Visiting Zoos With Young Children

snowleopard

snowleopard

Well-Known Member
15+ year member
Premium Member
Today my family (wife and 2 kids) joined me as we made the 5-hour round-trip to Seattle's Woodland Park Zoo. We spent a wonderful 4 hours at the zoo but our visit was much different than it would have been if I had been by myself. What is amazing is that for the first two and a half hours we literally saw 5 captive animals (two fringe-eared oryx, two gorillas and a jaguar). Why so few critters?

- Arrive only to have to take my 2.5 year-old daughter to the bathroom and get her decked out in her winter clothes.
- Take my 10 month-old son to get his diaper changed and piled into many layers of clothes.
- Chase a peacock for a few minutes and then get sidetracked by an "exotic" squirrel for another couple of minutes.
- Play the drums in the African Village for a few minutes, as well as exploring the other African-themed huts.
- Enter Zoomazium, the indoor play area that was built in 2006 for $10 million. An hour goes by as the kids crawl around, play with toy animals and go up and down the slide innumerable times.
- Bathroom time again (at least another 10 minutes of time-wasting).
- Lunch time! We went straight to the adjacent Rainforest Pavilion building for a meal and with two young kids that meant a solid 45 minute endeavour.

In summary, in 2.5 hours of time spent at the famous Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle I personally saw 5 exotic animals. Then we did walk around for an hour and a half and we even saw a grizzly in the outstanding underwater area of the habitat. Thank goodness that we visit the zoo all the time, as I find that it takes a number of visits just to be able to see everything at the zoo. My daughter is extremely independent and she insists on walking everywhere at the pace of a two-toed sloth. My son is easygoing but of course still a toddler so he sits in the stroller and then needs to be strapped into a type of fancy backpack whenever we enter an animal building. Everything takes a LONG TIME and yet the family days are still priceless. However, this is why my family cannot properly tour the large zoos together and at times I do go off on my own and leave my loving wife to watch the kiddies in a play area.
 
Moebelle said:
Hope you don't take this offensive since you have kids and so do I but I think for parents to take their young children to zoos is pointless. They don't care what they see unless it is entertaining, and no real knowledge that they learn comes out of it. They also can get into people's way, don't follow directions from the parents or from their zoo, they scream, and their parents primarily don't care. And to go off of your point (I think) is that you yourself don't even get to pay much attention to the animals.
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Yet any zoo marketer will tell you that for zoos that aren't major tourism attractions in their own right families with pre-school children are the number one market.
 
I'm sure most parents do care when their children scream, only the bad ones generally don't. Unfortunately, like with many things in life, those who don't care are the ones we notice more.

Actually going to the zoo with some young children (my nieces) has made me see things from their perspective a little more. I ended up on my knees in the aquarium at Chester to see things as my younger niece (4) saw them... It was surprising just how few of the tanks were visible when you were a couple of feet tall. That is probably a good example of how some of the newer exhibits have been designed with youngsters in mind and probably a whole topic in itself.

I found it did take us a little longer to see things and we had to miss out areas we would visit without youngsters, but it was all worth it for the one moment when younger niece was utterly captivated by a Jaguar running past the glass window inches from her face... Something I know I still have memories similar to from when I was as young as she is.
 
Moebelle said:
Hope you don't take this offensive since you have kids and so do I but I think for parents to take their young children to zoos is pointless. They don't care what they see unless it is entertaining, and no real knowledge that they learn comes out of it. They also can get into people's way, don't follow directions from the parents or from their zoo, they scream, and their parents primarily don't care. And to go off of your point (I think) is that you yourself don't even get to pay much attention to the animals.
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I completely disagree: I was looking over an old family album at the weekend and noticed that many of my photos were with animals. We came across several of me at the zoo, around 18 months-old, looking ridiculously excited at the animals all around. Zoos give parents an opportunity to educate and to spark a lifelong passion.
 
Moebelle said:
Hope you don't take this offensive since you have kids and so do I but I think for parents to take their young children to zoos is pointless. They don't care what they see unless it is entertaining, and no real knowledge that they learn comes out of it. They also can get into people's way, don't follow directions from the parents or from their zoo, they scream, and their parents primarily don't care. And to go off of your point (I think) is that you yourself don't even get to pay much attention to the animals.
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Again, I'm another that has to disagree with this. I've been learning from Chester visits [and other places occasionally] since I was about 4! I was well behaved and respected zoo rules as far as I remember, and when I was old enough to read I read zoo signs to learn more about the animals.

