USA Midwest - Great zoo trip - Advice please

Flyer.Nick

Flyer.Nick

Member
5+ year member
Hi,
from 7/24 to 8/1 I will go on a trip to Midwest (Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan). Can you advice me rare species which are in zoos which I schedule to visit? Or some other zoo which has something special?
Thank you

Zoos scheduled to visit:
Columbus Zoo and Aquarium
Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden
Newport Aquarium
Louisville Zoo
Indianapolis Zoo
Columbian Park Zoo
Brookfield Zoo
Shedd Aquarium
Lincoln Park Zoo
John Ball zoo
Potawatomi Zoo
Fort Wayne Children's Zoo
Detroit zoo
Indian Creek Zoo
Toledo zoo
Wild acres ranch
Lagoon deer park
Cleveland zoo
Living Treasures "Wild" Animal Park

PS: If anybody live there and want met zoo enthusiast from Europe in zoo or in pub write me PM
 
19 zoos in 8 days, a daunting task! Best of luck with this rapid fire zoo trip.

Sadly, Brookfield's most exciting rarity is off exhibit at the moment, the pangolin. It's also worth noting that some parts of the zoo are still closed, including two of my favorite areas, the nocternal Australia house with wombat and echidna, and the tropical South American aviary. Even so, some rarities of interest include gerenuk, fishing cat, small-spotted genet, black-footed cat, and black and rufous giant elephant shrew. Theres also impressive reptile and bird collection but the two reptile/bird houses are still closed at the moment, so I am unsure how much will be on display at the time of your visit. The best exhibits at Brookfield are the Regenstein Wolf Woods, Great Bear Wilderness, Living Coast, Habitat Africa, The Swamp and of course the much debated Tropic World, an exhibit that I am sure you will want to see - though the African room is still closed and likely will remain closed for a while.

Australia House, Reptiles & Birds, Feathers & Scales, Tropic World Africa, Hamill Family Play Zoo and the Pachyderm House are all currently closed.

Lincoln Park doesn't have much in the way of rarities, but there is one big highlight. The only Puerto Rican parrots outside of the their native range. Make sure not to miss them, they are the last exhibit in the small mammal/reptile house. Kagu are also something you don't want to miss. Other than that there aren't many animals at Lincoln Park that you can't see at other zoos, but the zoos presentation is wonderful. Great historical buildings and clean, consistently good exhibits. The best in my opinion are the Center for African Apes, Macaque Forest, Arctic Tundra, African Journey and the Small Mammal/Reptile house. A shame you will miss the new lion house that won't be open for a few more months.

The Children's Zoo and the indoor exhibits in the Farm are current closed.

Shedd is undoubtably the best aquarium I have ever seen and probably the best in North America. Some will say otherwise, but I would personally recommend spending a full day here and not combing it with Lincoln Park. It's too great of a facility to be rushed. There are so many rarities it would be impossible for me to list them all, so the one thing I will say is to buy your tickets in advance. Seriously, the lines can really bad, especially in the summer. I've herd stories of people waiting upwards of a few hours to get in. Nothing at Shedd is currently closed.

Enjoy your trip!
 
This looks very ambitious. One word of advise, please check and make sure you have your tickets in advance.
Are you sure you only have 8 days? You won't have enough days for even each major city on the list, and I think doing all 3 chicago zoos in one day is not possible. Distances and travel times are also going to be a lot. I think if that really is your time constraint, then you will need to take out some places.

The zoos on your list most worth seeing based on rare species will probably be:
Columbus zoo and aquarium (I haven't been, Wolverine, moose, geoffroy's cat, among many others. Often a contender for the best zoos in the US.)
Cincinnati zoo and botanical gardens (Potto, Gray’s crowned guenon, a very nice insectarium among many other cool species. Here is a recent species list: Cincinnati Zoo species list, June 2021 [Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden])
Shedd aquarium (See the post above, many rare species like green sawfish, pacific white sided dolphin, and belugas are very rare in europe outside Russia/Ukraine. Shedd also has the most species of any zoological institution, and is well worth a visit.)
-Lincoln park zoo (See the post above, free zoo with nice bird and small mammal species)
-Brookfield zoo (See the post above, large zoo worth a visit)
-Toledo zoo (I haven't been, Cassowaries, Tasmanian devils, Yellow-lipped sea krait)
-Cleveland zoo (I haven't been, and I think the species list has been decreasing, but there are still some interesting small mammal species left)
 
I agree with everything said above about Shedd. Full day and advance tickets highly recommended.

