Snowleopard's 2015 Road Trip

I stand by my original statement. Of course zoos have a core market. But to suggest they are 'for' people with kids who want to see the abcs, is, I believe, deeply flawed. I am not one of the people who moans about anything slightly commercial or child orientated in zoos. In fact, given the number of people on here who are completely unrealistic about the need for zoos to respond to visitor expectations in order to fulfil their mission (especially in the UK forums), I often think this site should be called grumpy old man chat. But zoos have a complex mission and that doesn't only include catering to families and it doesn't only include exhibiting the obvious species.

As for your criticism and how you addressed my comment, I could get personal but I won't; I will just say that I certainly resent being told to mind my manners. Who do you think you are?
 
snowleopard said:
I almost wish that I had kept track from the start with my informal estimates but of all these zoos that I've been visiting I would make a guess that at least 90% of all adult visitors are with at least one child. There is the occasional couple holding hands and in love, a few seniors puttering around the grounds, and then myself. Sooty Mangabey understood my point in relation to Reid Park but not everyone gets it. Zoo enthusiasts want to see rare species added to that zoo's collection and I know some folks who would personally scoff at the idea that a carousel project has just broken ground but the zoo needs to cater to 90-95% of its visitors. I think that a carousel is a brilliant idea and I was only pointing out that I meet the criteria for both worlds: the zoo geek taking photos of 150 species signs in MOLA at Fort Worth Zoo and the father of 4 young children. Also, Reid Park Zoo has a Black-Faced Friarbird and supposedly that single specimen is the only one of its kind in the United States. See, even Reid Park can appeal to the most hardcore of all zoo enthusiasts!
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Thanks, Snowleopard, for the great reports you've posted throughout your road trip. And I used to consider myself a zoo fan... I could never do what you do (I'd get far too depressed and angry, I think - I tend to stick with the larger, AZA-accredited institutions) - but I'm glad someone is doing it so the rest of us don't have to.

I'm posting with an observation regarding your informal estimates. I do not doubt that your estimates hold true in some cases, but I would encourage you and others to take this with a grain of salt: you're talking about numbers at mostly smaller zoos (at least on this current road trip), many of them taken on weekdays, all of them during the summer season, when most schools are out of session. The demographics will be very different and not necessarily representative of the zoo-going population as a whole. I would venture that most smaller, neighborhood zoos attract a higher percentage of visitors with children, particularly in the summer, than larger, national zoos do throughout the year. As an adult without children, I can be (and am) choosy about the zoos I visit, and often pass up smaller, local institutions that, if I did have kids and lived near, I might have visited. I don't get very much out of smaller institutions - not that I believe that only zoos with large budgets can provide well for their charges, but merely because I've seen and studied animals a lot over the years, and with limited time, I choose carefully before taking the time and money to visit any zoo. I'm certain my priorities would be very different if I had children.

While I would never consider myself representative of a "typical zoo-goer," in my experience, larger, comprehensive zoos can and do attract a varied crowd, especially outside of the summer months. In fact, if other adult zoo-goers without kids are anything like me, they might be more likely to avoid those days when family attendance is at its highest (I tend to visit a lot less during the summer than at other times of the year). While I don't the 90% figure could be accurate at some institutions, I think it is impossible to easily extrapolate to overall trends (not that I think this is what you were necessarily trying to do - I know, though, as a former teacher, that any estimates I took of the ratio of children to adults anywhere were skewed by the times I visited - if I tended to be free to do something, there tended to be more kids free at the same time and thus more kids in attendance).

So, does anyone have statistics to back this up? I'm sure many larger zoos have engaged in formal demographic studies of their audience... there must be some (formal) numbers we could get our hands on....
 