If you have kids, take them in their childhood. They will retain more information and take more interest as well, as they're still developing and learning from their surroundings. When I have children, I will personally take them to the zoo on the way home from the maternity ward :p [well, not quite, but they will be zoo visiting early :p]
 
Snowleopard, it's always like this!

But keep taking your children to the zoo. Child's character usually forms until about six. You have only so much time to teach your children to appreciate animals. When they grow up, they will stop being interested, and then they will magically return to their childhood exerience to show animals to your grandchildren.

BTW, small child sees everything differently because he/she is small. It is interested in small and close animals. Faraway things are sort of outside the radar. So don't be surprised it if ignores distant tiger but plays with a stick close by. But it will be fascinated by insects, fish and reptiles if it can see them close. It has a short attention span and needs to rest much. But sucks experiences like a sponge. It doesn't like to walk - because it is poor in it. Many exhibits are simply above its eye level. There you see which zoo designer has small children ;).
 
When you go to the zoos with children around the age of Snowleopards and older you just have to accept it is a family day out and these things happen and you are certainly not going to see everything in one day at some of the larger zoos around the world.
Like going to a museum with children is not that same as visiting alone or with your partner, their interests and attention spans are different to ours, but they do make it entertaining in a different way. I hold my hands up and admit that I can get annoyed by children at zoos, but these are only the extremely vocal ones or the ones whose parents have no sense of discipline. However as for buggies/strollers, I know it would be better for these to be banned from some exhibits in zoos for everyone’s benefit, the only wheels permitted in some exhibits should be those for disabled people.
@Moebelle, with regards to ‘taking children to zoo’s is pointless’. & ‘no real knowledge that they learn comes out of it’. Do you really mean this or did you just write it without giving it much consideration? The reason I ask is that some of my earliest and fondest memories are of me at zoos as a child, you know the sort of memory that no matter how old you get, you don’t forget it. However my girlfriend as a child didn’t get to zoos much at all (her family did other things for days out) and her interest has really blossomed in the last 10 years or so thanks to yours truly. With me going to see zoo’s, safari parks and animal collections with my family when I was a child, learnt a lot and it certainly had something to do with me eventually studying Ecology at University, so I reckon taking them when they are small is certainly is not a wasted exercise on you or them over time, no matter how slow they can walk or how they need the bathroom at the ‘wrong time’, the experience is not a wasted one.
 
My first certain memory is going to London Zoo on my second birthday. I am sure that from my early experience of going to zoos stems my passion for wildlife, both in the wild and captivity.

Jurek7 and kaytronika: been there, got the T-shirt! And, snowleopard, I do understand your frustration (although I'm bound to point out that I wish I could see Fringe-eared Oryx!). Everything takes SO much time with small children!

But try to be patient, and who knows - you may just be sparking the interest that will lead to a career working in wildlife conservation, or at the least one of the most spiritually rewarding forms of relaxation that exist.
 
@Moebelle: Many polls have shown that 80-85% of all zoo visitors have children with them, so if kids were not ever taken to zoos then every single zoo in the world would probably shut down with a month!:)

My 2.5 year-old daughter will have already visited around 115 zoos and aquariums by this August, a startling fact and one that I'll be sure to remind her of when she gets much older. What is astonishing is what she has learned via her many trips to captive wildlife facilities, whether it is how to associate with her peers in play areas, how to look around an exhibit searching for a particular animal, the sounds and smells of many creatures, and an overwhelming sense of FUN that pervades everything on our visits. I often ask her what noises a particular animal makes, point out the signage and ask her to locate the animal, or let her run, crawl, jump, hop and skip to the next exhibit as she becomes excited to see what is around the corner.

My 10 month-old son is similar to my daughter in that they both far prefer aquariums to zoos, and that is one more reason why I have scheduled 14 aquariums on this summer's 40 zoos/aquariums in around 48 days road trip. To see them gazing in rapture into a tank of water searching for the denizens of the deep is a wonderful experience, and aquariums are much more accessible for young children as the animals are almost always in constant motion and the next exhibit is usually only 6 feet away. Zoos involve a lot more walking, animals can be distant blobs, and there is not the sense of excitement created by immediate gratification. I can still recall my obsession with zoos beginning at an extremely young age, and hopefully my children will fondly recall their amazing zoo and aquarium trips when they get older.
 
