  7. Blue Planet Aquarium
  8. Manchester Museum (does this count? They have live animals)
Not many this year but I also didn't really go out of my way either to visit zoos this year.
 
Ituri said:
Not a very big year for me in terms of zoo visits. Eight total with three new:

1. Sedgwick County Zoo
2. Abilene Zoo
3, Hutchinson Zoo
4. Reptilandia Reptile Lagoon
5. Gladys Porter Zoo
6. Dallas World Aquarium
7. Fort Worth Zoo
8. Oklahoma City Zoo
Click to expand...

forgot to include

9 Kansas Wildlife Exhibit
10 The Reptarium - Wichita’s Reptile Zoo
 
19 zoos visited, but a couple were visited more than once. Zoos in bold are new collections, order is chronological for each first visit.

Marwell x2
Birmingham Wildlife Conservation Park x3
Johnson's Of Old Hurst x2
Hamerton x2
Battersea Children's Zoo x2
Dudley x2
Stratford Butterfly Farm
Birdworld
Beale
Hagley Falconry Centre
Twycross
Crocodiles Of The World
National Marine Aquarium
Dartmoor
Tropiquaria
Birmingham Sea Life
London x2
Golders Hill Children's Zoo
Hanwell Zoo

Should have been 22 collections but The Living Rainforest was inaccessible due to a tree blocking the road, and after visiting London last weekend there were major transport issues when I arrived so had to drop Cedars Nature Centre and Horniman Museum & Aquarium for return trips to ZSL and Battersea. Worked out okay because I finally saw a Small Indian Mongoose.
 
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BigNate said:
Was able to hit twenty (so about 1 every 18.3 days) but all of them came in the span of less than 2 months. New ones in bold.

Tennessee Aquarium (TN)
Georgia Aquarium (TN)
Chattanooga Zoo (TN)
Saint Louis Zoo (MO)
Lone Elk County Park (MO)
Omaha's Henry Doorly Zoo and Aquarium (NE)
Rolling Hills Zoo (KS)
Sedgewick County Zoo (KS)
Lee Richardson Zoo (KS)
Cheyenne Mountain Zoo (CO)
Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge (CO)
Denver Zoo (CO)
The Wild Animal Sanctuary (CO)
Arizona Sonora Desert Museum (AZ)
Alameda Park Zoo (NM)
Living Desert Zoo and Gardens (NM)
ABQ BioPark Zoo (NM)
Rattlesnake Museum (NM)
Bearizona Wildlife Park (AZ)
Los Angeles Zoo (CA)
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Just saying but next time you are out around Omaha I would totally recommend going to Lee G Simmons Conservation Park and wildlife safari and all the animals there are from North America but I would totally recommend going there and I am recommending it because I went there and I had the blast of my life and that’s mostly because of how excited and close I was to bald eagles and seeing wolves, Bobcat, owls and grey fox and all the other animals.
 
NSU42 said:
68 for me this year. I'm sure I missed one or two, but I don't think I missed any ones that were involved in a "trip" I took. 58 were zoos I had never visited before and are in italics.

United States (42 total, 32 new)
1. Bergen County Zoo
2. Turtle Back Zoo
3. Bronx Zoo
4. Central Park Zoo
5. Queens Zoo
6. Prospect Park Zoo
7. Staten Island Zoo
8. Long Island Aquarium
9. Zoo Atlanta
10. Yellow River Wildlife Sanctuary
11. Georgia Aquarium
12. Chattanooga Zoo
13. Tennessee Aquarium
14. Little Ponderosa Zoo
15. Zoo Knoxville
16. RainForest Adventures
17. Three Bears General Store
18. Ober Mountain
19. Parrot Mountain & Gardens
20. Smoky Mountain Deer Farm
21. Mill Mountain Zoo
22. Virginia Zoo
23. Luray Zoo
24. Catoctin Wildlife Preserve & Zoo
25. ZooAmerica
26. Lehigh Valley Zoo
27. Maymont
28. Metro Richmond Zoo
29. Riverbanks Zoo & Garden
30. Animal Forest at Charles Towne Landing
31. South Carolina Aquarium
32. Lowcountry Zoo @ Brookgreen Gardens
33. Ripley's Aquarium of Myrtle Beach
34. Oregon Zoo
35. Oregon Coast Aquarium
36. Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium
37. Northwest Trek
38. Woodland Park Zoo
39. Seattle Aquarium
40. Jacksonville Zoo
41. Santa Fe Teaching Zoo
42. St. Augustine Alligator Farm Zoo