DAY 23: Tuesday, August 4th

Twenty years now
Where’d they go?
Twenty years
I don’t know
Sit and I wonder sometimes
Where they’ve gone

Lyrics: Bob Seger (“Like a Rock”)

I’ve felt my age a little on this trip and listening to Bob Seger sing about how twenty years have slipped by made me feel nostalgic. Many of the rock bands that I’ve been listening to for my month on the road had their glory days (or slightly past their glory days) in the early 1990’s, when I was graduating from high school and just a young whipper-snapper. There were many great bands at the top of their game, such as: Pearl Jam, Nirvana, Soundgarden, The Black Crowes, Stone Temple Pilots, Green Day, Guns n’ Roses, Def Leppard, Aerosmith, Bon Jovi, Collective Soul, Counting Crows, 54-40, Dave Matthews Band, Smashing Pumpkins, R.E.M., Oasis, U2, Radiohead, INXS and Midnight Oil. Loads of great solo artists were also chugging along on the airwaves: Bruce Springsteen, Steve Earle, Tom Petty, Neil Young, Alanis Morissette, Sheryl Crow, Sarah McLachlan, Paul Simon, Bruce Cockburn, Bob Seger, Lenny Kravitz and Beck.

Listening to all of those artists on my CD’s makes me feel my age. From about 1965, when the world’s greatest rock n’ roll band The Rolling Stones released “Satisfaction”, to around 2005 was a tremendous run of 40 years of music. However, the last decade has seen the complete and utter domination of music by hip hop, rap or pop artists and the gritty rock bands are few and far between. Since I am from the Vancouver, British Columbia, region I can vividly recall being heavily influenced by the so-called Grunge Movement of the early 1990’s when Nirvana and Pearl Jam were selling tens of millions of records and I’d go to concerts all the time. When I hear Bob Seger’s classic hit “Like a Rock” I think of how next year Pearl Jam’s debut album Ten will be 25 years old and they will thus qualify to be inducted into the Rock n’ Roll Hall of Fame. I can remember listening to that album in my teens and now later on this year I’ll be 40 years old and where the hell did the time go?

Time waits for no one and it always holds the winning hand. I have wonderful memories of working at fast food restaurants when I was a teen and blasting my all-time favourite record (U2’s The Joshua Tree) up to 11 on the stereo. I was never a huge partier but there was a time when I’d often pull all-nighters on the weekend and then go to work the next day and not even feel that bad. Now if I pulled an all-nighter it would take me a week to recover! I can remember seeing Pearl Jam in concert and with a couple of songs left in the show out walked Neil Young and the intimate venue (1,000 people) went ballistic with excitement. That was 20 years ago this year and it was a truly memorable show.

I’m a massive film buff and for example I’ve seen 490 of the exactly 520 movies that have been nominated for Best Picture at the Academy Awards. The 30 that I’m missing are almost all from the 1930’s and I’ve been slowly chipping away at that total for my whole life. Anyway, the film that I saw more than any other in the theater (6 times) was Pulp Fiction and I still adore that reckless, violent, never-for-a-moment-dull film to this day. Pulp Fiction was released 21 years ago and I honestly don’t know where the hell the time has gone. What happened to all of those years? I can remember crying with joy when my daughter was born and she is now almost 6 years old and she has a trio of little brothers to look after. Where’d they come from? I think that we all need remote controls on our lives so that we can hit the mute button every once in a while.

Life is funny in the way that time can shift perspective and flow with varying speeds or eddy when you least expect it. A visit to the dentist’s office can seem like an eternity and yet a lifetime can flash by in an instant. I remember spending hours typing out a 12-page paper to submit for my Master’s Degree program and the application process was tedious and stressful. Now two years has elapsed and my Master’s program ended in July and it is done forever. Fellow teachers bump into me and ask things like “When do you start that program?” and when I tell them that I’m already finished they are stunned. Or when I run into someone who I haven’t seen for a while they ask how my daughter is and I tell them that I’ve had 3 boys since then and it amuses me to no end to see their reaction. Finally, it is funny when ZooChatters ask when I’m starting my latest road trip and I tell them that I’m 80 zoos in and winding down the journey. Time is something that cannot be bottled and sold by any snake oil salesman but it would be one of the most valuable commodities ever if that was the case.