Moebelle said:
Hope you don't take this offensive since you have kids and so do I but I think for parents to take their young children to zoos is pointless. They don't care what they see unless it is entertaining, and no real knowledge that they learn comes out of it. They also can get into people's way, don't follow directions from the parents or from their zoo, they scream, and their parents primarily don't care. And to go off of your point (I think) is that you yourself don't even get to pay much attention to the animals.
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Pointless for who? You or the kids? I'm not trying to be condescending but I guess I can start to see why you would make these comments if your goal for a trip to the zoo is to try and draw up the exhibit plans, research for species lists, interview keepers, ect. and had really meant that it is pointless for you to take your kids to the zoo when you are trying to do some specific inquiry.... but in my opinion if you truly meant that it is pointless to take kids to the zoo per your reasons above then I would have to doubt if you have kids at all! Unless your kids are completely different than mine they love going to the zoo and seeing the animals. It is not just about "real" animal knowledge it is about developing respect and admiration for the animals and having a fun day out as a family. It is true that it might take mutiple visits before I really "see" the whole zoo but as someone who loves zoos and is a member I don't really mind.
 
snowleopard said:
My 10 month-old son is similar to my daughter in that they both far prefer aquariums to zoos, and that is one more reason why I have scheduled 14 aquariums on this summer's 40 zoos/aquariums .
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Same as my two at the same age. In rainy England they have the additional advantage of being under cover!
 
snowleopard said:
Today my family (wife and 2 kids) joined me as we made the 5-hour round-trip to Seattle's Woodland Park Zoo. We spent a wonderful 4 hours at the zoo but our visit was much different than it would have been if I had been by myself. What is amazing is that for the first two and a half hours we literally saw 5 captive animals (two fringe-eared oryx, two gorillas and a jaguar). Why so few critters?

- Arrive only to have to take my 2.5 year-old daughter to the bathroom and get her decked out in her winter clothes.
- Take my 10 month-old son to get his diaper changed and piled into many layers of clothes.
- Chase a peacock for a few minutes and then get sidetracked by an "exotic" squirrel for another couple of minutes.
- Play the drums in the African Village for a few minutes, as well as exploring the other African-themed huts.
- Enter Zoomazium, the indoor play area that was built in 2006 for $10 million. An hour goes by as the kids crawl around, play with toy animals and go up and down the slide innumerable times.
- Bathroom time again (at least another 10 minutes of time-wasting).
- Lunch time! We went straight to the adjacent Rainforest Pavilion building for a meal and with two young kids that meant a solid 45 minute endeavour.

In summary, in 2.5 hours of time spent at the famous Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle I personally saw 5 exotic animals. Then we did walk around for an hour and a half and we even saw a grizzly in the outstanding underwater area of the habitat. Thank goodness that we visit the zoo all the time, as I find that it takes a number of visits just to be able to see everything at the zoo. My daughter is extremely independent and she insists on walking everywhere at the pace of a two-toed sloth. My son is easygoing but of course still a toddler so he sits in the stroller and then needs to be strapped into a type of fancy backpack whenever we enter an animal building. Everything takes a LONG TIME and yet the family days are still priceless. However, this is why my family cannot properly tour the large zoos together and at times I do go off on my own and leave my loving wife to watch the kiddies in a play area.
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It is interesting how parenting changes so much of our lives, even our zoo-going habits! I'm much the same way as you, going to the zoo can be a major operation. Sometimes when we are getting ready to go, it's almost as if we are preparing for an expedition into the remote regions of northern Myanmar. The challenge gets even greater as the kids get older and start having ideas of their own on how they'd like to spend their time. Getting my oldest daughter to go to the zoo willingly has become a challenge. It's really hard to get to the zoo as often as you'd like and not turn it into something that the kids are bored with.

Still the struggles and difficulties are all worth it when I see my daughter's eyes light up as she feeds a giraffe, or watches tigers play-chase one another.
 