South Africa (15 new)
43. Johannesburg Zoo
44. Bothongo Rhino & Lion Nature Reserve
45. National Zoo of South Africa
46. Zululand Cat Project @ Edmoneni
47. Zulu Croc
48. St. Lucia Crocodile Park
49. Umgeni River Bird Park
50. Mitchell Park Zoo
51. uShaka Marine World
52. East London Aquarium
53. East London Zoo
54. Birds of Eden
55. Monkeyland
56. Jukani Wildlife Sanctuary
57. Two Oceans Aquarium

Sri Lanka (5 new)
58. National Zoological Gardens of Sri Lanka
59. Sea Turtle Hatchery Habaraduwa
60. Ridiyagama Safari Park
61. Pinnawala Open Zoo
62. Water World Aquarium

United Kingdom (6 new)
63. London Zoo
64. Golders Hill Park Zoo
65. SEA LIFE London Aquarium
66. Battersea Park Children's Zoo
67. Howletts Wild Animal Park
68. Wingham Wildlife Park
Click to expand...
I guess I'm no longer the only Zoo Chatter to visit Umgeni River Bird Park :p! Seriously, though, I hope you had a great time on your travels this year, and I am quite envious of the Number of zoos you were able to visit!
 
Brum said:
Genuinely shocked to see this on someone else's list as well, let alone someone from over the pond! :eek:
Click to expand...

I try to hit any possible place no matter how big or small it is. This was my first time to London (although my wife goes multiple times a year) and so I did most of my sightseeing in London and was able to combine all of my visits with other "attractions". Golders Hill we were able to do in the same day we did a Highgate Cemetery tour. I will likely never do a zoo exclusive trip "across the pond", but will slowly get to see more and more in my travels. With how often my wife goes there, I have plenty of opportunities to tag along and see the other major zoos in the UK (especially with the high-speed rail system you guys have).

Dhole dude said:
I guess I'm no longer the only Zoo Chatter to visit Umgeni River Bird Park :p! Seriously, though, I hope you had a great time on your travels this year, and I am quite envious of the Number of zoos you were able to visit!
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One of the South Africans haven't ever been? Perhaps Nix is most likely?

My jobs are a huge plus when it comes to travel/seeing zoos. I'm a baseball umpire working mostly college level baseball (but also a little pro ball as well) which I have to travel for throughout the year, but have lots of down time during the day as games are mostly in the afternoon/at night. I also then freelance in PR/Marketing (my wife does this full time) so can work from anywhere. This allows us to take longer trips, like we did this year to South Africa/Sri Lanka for a month. We would do our sightseeing during the day and then work at night. Wasn't working full hours, but 4-5 hours each day was enough to keep money rolling in for us.

EDIT: If we are in fact the only two to be to Umgeni, it is more hilarious that we are both from Minnesota. I moved to Brooklyn two years ago, but was born and raised in MN, living there for the first 28 years of my life.
 
Tigeanderson said:
Just saying but next time you are out around Omaha I would totally recommend going to Lee G Simmons Conservation Park and wildlife safari and all the animals there are from North America but I would totally recommend going there and I am recommending it because I went there and I had the blast of my life and that’s mostly because of how excited and close I was to bald eagles and seeing wolves, Bobcat, owls and grey fox and all the other animals.
Click to expand...
That certainly was the plan, as well as the Lincoln Children's Zoo. Unfortunately after visiting the Omaha zoo a storm forced both zoos to close for the next several days. I was lucky I was able to get Omaha's zoo in time, that would have been devastating.
 
Brum said:
19 zoos visited, but a couple were visited more than once. Zoos in bold are new collections, order is chronological for each first visit.

Marwell x2
Birmingham Wildlife Conservation Park x3
Johnson's Of Old Hurst x2
Hamerton x2
Battersea Children's Zoo x2
Dudley x2
Stratford Butterfly Farm
Birdworld
Beale
Hagley Falconry Centre
Twycross
Crocodiles Of The World
National Marine Aquarium
Dartmoor
Tropiquaria
Birmingham Sea Life
London x2
Golders Hill Children's Zoo
Hanwell Zoo

Should have been 22 collections but The Living Rainforest was inaccessible due to a tree blocking the road, and after visiting London last weekend there were major transport issues when I arrived so had to drop Cedars Nature Centre and Horniman Museum & Aquarium for return trips to ZSL and Battersea. Worked out okay because I finally saw a Small Indian Mongoose.
Click to expand...