Odds n’ Sods:

- Today I saw approximately 40 Rocky Mountain Elk in a field right next to the road. Spectacular!
- I often make an attempt to support zoos that I really enjoy. At every single establishment I always check out the gift shop as that structure is an important aspect of all zoos and I enjoy picking out souvenirs. If I come across a particularly good little zoo, like Sequoia Park, I make an effort to buy something so that I feel as if I’m contributing to the place of business. On that note, if I’m at some kind of hellhole then my line of thinking is that even if there is something neat in the gift shop then I’m not as inclined to give the owners my money.
- One thing that my own kids absolutely LOVE at zoos and aquariums is when they are given a sheet of paper or tiny book when they enter a facility and on it are places where stamps are needed. Then each child can go from station to station around a zoo or aquarium and place the ink stamps on their sheet. I saw this the other day and it is terrific as it forces children to actually visit all of the stations and they get excited to complete the set of stamps. The same thing could work for stickers as well and I’d like to see more zoos incorporate “stations” throughout the zoo as it would keep families there longer. The more time a family spends at a zoo then the greater likelihood of them spending money on food, snacks, souvenirs, rides, etc.
- The temperature has plummeted from 35-45 degrees Celsius every day to 18 today and I almost ran back to my car at Sequoia Park Zoo to get my sweater, which I’ve never worn on the trip. My motel in southern Oregon didn’t even have air conditioning tonight and now I’m in thick conifer forests while before I was spending days driving through deserts. The cooler temperature has been nice but also a shock to my system.

Sequoia Park Zoo:

Sequoia Park Zoo is an AZA accredited zoo located in Eureka, California, and the facility is only 5 acres in size but of a high quality. The new Watershed Heroes complex (opened in 2014) is outstanding and the North American River Otter exhibit has underwater viewing and beautifully landscaped land. A walk-in area, complete with an enormous redwood tree inside, has a visitor viewing area that looks upon a couple of exhibits (Bald Eagle and Northern Spotted Owl/North American Porcupine) and Salmon have a couple of tanks across from the otters. The whole area is brilliant and the centerpiece of the zoo; smack dab in the middle of the park.

The Chacoan Peccary/Greater Rhea grassy yard is excellent (although the peccaries were locked into a small side exhibit on my visit); Mara/Crested Screamer equally good; Red Panda/Indian Muntjac just okay; Barnyard zone solid; Chilean Flamingos with a big evergreen right in the middle of their habitat!; Bush Dogs are a delight in what must have been an old bear/big cat grotto; gibbon and spider monkey cages just so-so. For the most part this zoo gets things right and I thoroughly enjoyed winding my way through surrounding redwood forests to spend an hour at this facility.

Ocean World:

Ocean World is a non-AZA accredited zoo located in Crescent City, California, and the facility only has 6 exhibits but 500,000 gallons of water. Upon arrival visitors are not allowed to walk through themselves but instead are conducted on a 45-minute tour. First stop is the mammoth gift shop before proceeding down to a basic touch tank. Then visitors enter upon a barge that has been sunk partially into the water and down the stairs there is a path that leads to the main section that is practically identical to Undersea Gardens in Newport, Oregon. Looking around it seems that there is a single tank surrounding visitors but in fact the area is divided into 4 separate exhibits. One is the underwater viewing area for the California Sea Lion/Harbour Seal exhibit; one is for Bat Rays, Leopard Sharks, White Sturgeon and other larger fish; and the last two tanks are filled with Horn Sharks, Swell Sharks, Dungeness Crabs and lots of species of rockfish. Upon leaving that area there is another touch tank with 3 sharks that get petted hundreds of times per day and then the upper level area for the sea lions and seals. At that point there is a 15-minute show involving circus-style sea lion tricks and crazy noises from the seals. In terms of entertaining the public it is an 8 out of 10 but in terms of conservation or learning any habits about pinnipeds it is a 2 out of 10. Overall the aquarium is looking a tad dusty and rough around the edges and I’d only recommend it to hardcore zoo enthusiasts.

