Pittsburgh or Chicago

[Schtiemy]

Hello. Me and my family had a very exciting time at the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium last month, and we're (well, mostly me) beginning to plan our next vacation. But as the title suggests, we're (again, me) are stuck between visiting Pittsburgh Zoo + Carnegie Museum and Shedd Aquarium + Field Museum as our next trip. Both would be the longest ride I've ever done, but both have so many cool things I don't know what to pick. Any help would be appreciated.

My mom says we have to commit to one, either Pittsburgh in September or Chicago in June, so things I'd look for in both facility and museum are must see exhibits, traveling exhibits & new species / fossil & taxidermed creatures we haven't seen before, along with other things to see. To break it down, the facilities I've been to are:

• Detroit Zoo
• John Ball Zoo
• Binder Park Zoo
• Potter Park Zoo
• SeaLife Michigan
• Belle Isle Aquarium + Nature Center
• The Reptarium (half of it, couldn't find the other half)
• Boulder Ridge Wild Animal Park
• Columbus Zoo & Aquarium
• Toledo Zoo & Aquarium
• Cleveland Metroparks Zoo
• The Wilds
• Akron Zoo
• Fort Wayne Zoo
• Cranbrook Institute of Science
• University of Michigan Museum of Natural History
• Cleveland Museum of Natural History + Perkins Wildlife Center

 

[MOG2012]

I would recommend Shedd Aquarium and the Field Museum (the Planetarium and Soldier Field are worth visiting) as they have more unique and rarer animals. If you have the time, I would also recommend Lincoln Park Zoo and Peggy Noethbert Museum (10-40 minute car ride with cheap public transport). The only "rare" animals at Pittsburgh are the blue monkeys, philippine crocodile, visayan warty pig, wunderpus, and elephant seal

 

[DavidBrown]

I was at the Pittsburgh Zoo a few months ago (November 2024). It's a good zoo and I enjoyed it, but you likely would not see much there that you have not seen at other zoos you have visited. They have a good basic aquarium, but it is not anything that you wouldn't see at a SeaLife probably (other than penguins). Unfortunately the boto has been dead for over 20 years now...they do have a nice picture of him. The elephant seal is gone from the zoo. The primate house is quite awful, other than a mediocre gorilla exhibit - they have plans to fix this apparently. Their Africa zone has standard African megafauna - giraffes, elephants, lions, antelope, black rhino (didn't see it) in 30 year old exhibits that are okay. The setting of the zoo, Appalachian woodland is wonderful...it is a very pretty zoo.

I didn't have time to visit the Carnegie Museum, but they have a world-famous dinosaur collection.

One note for Chicago, if you had time for a trip to the Brookfield Zoo you might see a pangolin if they still have them on exhibit (do they?), which would be the only place to see one in North America.

 

[Persephone]

Pangolins have been a little hit or miss lately but they are still on display if you can make it to Brookfield.

Assuming you can’t and it’s just those four facilities in consideration: I did a thread for a Pittsburgh road trip that saw the zoo, museum, and aviary. They’ve since lost the elephant seals but not much else has changed.

As for the Chicago facilities, Field has a solid dino collection, a good Asian - Pacific artifact collection, a pretty great North / South American artifact collection, and will soon have some reptiles. That showcase will probably have some rarities. At least one has been confirmed.

Shedd has dolphins and belugas. I don’t see Indianapolis on your list so that’s probably your first cetacean. I’d put it over Pittsburgh for that alone. Shedd also has a ton of fish species, although iffy signage means you might not get a lot out of it unless you’re really into fish. Still, big sharks + dolphins + Amazon rising puts it well above Pittsburgh for me. I also think Field easily clears Carnegie unless you’re really into art. And if you do want to see art Chicago has a few museums for that, too.

Just do Chicago now. Pittsburgh is doing some improvements now and might be better in a few years. At the very least they could get elephant seals again. (Also seriously try to go to Brookfield if you get a chance it’s absolutely massive and has a lot of rare and interesting species.)

 

[JVM]

But as the title suggests, we're (again, me) are stuck between visiting Pittsburgh Zoo + Carnegie Museum and Shedd Aquarium + Field Museum as our next trip.

If you visit Chicago, are you strictly limited to the Shedd-Field? Lincoln Park and Brookfield are both excellent and each have at least one rarity of note. The former has Puerto Rican Parrot and others have mentioned the latter's pangolin already. Brookfield also has small-spotted genet, greater prairie chicken, giant elephant shrew, and some rare snakes.

The Shedd and Field are both excellent facilities, and right now the Field has a selection of live reptiles on temporary display. Well, starting tomorrow!

My mom says we have to commit to one, either Pittsburgh in September or Chicago in June, so things I'd look for in both facility and museum are must see exhibits, traveling exhibits & new species / fossil & taxidermed creatures we haven't seen before, along with other things to see. To break it down, the facilities I've been to are:

In addition to the traveling exhibit mentioned above...

Notable taxidermy at the Field Museum, including notable individuals, species not widely held in zoos and extinct animals:

• Passenger pigeons
• an Extinct Birds display in the Hall of Birds including both models and taxidermy for a number of species, including Carolina Parakeet
• Proboscis Monkey
• Mexican Grizzly Bear
• Ivory-Billed Woodpecker
• Northern White Rhinoceros
• Elephant Seal
• Emperor Penguins
• Giant Forest Hogs
• Giant Armadillo
• Three-toed Sloth
• California Condor
• "Native Cat" (Quoll)
• Platypus
• Indri
• Tarsier
• Douc Langur
• Bushman the gorilla
• Tsavo "maneater" lions
• Su-lin, the first Giant Panda on display in North America

Definitely not a complete list by any means. The Marsupial, Primate and Xenarthan displays include a number of species not on display alive in North America (above) or rarely seen on display (ie Drill) and the Hall of Asian Mammals includes a number of uncommon species.

One of my tips for the Shedd is if you go later in the day, they tend to feed the belugas around 4:30pm before closing, it's a great chance to see them active, enables you to take your time around the rest of the aquarium, and is a great alternative to the dolphin show.

One note for Chicago, if you had time for a trip to the Brookfield Zoo you might see a pangolin if they still have them on exhibit (do they?), which would be the only place to see one in North America.

The pangolin was still there in early April and the most recent visit I'm aware of this week there were no signs the species had left.

 

[SwampDonkey]

Shedd+Field+Lincoln Park. Lincoln Park is really easy to get to using transit from the Shedd area, it is a small zoo and doesn't take much time to see unless you really linger, it seems reasonable to add it to the list. However, if cost is an issue, Chicago is more expensive as a city than Pittsburgh.