Too late to edit it now but that should be 20 zoos as I seem to have missed off Exmoor.
 
BigNate said:
That certainly was the plan, as well as the Lincoln Children's Zoo. Unfortunately after visiting the Omaha zoo a storm forced both zoos to close for the next several days. I was lucky I was able to get Omaha's zoo in time, that would have been devastating.
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Oh okay well I am glad you managed to hit the Omaha zoo and like even though I have been there only once I really enjoyed it like it’s one of my favorite zoos and the reasons are because of the animals and exhibits but also because you see my Paternal Grandfather doesn’t get out and exercise a lot and when me and him went he got a lot of exercise from all the walking that me and him did like we started from where the desert dome is and by the end of our visit we had made our way around to the opposite side of the zoo by jungle dome.
 
  1. Georgia Aquarium
  2. Zoo Atlanta
  3. Riverbanks Zoo
  4. North Carolina Zoo
  5. Greenville Zoo
  6. Lowcountry Zoo
  7. Magnolia Plantation & Gardens Zoo
  8. Eudora Safari Park
  9. Brights Zoo
  10. Oklahoma City Zoo
  11. Dallas World Aquarium
  12. Dallas Zoo
  13. San Antonio Zoo
  14. Natural Bridge Wildlife Ranch
  15. Gladys Porter Zoo
  16. Capitol of Texas Zoo
  17. Houston Zoo
  18. Cameron Park Zoo
  19. Fort Worth Zoo
  20. South Carolina Aquarium
  21. Carolina Raptor Center
  22. Yellow River Wildlife Sanctuary
  23. Smithsonian's National Zoo
  24. Metro Richmond Zoo
  25. Lake Hartwell Safari Park
  26. Rainforest Adventures Zoo
  27. Zoo Knoxville
  28. North Georgia Wildlife Park
  29. Atlanta Safari Park
  30. Bear Hollow Zoo
A nice, even 30! I sort of doubt I'll be able to hit a similar number anytime soon. Italics are repeat visits, all others new.

Honorable mention goes out to the Baylor University bear habitat, which I think would be silly to count as a proper entry, despite being AZA accredited.
 
My richest year yet, although all concentrated, all were first time visits except for the German zoo (my list is not in order of when I visited them):

1. Zoo Ohrada
2. Zoo Praha
3a. Zoo and Botanical Garden Plzeň
3b. Akva Tera Plzeň
4. Safari Park Dvůr Králové nad Labem
5. Zoo Ústí nad Labem
6a. Zoo Děčín
6b. Rajské ostrovy
7. Zoo Liberec
8a. Berlin Zoo
8b. Berlin Aquarium
9. Zoo Jihlava

And among my animal-related experiences I have held a naked mole-rat in my hands!

Also new year has started strong with visits to Haus des Meeres and Tiergarten Schönbrunn + Wüstenhaus, and I plan on visiting the other half of locally-accredited Czech zoos.
 
13 on the year. Pretty average for me the last few years. I tend to focus on locations for wild mammals more. First time visits in bold.

1. Rabat Zoo, Morocco
2. Lisbon Zoo, Portugal
3. Porto Aquarium, Portugal
4. Bronx Zoo (Twice), USA
5. Prospect Park Zoo, USA
6. Brooklyn Aquarium, USA
7. Long Island Fair Exhibition Hall (Temporary), USA
8. Wildlife Festival at Blenheim-Gilboa (Temporary), USA
9. Santa Cruz Zoo, Bolivia
10. Yvaga Guazú Ecological Park, Bolivia
11. Rerservas Las Chinchillas Nocturama, Chile
12. Fauna Andina, Chile
13. Santiago Zoo, Chile
 
3 and a nature center (It's on the site so I'm counting it).

Cleveland Metroparks Zoo: Lost count (Perks of living 15 mins away)
Akron Zoo: 4
Columbus Zoo and Aquarium: 1
Lake Erie Nature Center: Didn't count.
 
I only visited six zoos and aquariums last year, but four of them were first time visits, which I'm very happy about.

New visits are in bold.

1. Dallas Zoo
2. Dallas World Aquarium
3. Fort Worth Zoo
4. Sylvan Heights Bird Park
5. North Carolina Zoo
6. North Carolina Aquarium at Fort Fisher
 
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