The art of zoo tripping

zoogiraffe said:
Yes its called a bloody big theme park with some pretty good rides on the same site,if it wasn't for that I doubt it would get over a million visitors a year,in fact a very much doubt much over 75% if that actually bother going round the zoo!!!
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That's perfectly true. Looking at some of the people who go for the rides it is a relief they do not go round the zoo. Over the years I've seen some very unsavoury characters having a quick whip round the animals. I cannot imagine many of them would ever go to a pure zoo. Obviously all zoos get some potential troublemakers, but Flamingo Land gets a lot more than most.
 
Usually go solo, although a few trips have been with my cousin, who is also a photographer. Traveling with people not interested in zoos AND photography would not work.

If it is a new zoo, I often allow two days.
 
I like to plan ahead (sometimes by a year) and visit the zoo's website and learn about while studying the map for the time inbetween planning to visit and actually visiting. I like to study the map to get a general layout of the grounds to maximise my visit and not get lost as much. I also like to know what animals are found there and decide which ones I want to see the most (I like to call them my keystone species as they're usually the reason I visit the zoo in the first place). I usually plan entire vacations around a zoo trip (the first major one I took was to the National Zoo in DC) and trip to squeeze in as many other zoo visits as I can (i.e. ZooAmerica since my brother insisted we go to Hershey Park before DC). When I visit I tend to go during the spring and summer and occasionally the fall but rarely the winter. I bring with me my camera and my little red notepad and write down all the species I see there. I then upload the photos to ZooChat and list all the species and pictures onto my website. Since I started the website I've visited the Bronx Zoo (3 visits), Central Park Zoo, Mystic Aquarium, Maritime Aquarium, Roger Williams Park Zoo, Beardsley Zoo, ZooAmerica, and the Smithsonian National Zoo (2 visits). My next planned zoo vacation is Cincinnati in July but I may go to either the Bronx Zoo or another WCS zoo before them.

~Thylo:cool:
 
Arizona Docent said:
Usually go solo, although a few trips have been with my cousin, who is also a photographer. Traveling with people not interested in zoos AND photography would not work.

If it is a new zoo, I often allow two days.
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When I get older and can drive this is how I'd like to do it. I do enjoy going with my parents, though, as they usually leave me be and quietly enjoy the facility themselves. Let's just say I don't enjoy visiting with my siblings.

~Thylo:cool:
 
As its Xmas, here's a 'dream Zootrip' for ThylacineAlive;

Its 1928 and you're at the gates of the Hobart Zoo on the Domain. Inside the Lions are roaring and the Polar bears are pacing in their Pit, but they are not what you have come to see....... You pay your '3 pence' entry fee and in you go..........:)
 
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Pertinax said:
As its Xmas, here's a 'dream Zootrip' for ThylacineAlive;

Its 1928 and you're at the gates of the Hobart Zoo on the Domain. Inside the Lions are roaring and the Polar bears are pacing in their Pit, but they are not what you have come to see....... You pay your '3 pence' entry fee and in you go..........:)
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You torture me:D

Maybe for Christmas the Thylacine will be rediscovered:rolleyes:

~Thylo:cool:
 
As i stated earlier its a sad truth that money is the root of all zoo visiting...this year ive done the USA three times including Alaska,Germany twice,Czech Republic twice ,Belgium,Russia,Holland and Portugal[the latter a "regular" holiday with my girlfriend although i did manage a new zoo in the shape of Lagos]-it probably cost a bob or two.If there is an "art " to it then it is that coupled with sheer enthusiasm for the subject and desire.Overwhelmingly zoochat is populated by younger people[and thats a good thing] if one thing will take you around the world to see zoos or even wild animals then money is it. I started as a zoo keeper and realised that whatever the massive compensations of the job i would need money to do what i wanted..even Gerald Durrell was ultimately faced with that reality-its an ugly truism that has a lot to do with luck as well[even more so than qualifications in my experience].
 
Wow that's an amazing amount of traveling you do there tim brown.
You don't have to answer this but do you travel around the world for your job or just have alot of time off? I would love to spend time visiting lots of countries and zoos but it would be incredibly hard for me to take that much time off :D
 
Nothing to hide-i had some success in the music business[and never ever saw that coming as a young man!]-this enabled me to retire very early.
 
This is a great thread! A few years ago I had not been to a zoo for twenty years, but then my son (4 at the time) became interested in animals so we joined ZSL and visited London and Whipsnade many times. As my son's interest grew we joined Colchester zoo and as their membership covers many other zoos we soon had ten zoos under our belts. He then became fascinated by a thylacine programme on the Discovery channel and we strating collecting Schleich models. From that early beginning we have now become obsessed with visting as many new zoos as we can, my son is coming up to 8 and we have now visited 87 UK zoos, 13 European zoos, 5 farms and 13 RSPB centres! I book budget hotels or short breaks in caravans (Holiday Park Deals | Caravans, Camping & Touring | BreakFree is a good source) so that we can visit 3 or 4 in a weekend. We discuss enclosure design and plans for the zoo that my son will open when he is older!
 
Hi Thylo, My son saw the 'Cloning the Tasmanian Tiger' documentery on the discovery channel. He was fascinated that man could wipe out a species so quickly and so recently. He started to read books on other extinct animals, we went to see the stuffed Thylacine at Tring Zoological museum and the NHM. In a Groovy Tube book on extinct animals he got a plastic Thylacine and carried it everywhere with him. He was interested in animals before hand but the Thylacine programme started our Schleich/Papo/Bullyland animal collection, fuelled our zoo quest and started him saving money in his piggy bank to fund a trip to Tasmania (still a long way from that target!).
 