Great Cats World Park:

Great Cats World Park is a non-AZA accredited zoo located in Cave Junction, Oregon, and the facility is another one that involves a tour. When a new visitor arrives they catch up with an already started tour and then continue until that guided section is over. Then the individual can catch up with another tour and see the cats they missed the first time around and that way they see the whole facility.

This establishment makes the bulk of its money via photo shoots and there is a very long list of commercials, magazine advertisements and even movies featuring the cats at the park. The owner was away during my visit and he had taken 5 cats with him and I wonder how he transports them and where he keeps them on his trips. Apparently he goes inside the exhibits with 50 out of the 54 cats at the park and he will even walk some of the felines around the place on a leash. I had two guides during my 1.5 hours at the zoo and they both said that the owner likes to surprise tour groups by walking into an enclosure with a tiger and wrestling with the cat. What is with all of the people I’ve seen going into exhibits with huge cats? Anyway, only the owner is allowed in the cages but he refuses to venture near the 2 Jaguar brothers as they were not hand-reared like the rest of the cats and they are apparently much fiercer than the other felines on display. The tours I saw were actually very informative and at each enclosure the guide would take out pieces of meat and feed snacks to the cats. That way the animals were highly visible along the fence line and there were cases of a Jaguar 8 foot high on the chain-link fencing as the meat was held up there for him to eat.

Species List (14 total): African Lion, Bengal Tiger (including the obligatory white ones), Jaguar, Cougar, Amur Leopard, African Leopard (including a black one), African Wildcat (including a black one and a clone!), Serval, Caracal, Eurasian Lynx, Geoffrey’s Cat, Clouded Leopard, Snow Leopard and Fishing Cat. I saw the first 11 species as the last 3 on this list were all in Colorado with the zoo’s director for a travelling show.
 
Completely off-thread, but I gotta say "I feel you dude". I'm 47 now and recognise a lot of what you're saying. Beautiful elegiac post

snowleopard said:

There were many great bands at the top of their game, such as: Pearl Jam, Nirvana, Soundgarden, The Black Crowes, Stone Temple Pilots, Green Day, Guns n’ Roses, Def Leppard, Aerosmith, Bon Jovi, Collective Soul, Counting Crows, 54-40, Dave Matthews Band, Smashing Pumpkins, R.E.M., Oasis, U2, Radiohead, INXS and Midnight Oil. Loads of great solo artists were also chugging along on the airwaves: Bruce Springsteen, Steve Earle, Tom Petty, Neil Young, Alanis Morissette, Sheryl Crow, Sarah McLachlan, Paul Simon, Bruce Cockburn, Bob Seger, Lenny Kravitz and Beck.
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My own musical education included a load of those, though missing a few of the more mainstream US acts. Not all my taste, but a lot is.

snowleopard said:

From about 1965, when the world’s greatest rock n’ roll band The Rolling Stones released “Satisfaction”, to around 2005 was a tremendous run of 40 years of music. However, the last decade has seen the complete and utter domination of music by hip hop, rap or pop artists and the gritty rock bands are few and far between.
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The run's still going, it's just not as rock-dominated anymore (and I don't think that's a bad thing). Personally, I think the 1990's was astounding culturally -music, and everything else, was thrown into a mixing pot and some great stuff emerged. To me, Beck (who you mention) was a major influence on the decade.

snowleopard said:

I can remember seeing Pearl Jam in concert and with a couple of songs left in the show out walked Neil Young and the intimate venue (1,000 people) went ballistic with excitement. That was 20 years ago this year and it was a truly memorable show.
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You lucky, lucky, lucky bastard.

snowleopard said:

Anyway, the film that I saw more than any other in the theater (6 times) was Pulp Fiction and I still adore that reckless, violent, never-for-a-moment-dull film to this day.
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Since the first time I saw it this has been my favourite film and, to my mind, the most influential film in modern film history -total game-changer. I beat you and saw it at the cinema ten times (three in the first week of release) :p.

snowleopard said:

Pulp Fiction was released 21 years ago and I honestly don’t know where the hell the time has gone. What happened to all of those years? ....