You may be tight for time at Toledo. I have visited one time in 2019, I was one of the first people in the gats and left just barely before closing. So make sure to get there right when it opens.
 
birdsandbats said:
I agree with everything said above about Shedd. Full day and advance tickets highly recommended.

You may be tight for time at Toledo. I have visited one time in 2019, I was one of the first people in the gats and left just barely before closing. So make sure to get there right when it opens.
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As I'm preparing a USA zoo trip myself (I will later on make a separate thread on that) and as I'm now hesitating between Detroit-Cleveland-Toledo: I'm wondering why Toledo is so special?
 
Philipine eagle said:
As I'm preparing a USA zoo trip myself (I will later on make a separate thread on that) and as I'm now hesitating between Detroit-Cleveland-Toledo: I'm wondering why Toledo is so special?
Click to expand...
Toledo has a huge collection. It's only open 9-5 and it can be difficult to see the entire zoo within that time. A lot of ZooChatters don't like Toledo because the outdoor parts of the collection are kind of boring - run of the mill collection of species in run of the mill exhibits. However, the indoor parts of the zoo - the aviary, the reptile house, the aquarium, and the ProMedica Museum of Natural History are all wonderful and more than make up for the rest of the zoo being boring. ProMedica in particular is HUGE and can take 2-2.5 hours alone to see and is easily one of the best zoo exhibit complexes I have ever seen. I highly recommend Toledo and believe it to be one of the best zoos the US has to offer.

Detroit, on the other hand... I enjoyed Detroit but I don't really have any desire to visit again anytime soon. For such a large zoo the collection is quite small, and the zoo's collection has shrunk significantly more since my visit in 2019. I found Arctic Ring of Life to be extremely overrated. Amphibiville and Polk Penguin Conservation Center were obvious highlights but PPCC is currently closed.

I've never been to Cleveland so I can't comment on that zoo.
 
Thank you all for advices. I visited 17 zoos from my list in 8 days and just once i was hurry (Lincoln Park Zoo) because of traffic jam in Chicago, All the other places were fine with my time schedule
And sorry, Shedd isn't the best aquarium. It is nice, but nothing special.
 
Flyer.Nick said:
Thank you all for advices. I visited 17 zoos from my list in 8 days and just once i was hurry (Lincoln Park Zoo) because of traffic jam in Chicago, All the other places were fine with my time schedule
And sorry, Shedd isn't the best aquarium. It is nice, but nothing special.
Click to expand...
Wow, I am very impressed on how you managed that! I would love to hear details.

Also, what makes Shedd special is the diversity of species, not particularly the exhibits, although the exhibits are world class. What aquariums do you prefer over it?
 
Flyer.Nick said:
Thank you all for advices. I visited 17 zoos from my list in 8 days and just once i was hurry (Lincoln Park Zoo) because of traffic jam in Chicago, All the other places were fine with my time schedule
And sorry, Shedd isn't the best aquarium. It is nice, but nothing special.
Click to expand...
What didn't you like about Shedd? What aquariums do you think are better?
 
Flyer.Nick said:
Hi,
from 7/24 to 8/1 I will go on a trip to Midwest (Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan). Can you advice me rare species which are in zoos which I schedule to visit? Or some other zoo which has something special?
Thank you

Zoos scheduled to visit:
Columbus Zoo and Aquarium
Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden
Newport Aquarium
Louisville Zoo
Indianapolis Zoo
Columbian Park Zoo
Brookfield Zoo
Shedd Aquarium
Lincoln Park Zoo
John Ball zoo
Potawatomi Zoo
Fort Wayne Children's Zoo
Detroit zoo
Indian Creek Zoo
Toledo zoo
Wild acres ranch
Lagoon deer park
Cleveland zoo
Living Treasures "Wild" Animal Park

PS: If anybody live there and want met zoo enthusiast from Europe in zoo or in pub write me PM
Click to expand...
If I were you I would skip the Newport Aquarium. This facility has nothing very special about besides the shark rays. I have never had an amazing visit to this aquarium, they have all been average.
 
Mai Thai said:
If I were you I would skip the Newport Aquarium. This facility has nothing very special about besides the shark rays. I have never had an amazing visit to this aquarium, they have all been average.
Click to expand...
Flyer.Nick said:
Thank you all for advices. I visited 17 zoos from my list in 8 days and just once i was hurry (Lincoln Park Zoo) because of traffic jam in Chicago, All the other places were fine with my time schedule
And sorry, Shedd isn't the best aquarium. It is nice, but nothing special.
Click to expand...

Well he already visited, so we can hopefully hear his opinion ;)
 
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