Drew said:
Pointless for who? You or the kids? I'm not trying to be condescending but I guess I can start to see why you would make these comments if your goal for a trip to the zoo is to try and draw up the exhibit plans, research for species lists, interview keepers, ect. and had really meant that it is pointless for you to take your kids to the zoo when you are trying to do some specific inquiry.... but in my opinion if you truly meant that it is pointless to take kids to the zoo per your reasons above then I would have to doubt if you have kids at all! Unless your kids are completely different than mine they love going to the zoo and seeing the animals. It is not just about "real" animal knowledge it is about developing respect and admiration for the animals and having a fun day out as a family. It is true that it might take mutiple visits before I really "see" the whole zoo but as someone who loves zoos and is a member I don't really mind.
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I'm assuming Moebelle mis-wrote when he put "you have kids and so do I", because he is certainly a child himself.
 
snowleopard said:
@Moebelle: Many polls have shown that 80-85% of all zoo visitors have children with them, so if kids were not ever taken to zoos then every single zoo in the world would probably shut down with a month!:)

My 2.5 year-old daughter will have already visited around 115 zoos and aquariums by this August, a startling fact and one that I'll be sure to remind her of when she gets much older. What is astonishing is what she has learned via her many trips to captive wildlife facilities, whether it is how to associate with her peers in play areas, how to look around an exhibit searching for a particular animal, the sounds and smells of many creatures, and an overwhelming sense of FUN that pervades everything on our visits. I often ask her what noises a particular animal makes, point out the signage and ask her to locate the animal, or let her run, crawl, jump, hop and skip to the next exhibit as she becomes excited to see what is around the corner.

My 10 month-old son is similar to my daughter in that they both far prefer aquariums to zoos, and that is one more reason why I have scheduled 14 aquariums on this summer's 40 zoos/aquariums in around 48 days road trip. To see them gazing in rapture into a tank of water searching for the denizens of the deep is a wonderful experience, and aquariums are much more accessible for young children as the animals are almost always in constant motion and the next exhibit is usually only 6 feet away. Zoos involve a lot more walking, animals can be distant blobs, and there is not the sense of excitement created by immediate gratification. I can still recall my obsession with zoos beginning at an extremely young age, and hopefully my children will fondly recall their amazing zoo and aquarium trips when they get older.
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I think what your doing for your children is great. I wish my parents did this.
 
I have four children; taking them to the zoo is, quite simply, the very best thing in life. Or rather, taking them to a good zoo - I've had a few fairly desolate days at poorly-designed, ugly, tatty places, but wandering around Leipzig, or Arnhem, or Amneville, with children just can't be beaten.

The nonsensical post above, from Moebelle, overlooks the fact that, for a parent, any place where one can spend time with one's children, is magical - and if it is a zoo, so much the better. I think most children simply appreciate being able to spend time with their parents, and heaven knows too many parents don't devote enough real time to those children - relying instead on electronic babysitters.

Of course a zoo visit is different with children compared to one without, as Snowleopard vividly describes above (although he sounds to be rather more tolerant of playgrounds than I am!). Children do enable you to see things in a new way - often I find myself spending time at exhibits past which I might have otherwise have rushed - butterfly houses, for example, would not normally lure me in, but with children it is different. This is most definitely a good thing.
 
Chlidonias said:
I'm assuming Moebelle mis-wrote when he put "you have kids and so do I", because he is certainly a child himself.
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1. You must have mis-wrote "she"
2. And "adult"
3. And have I met you in person? Do you know for a fact that I don't have a kid?

Everyone else: Sorry that I got a little off hand with my first post, I didn't mean to offend anybody. It's just literally every time I go to the zoo there is always a kid or mostly a parent that annoys me and other people. I shouldn't have put kids into this especially since they don't know how to at properly yet. Also taking your kid to the zoo could mean having a good quality time with the family. :D
 
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OK I'll rephrase what I wrote from "I'm assuming Moebelle mis-wrote when he put "you have kids and so do I", because he is certainly a child himself" to:

"I'm assuming Moebelle mis-wrote when she put "you have kids and so do I", because I would assume she is certainly a child herself, given the content of her posts and her frequent tantrums."

It certainly gives her posts new interpretation if she actually is an adult!
 
Moebelle said:
It's just literally every time I go to the zoo there is always a kid or mostly a parent that annoys me and other people.
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Surely it's not that bad? And besides, it's a lot easier to move away from a family with young children than visiting school groups. I generally find these to be a lot more disruptive, even though their presence is also justifiable.
 
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