Life is funny in the way that time can shift perspective and flow with varying speeds or eddy when you least expect it.
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Indeed. Sorry for the rambling feedback (blame Neil Young:)), it was a long day at work, I'm feeling nearer my age than usual (knackered) and it was nice to come across some kindred thoughts.
 
snowleopard said:
twenty years have slipped by made me feel nostalgic. ........The Rolling Stones released “Satisfaction”, .......

Time waits for no one and it always holds the winning hand.
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I mostly just skimmed over the artists and movies in this post, as we all have different tastes and mine are quite different from yours. Though you likely didn't mean to do it, you did briefly mentioned what is MY all-time favorite Rolling Stones song, Time Waits for No One. This album song was never, according to online records, sung at a concert, even though the song is 35 years old. When I'm feeling nostalgic and listen to this song, it is near impossible not to shed a tear.
 
DAY 24: Wednesday, August 5th

Today saw me drive a staggering 1,225 km (760 miles), the longest trek of the trip by barely 5 miles over day #5. I drove for an hour to my first zoo, and then 5 hours to my next zoo and after that I had an 8 hour drive back to my hometown in Canada and another road trip is in the can!

West Coast Game Park Safari:

West Coast Game Park Safari is a non-AZA accredited zoo located in Bandon, Oregon, and it is a ghastly establishment. The first thing that visitors see as they step in from the 101 Highway roaring by is a metal cage for a couple of Chimpanzees, along with two even smaller metal cages for Ring-Tailed Lemurs. I should have demanded my $18.50 back right then and there! Walking further into the tiny zoo it is possible to find many more chain-link enclosures of slightly larger sizes featuring a range of animals and a total of 9 cat species.

This zoo’s claim to fame is “America’s Largest Wild Animal Petting Park” and while I was there during my brief visit to this hellhole I heard an announcement that “our baby tiger is now ready to be petted” and everyone but me flocked to the gazebo area. I eventually made my way over and sure enough a young tiger on a metal chain was being bottle-fed by a staff member while visitors lined up behind it and petted the animal a few times before moving on. The two positives that I can take from the sight was that little kids can now go back to school in September and tell all of their friends that they touched a real tiger; also, the zoo did not charge for handling the animal or for taking photos as was the case at Timbavati Wildlife Park a year ago. After approximately 15 minutes the tiger was led away and earlier I had witnessed a very similar interaction with a baby American black bear, which I personally think was getting a bit too big to allow members of the public to touch. I suppose that if I had stuck around long enough I would have also seen a baby Canadian Lynx and a young Serval (they were next on the list) but due to the fact that there was not a decent exhibit in the place I hit the road for a long 5 hours to my final zoo of this trip.

Species List (32 total): African Lion, Bengal Tiger, African Leopard (at least 2 black ones out of the 4 leopards), Cougar, Canadian Lynx, Eurasian Lynx, Bobcat, Caracal, Serval, American Black Bear, Chimpanzee, Hamadryas Baboon, Ring-Tailed Lemur, Binturong, Coati, Red Fox, Striped Skunk, Groundhog, Capybara, Grant’s Zebra, Common Waterbuck, Blackbuck, Reindeer, Rocky Mountain Elk, American Bison, Dromedary, Collared Peccary, Jacob Sheep, Alpaca, Emu, Ostrich and African Spurred Tortoise.

High Desert Museum:

High Desert Museum is a non-AZA accredited facility in Bend, Oregon, quite a few hours off the major interstate and an establishment that appears to be far out of the way. Nevertheless, after my comments about touring 4 excellent desert zoos I can add a 5th to that total as yet again a focus on a specific region of the world was showcased with a wonderful attention to detail. The High Desert itself is not very well known and it takes up a significant amount of space in the northwestern region of the United States. The Museum Main Building has a beautiful entrance foyer; a Hall of Exploration and Settlement that has many dioramas explaining how the west was settled; Hall of Plateau Indians presents the First Nations peoples of the region and includes a nicely designed White Sturgeon tank; there is a Deadly by Nature row of 5 terrariums; “Whose Home?” is a rocky, animal-themed play area; there are random exhibits for a Bobcat and a Raccoon (both ex-pets); a Spirit of the West art gallery; a terrific gift shop with a large selection of desert-themed books; and a “Desertarium” with an assortment of terrariums of varying sizes that feature many desert-dwelling reptiles and amphibians. Almost everything is tastefully done and of a high caliber although some of the small terrariums were disappointing.