For me there are three types of zoo trip; UK zoo trips, Holiday zoo trips and foreign zoo trips.
I’m taking less and less UK zoo trips simply because it cost nearly as much to travel to Kent or the north of England from where I live as it does to fly to Germany, Holland, France etc. When I do visit UK zoos I usually wrap the visits around trips to see friends and family.
While on holiday, usually abroad, I try to visit one or two zoos but I also have to do one or two things my wife wants to do.
Foreign zoo trips are usually within Europe and usually for three or four days. The planning begins with a zoo I’d really like to visit and then I look at what other zoos are within reach. On odd occasion when travelling to distant destinations I’ve added a week on to the holiday so I travel out before my wife or leave after her and pack in all my zoo visiting then.
 
Ned said:
While on holiday, usually abroad, I try to visit one or two zoos but I also have to do one or two things my wife wants to do.
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Life is so much simpler when you are permanently single! I'm sure I could not tot up so many visits to Sewerby Zoo if I were not.
 
And to prove your point I must confess that I haven’t even managed one visit to Sewerby zoo.
Would a surprise visit to Sewerby zoo for a wedding anniversary alter my marital status do you think?
 
Ned said:
And to prove your point I must confess that I haven’t even managed one visit to Sewerby zoo.
Would a surprise visit to Sewerby zoo for a wedding anniversary alter my marital status do you think?
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If it included driving from South Gloucestershire and back in a day it probably would .... :)
 
It's great to see everyones zoo visiting habits. On the talk of travel I drive alot in my job and it always pains me when I drive past a zoo I have never visited and cannot pop in to check it out!
My wife for Christmas bought us a trip to the Cotswolds staying in a cottage and all so I can visit zoos!
 
Nice thread....

My zoo trips are fairly random but I do average 10-20 a year.

I do sometimes go to a UK zoo without much planning but I am increasingly finding that my weekends are booked-up well ahead and even when they are not, there are always other things to do. I also know a few people who work at UK zoos so sometimes I vist those to see them or go to other zoos with them.

Otherwise my zoo trips are based around holidays with my wife or business trips. My wife is not a zoo enthusiast but is happy to visit a zoo or two on holiday so we try and choose destinations that have one or two zoos but also balance this with doing other non-zoo related stuff (city breaks work especially weill in this regard). It is sometimes difficult to do this though - last year's trip to South Africa was almost 100% animal focussed (4 zoos plus Kruger and Drakensburg) and our planned trip to the West Ciast of the US sometime in the next couple of years has the potential to become very zoo-focussed as there are so many establishments to visit.

I am fortunate to travel a fair amount with work and I usually get some time to visit at least one zoo. In fact, my boss has taken to checking of there is a zoo in the place where he wants to send me before asking me, because he knows I'll probably say yes if there is!!

A quick check of my 2012 list is fairly typical of the split:

Jan - Birdword (random visit; local to me)
Feb - None
Mar - Pistoia Zoo (Italy) (holiday to Florence & Pisa)
April - None
May - Berlin Zoo & Aquarium, Berlin Tierpark (work conference in Berlin)
June - None
July - None
Aug - Budapest Zoo (weekend break)
Sept - South Lakes Wild Animal Park, Muncaster Castle World Owl Trust (weekend break to Lake District)
Oct - Birdword (random visit; local), Valencia Aquarium & Valencia Bioparc (weekend break)
Nov - Howletts (visit with friend who works at Whipsnade), Edmonton Valley Zoo & Toronto Zoo (work trip to Canada)
Dec - Bird Park Malta (Christmas break) (+ I plan to visit Longleat tomorrow with some friends with kids as NYE treat)

Incidentally, this year is the first for 15 that I haven't visited Marwell (also local to me) simply because on the rare days I have had free, I preferred Birdworld. I usually also get in at least one visit to London Zoo and Whipsnade a year for the Barltett Society AGM and evening event respectively (as I said I have a friend who works at Whipsnade which enables me to attend this event for free) but I managed neither this year owing to other committments on the relevant weekends.
 
eddielargefc said:
fuelled our zoo quest and started him saving money in his piggy bank to fund a trip to Tasmania (still a long way from that target!).
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Flying over the Bass Strait and then over Tasmania en route to Hobart on the first trip I made there was probably the most exciting thing I've ever done. Doesn't matter whether the Thylacine still exists or not( and of course every enthusiast hopes they will be the one to rediscover it /provide the proof it still exists.:)) The history is still there, this is where it did once live, if not still now. Visit the site of the old Hobart Zoo, or the farm at Mawbanna where the last wild one was shot and it brings the reality home to you, plus there is the existing marvellous geography and natural history of this rugged place.

And to tie in more with this thread, Melbourne and Taronga Park Zoos on the Australian mainland are both well worth visiting too.
 
Ned said:
And to prove your point I must confess that I haven’t even managed one visit to Sewerby zoo.
Would a surprise visit to Sewerby zoo for a wedding anniversary alter my marital status do you think?
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Well you could combine it with a bracing walk along the cliffs and maybe, depending on the season, a game of pitch and putt (Spring and Summer) or footgolf (Autumn and Winter - new to the estate this year). I imagine that would cement any marriage - and then there are the delights of Bridlington itself.
 
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