Vogelcommandos anniversary

Today.... Five years on ZooChat !
Had an average zoo-year with 40 zoo-visits to a total of 35 zoos, 10 of them being new ones and 2 of them even in a complete new county ( Turkey ).
2 other collections I had not been at for nearly 30 years and they also almost felt to me as being new !
Also remarkeble this year was that I missed quite a number of ( smaller ) zoos which are normaly standard for me but this year for example no Faunapark Flakkee, no de Bosruiter, no Zie-Zoo and no the Paay. Will visit them however for surtain next year again !
Met only 3 ZooChatters this year. At the beginning of the year I spend 2 days with devilfish at Artis and Burgers and we both had a lifer with the Rock sandpipers at Artis ( photo see Rock Sandpiper - dark form | ZooChat ).
Later in the year I spend a wonderfull day with korhoen and ShonenJack13 at Burgers.
In October I spend another few nice hours with devilfish at Avifauna during a short stop-over on his way to Japan.
Animal-wise also some real highlights this year. A lifer in the wild was a Brown shrike at Den Helder ( see Brown shrike | ZooChat ) and lifers at zoos were for example the already mentioned Rock sandpipers at Artis and the Celebes tarsier at Ouwehands ( see Celebes tarsier | ZooChat ). Further a good number of fishes, amphibians and reptilians I had never seen before.
Had also a few disappointments, the biggest being missing to see a humpback whale on 2 occaisios. The first time it was seen very close to the beach and we ( my wife and I ) walked 20 kilometers without seing it. Later I learned that we had to walk 200 meters further to see it ! The second time one was seen in the harbour of Den Helder and stayed there for several days. The first day I had time we drove the 150 kilometers ( very ) early in the morning to find out it had left the harbour the evening before :( !
On ZooChat I was also quite active. Went from 9100 posts to 12.000 ( this post ) and just uploaded my 24000 th photo ( this one Clouded leopard | ZooChat ).
Again I want to thank all fellow ZooChatters for making ZooChat as intresting as it is !!!
Hope next year will be great again !
 
Congrats for the "birthday" celebration :) Wow!!! 40 zoo visits per year????? You must be inmensely rich! I only can afford as much 4 or 5 zoo visits per year, in the case that my holiday destination have various zoos easily reachable - more usually just one per year.
Also I find extremely casually that you got so perfect round numbers at same time: at 5th anniversary, 12000 exact post and 24000 exact photos??? You upload both of them calculating to reach these numbers at same time? ;-)
 
Thank you Kakapo ! You are right, I am rich ...... but not money-wise but in experience with animals : YES !
And for the perfect round numbers also yes I do try to reach an almost round number shortly before the 10th of December to post the perfect number on that date :).
 
Ahhh, then is not casuality! Very curious :-)
About richness, well, at least you have enough for pay the expensive travels and the expensive zoo entries... unless you got both things free by some kind of contacts (maybe friends working in airports and in zoos), hehe
 
Dec. 10 so again a year has past and I'm now 6 years on ZooChat. This year was a somewhat strange one and several months no ZooChat at all for me ( working on my house took all my time and power ) but before and after this 2 / 3 month period I was able to visit 26 zoos and the total zoo-visits was 36 - only 3 of these were completly new to me.
Because of ZooHistorica held at Antwerp this year, a lot of zoo-minded people came to Belgium and at Pairi Daiza ( which had a great attraction to many ZooChatters ) and at Antwerp I met quite a number of ZooChatters ( Devilfish, Sooty Mangabey, Lintworm, Vision, Tim May, Maguari and maybe some others ) but on such occasions time is always short and its not always possible to talk with the people you would like to do.
Later also spend a complete day with Devilfish at Duisburg and Krefeld. Also had planned to spend some time with Kakapo on his Lowland-trip but shortage of time and bad luck ( broken car ) made it only possible to spend about half a day with him at Best Zoo, which was by the way great !
Species-wise 2018 was quite a good year which started with a lifer, a Ross gull visited the Netherlands and of course I visited the Ross gull. At several exebitions, shops and privat collections I was able to see a good number of new species of invertebrates, fishes, amphibians, reptilians and even some birds ( for example Yellow-winged tanager ).
At zoos the Bear cuscus at Pairi Daiza was a complete new species for me.
Number of posts ( total now 12.362 ) and photos uploaded ( total 29.168 now ) could had been better but next year I hope I have again a complete year on ZooChat.
With hopes to visit some new collections next year and meet-up with a good number of other ZooChatters 2019 should become an even better year than this one :),

Bear cuscus

Bear cuscus

Sept. 7 2018
Bear cuscus

Bear cuscus

Sept. 7 2018
 
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You had a nice zoological year despite all the issues with house and car :-) I also was very pleased to meet you at Best (you're the only zoochatter that I met in person, not counting some occasional members that I knew before as persons than as zoochatters). And you had luck with Bear cuscus, completely hidden in his exhibit during my visit!
 