Outside is a half-mile loop that takes visitors through a nicely woodland scrubland country and includes a North American River Otter exhibit that was hugely popular on my visit. There is underwater viewing and a lot of grass and the zoo is actively raising funds to improve the exhibit by knocking down some of the surrounding walls and turning them into glass walls. Continuing on down the trail there is a daily raptor show, a 1904 homestead (complete with cabin, barn and corral) and an excellent Birds of Prey Center with 6 species. It is quite easy to spend 2 hours at this establishment and it was an enjoyable way to end the trip.

Species List (41 total): Bobcat, Raccoon, North American Porcupine, Bald Eagle, Golden Eagle, Barred Owl, Barn Owl, Western Burrowing Owl, Great Horned Owl, Western Diamondback Rattlesnake, Asian Vine Snake, Sonoran Mountain Kingsnake, Common Kingsnake, Long-Nosed Snake, Great Basin Gopher Snake, Common Garter Snake, Western Racer, Rubber Boa, Western Fence Lizard, Gila Monster, Northern Sagebrush Lizard, Chuckwalla, Desert Collared Lizard, Central Bearded Dragon, Western Skink, Desert Tortoise, Western Painted Turtle, Red-Eared Slider, Northern Leopard Frog, Western Toad, Long-Toed Salamander, Spanish Ribbed Newt, Rough-Skinned Newt, Emperor Scorpion, Giant Desert Hairy Scorpion, Western Black Widow Spider, Mexican Fireleg Tarantula, Vietnamese Centipede, Darkling Beetle, White Sturgeon, Great Basin Red-Band Trout and a few donkeys, horses and chickens in the homestead area.
 
It feels like this trip is over much too soon, I really enjoyed all the reviews and find it very brave that you dare to visit all these run-down places. But it is good to hear that there are also quite some hidden gems!

Thanks a lot! next year in Europe :p
 
Summer 2015 Zoo Trip

Zoo List: 81 zoos in 24 days

Yellowstone Wildlife Sanctuary (Red Lodge, MT)
Zoo Montana (Billings, MT)
Riverside Discovery Center (Scottsbluff, NE)
Oklahoma Aquarium (Jenks, OK)
Tiger Safari (Tuttle, OK)
Arbuckle Wilderness Park (Davis, OK)
G W Exotic Animal Park (Wynnewood, OK)
Amarillo Zoo (Amarillo, TX)
San Angelo Nature Center (San Angelo, TX)
Frank Buck Zoo (Gainesville, TX)
C.A.R.E.: Center for Animal Research & Education (Bridgeport, TX)
Sharkarosa Wildlife Ranch (Pilot Point, TX)
Heard Natural Science Museum & Wildlife Sanctuary (McKinney, TX)
Sea Life Grapevine (Grapevine, TX)
Dallas World Aquarium (Dallas, TX)
Children’s Aquarium at Fair Park (Dallas, TX)
Texas Discovery Gardens: Butterfly House & Insectarium (Dallas, TX)
In Sync Exotics Wildlife Rescue & Educational Center (Wylie, TX)
Dallas Zoo (Dallas, TX)
Caldwell Zoo (Tyler, TX)
Wild Wilderness Drive-Through Safari (Gentry, AR)
Turpentine Creek Wildlife Refuge (Eureka Springs, AR)
Northwest Arkansas Reptile Museum (Springdale, AR)
National Park Aquarium (Hot Springs, AR)
Alexandria Zoo (Alexandria, LA)
Gone Wild Safari (Pineville, LA)
Natchitoches Alligator Park (Natchitoches, LA)
Gators & Friends: Alligator Park & Exotic Zoo (Greenwood, LA)
East Texas Gators & Wildlife Park (Grand Saline, TX)
Tiger Creek Wildlife Refuge (Tyler, TX)
Cherokee Trace Drive-Thru Safari (Jacksonville, TX)
Ellen Trout Zoo (Lufkin, TX)
Franklin Drive-Thru Safari (Franklin, TX)
Gator Country (Beaumont, TX)
Bayou Wildlife Park (Alvin, TX)
Moody Gardens (Galveston, TX)
Aquarium Restaurant (Kemah, TX
Downtown Aquarium Houston (Houston, TX)
Bear Creek Pioneers Park & Zoo (Houston, TX)
Houston Zoo (Houston, TX)
Houston Museum of Natural Science (Houston, TX)
Texas State Aquarium (Corpus Christi, TX)
The Texas Zoo (Victoria, TX)
Animal World & Snake Farm Zoo (New Braunfels, TX)
San Antonio Aquarium (San Antonio, TX)
SeaWorld San Antonio (San Antonio, TX)
Aquatica San Antonio (San Antonio, TX)
Natural Bridge Wildlife Ranch (San Antonio, TX)
Exotic Resort Zoo (Johnson City, TX)
Austin Zoo (Austin, TX)
Austin Nature & Science Center (Austin, TX)
Capital of Texas Zoo (Cedar Creek, TX)
Austin Aquarium (Austin, TX)
Fossil Rim Wildlife Center (Glen Rose, TX)
Fort Worth Zoo (Fort Worth, TX)
Abilene Zoo (Abilene, TX)
Hillcrest Park Zoo (Clovis, NM)
Spring River Park & Zoo (Roswell, NM)
Living Desert Zoo (Carlsbad, NM)
Alameda Park Zoo (Alamogordo, NM)
Wildlife West Nature Park (Edgewood, NM)
American International Rattlesnake Museum (Albuquerque, NM)
Heritage Park Zoological Sanctuary (Prescott, AZ)
Out of Africa Wildlife Park (Camp Verde, AZ)
Butterfly Wonderland (Scottsdale, AZ)
Reid Park Zoo (Tucson, AZ)
Superstition Serpentarium (Apache Junction, AZ)
Grand Canyon Deer Farm (Williams, AZ)
Bearizona (Williams, AZ)
Keepers of the Wild (Valentine, AZ)
Lion Habitat Ranch (Henderson, NV)
Siegfried & Roy’s Secret Garden & Mirage Aquarium (Las Vegas, NV)
Springs Preserve (Las Vegas, NV)
Shark Reef Aquarium (Las Vegas, NV)
Sierra Safari Zoo (Reno, NV)
Turtle Bay Exploration Park (Redding, CA)
Sequoia Park Zoo (Eureka, CA)
Ocean World (Crescent City, CA)
Great Cats World Park (Cave Junction, OR)
West Coast Game Park Safari (Bandon, OR)
High Desert Museum (Bend, OR)

U.S. State Breakdown: 68 zoos & 13 aquariums

Montana = 2 zoos, Nebraska = 1 zoo, Oklahoma = 4 zoos, Arkansas = 4 zoos, Louisiana = 4 zoos, Texas = 41 zoos (and 45 lifetime), New Mexico = 6 zoos, Arizona = 8 zoos, Nevada = 5 zoos, California = 3 zoos and Oregon = 3 zoos.

Days = 24
Zoos = 81 (74 that I’d never toured before)
**** There are 7 zoos that I’d previously visited: Reid Park Zoo (2011), Dallas World Aquarium (2010), Dallas Zoo (2010), Caldwell Zoo (2010), Houston Zoo (2010), Zoo Montana (2010) and Fort Worth Zoo (2008).

Lifetime number of zoos visited = approximately 325
 
I have read all of your reviews and followed your trip with much interest.

Thank you for doing all of this, it is appreciated! :)
 
Just wanted to say thanks for all the reviews snowleopard!
Sounds like an amazing trip, and I have enjoyed following along.
Your reviews are especially helpful to myself for planning future road trips (of a much smaller scale variety).

Thanks!
 
Also many thanks from my side for those - allways interesting - reviews, thoughts and sidekicks. It was a pleasure and realy entertaining.

Still, I have one wish (I mentioned in a post here a couple of days ago already): Have you got a LIST OF THE BIRDS in the Aviary at AQUATICA/SW SAN ANTONIO? (And if so: Would you please so kind to publish it here. Thanks in advance).
 
"Roa's Aviary" is 13,500 sq. ft. (a third of an acre) and it just opened in 2014.

Aquatica San Antonio Species List for "Roa's Aviary" (40 total): Inca Tern, Blue-Crowned Pigeon, Green-Naped Pheasant Pigeon, Pied Imperial Pigeon, Speckled Pigeon, Masked Lapwing, Guira Cuckoo, Plush-Crested Jay, Chaco Chachalaca, Northern Helmeted Curassow, Nene Goose, Demoiselle Crane, Sunbittern, Scarlet Ibis, Chestnut-Mandibled Toucan, Golden Conure, Sun Conure, Eastern Rosella, Green Aracari, Common Piping Guan, Roseate Spoonbill, Kookaburra, Crested Coua, Black-Naped Fruit Dove, Yellow-Breasted Ground Dove, Bleeding Heart Dove, Hamerkop, Northern Red-Billed Hornbill, Von der Decken's Hornbill, Blue-Bellied Roller, Racket-Tailed Roller, Guinea Turaco, White-Cheeked Turaco, Great Blue Turaco, Lady Ross's Turaco, Superb Starling, Golden Pheasant, Lady Amherst's Pheasant, Crested Wood Partridge and Green Peafowl.
 
A little sad its over mate, thank you for sharing :)
 
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I loved coming on this thread every day and reading your experiences! A little bummed that it's over so soon, but hey at least it gives me something to look forward to next year (if you're road tripping again)!
 
Great Cats World you mention a black African wildcat, which I have never heard of. I think you probably meant black Geoffroys cat?

Thanks also for a great report and glad we got to meet up while you were in Tucson.

I am sure I speak for everyone when I say we all look forward to next year. Snowleopard confided with me what he is tentatively planning for next year. Since it is still tentative, however, I will not reveal anything now.
 
Arizona Docent said:
Great Cats World you mention a black African wildcat, which I have never heard of. I think you probably meant black Geoffroys cat?

Thanks also for a great report and glad we got to meet up while you were in Tucson.

I am sure I speak for everyone when I say we all look forward to next year. Snowleopard confided with me what he is tentatively planning for next year. Since it is still tentative, however, I will not reveal anything now.
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Great Cats World Park most definitely has a black African Wildcat (amongst its 4 specimens of that species) and it was pretty cool to see. Clearly as black as Dick Cheney's soul. :)

It was great to meet Fred in Tucson, Jason Jacobs also in Tucson, Taylor at Tiger Safari and Bret at both Sea Life Grapevine and Fort Worth Zoo. That makes 4 ZooChatters on the trip plus a whole host of unique zoo owners.

I will have to see what my wife says about any future plans as she does an amazing job with our kids but if the roles were reversed I'm not sure that I'd want to be alone with 4 very young children for 24 straight days. Madness would ensue and chaos would reign! I'll have to be on my best behaviour if I'm ever going to be fortunate enough to go on another zoo trip but I definitely think that this one was a very long one and I'm grateful for that. I've got one road trip tentatively planned out already and it is two weeks in southern California. I've been to that state on several occasions but there are some little places that I've never visited plus it is always great to re-visit the major zoos in the Sunshine State.

I'd love to fly over to England but the $1,500 airfare is a frightening prospect when you have no money and I'd need free accommodation the entire time just to offset most of the cost of the flight. Who knows what will be next as for now I've got a mountain of zoo maps to sort out and I need to recover from the 81 zoos that I just toured.
 
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