December 10 again... my 7th anniversary on ZooChat today !
Had a wonderfull zoo-year and also otherwhile had several highlights ( birth of my second grand-child and a nice vacation in Egypt ) but also some low-points ( kitchen burned down, to little time at several zoos and ( very ) bad weather conditions at ( for example ) Pairi Daiza.
Lets start with the zoo-visits : 28 different zoos at 4 countries with a total of 42 visits. Of the 28 zoos / aquariums 4 were complete new for me. So not the best year sofar but also surtainly not bad at all !
Met only 2 ZooChatters this year, both new to me. On his West European trip I spend a wunderfull day with @snowleopard and we visited 6 different collections that day. Later in the year I also spend a wunderfull day with @Stefan Verhoeven at Antwerp Zoo. Too both I want to say thanks for the intresting meeting and talks we had !
Althrough I already spend my whole life ( 50+ years ) visiting ( and working at ) zoos, privat collections, animal-shops and animal-fairs/shows and one would think that I've seen already everything, this proofed not to be true this year. A huge number of Lifers could be added to my personal list among them species like Common sea dragon, Red lechwe and Red-backed bearded saki ( and many, many more ! ).
On ZooChat I was also quite active and this being my 13.500th post and I've sofar uploaded 28.900 photos. Last year I already was on 29.168 photos so one could think that something went completly wrong and that I unloaded instead of uploaded photos. This is however not the case and I uploaded this year about 4.000 photos. However one ( or several ) moderator(s) deleted a little over 4.000 photos and althrough I always thought it was appreciated that I uploaded my photos, this seems not to be the case by everybody :( !
Deleting blurry, bad or similar photos Oke but 4.000 .... ?
Evenso I hope most other ZooChatters like my photos and posts ( a with my 12.000th "LIKE" this morning this seems to be the case ) and will continue to upload photos of new species for our Gallery or otherwise intresting, are and/or funny photos.
All in all, another great year on ZooChat and I wish to thank again all fellow ZooChatters for their comments, their intresting news and stories and their beautifull photos !
 
Dec. 10 so again ZooChat-anniversary-day for me, the 8th this time !
To be short : 2020 was a real bad year for me ( and I'm sure for many others also ) !
Visited only 4 different zoos and the total visits was the lowest I can remember, just 6 visits :( !
Didn't met any ZooChatter but hope next year I will meet again some of the ones I already know and some new ones.
On ZooChat quite active ( althrough I had the possibility to be even more active ) and with exactly 2000 posts ( this being my 15500th post ) I still am satisfied but with 'just' 1575 photos ( now standing at 30475 ) I can't be happy but not visiting zoos automaticly means less photos to upload.... :( !
Evenso I got more then 9000 likes with which I'm of course very happy !
Also the number of Lifers was very limited and the birdfair at Zwolle ( the Netherlands ) gave me some and also at a few shops I was lucky to see some new species but altogether 2020 was a poor new-species year !
Lets forget 2020 as soon as possible and hope 2021 will become again a normal year with many zoos, zoo-visits and meeting-up with fellow-ZooChatters !
 
Wow, your numbers of zoos visited, photos taken and, I suppose, new species seen are much higher than my usual ones in normal years!!
Sorry for the delay, but happy Zoochat-anniversary for you and big congrats! :-)
 
@Kakapo : Thanks !
@PossumRoach : Also thanks and the 2 Turkish collections are Antalya Aquarium and WildPark Antalya. From both collections you can find a good number of photos in the Gallery which I made during my visit :).
 
December 10 again, my 9th year on ZooChat ! Last year I said I hoped for a better year after a very bad 2020 but the virus is still around and also 2021 was a bad zoo ( and ZooChat ) year for me :(.
On ZooChat I even had my worst year sofar : just 750 posts ( this being my 16.250th post ) and 675 photos ( just uploaded my 31.150th photo ) but on the positive side, I recieved a lot of likes ( now standing at more then 27.000 :).
Zoo-wise 2021 was a little better then last year and I was able despite still some restictions to visit 10 different zoos in 11 visits, among them even 2 complete new ones.
Also met for the first time in 2 years again a new ZooChatter and spend a real great day at Plzen with @Jana - thanks again Jana for your kind help to make it possible to visit this great zoo !
Animal-wise a lot of highlights with a good number of Lifers for me both at zoos, animal-exibitions and at dealers !
Altogether there is again some positive progress and hopefully 2022 will become again an old-fashioned zoo and ZooChat year, all the more because 2022 will be my 10th year on ZooChat and I hope I can have some real great highlights in both zoo-visiting, meeting ZooChatters and seeing new species !
Wish to thank all fellow-ZooChatters for their contributions on ZooChat, I real enjoy it every day !
 
vogelcommando said:
December 10 again, my 9th year on ZooChat ! Last year I said I hoped for a better year after a very bad 2020 but the virus is still around and also 2021 was a bad zoo ( and ZooChat ) year for me :(.
On ZooChat I even had my worst year sofar : just 750 posts ( this being my 16.250th post ) and 675 photos ( just uploaded my 31.150th photo ) but on the positive side, I recieved a lot of likes ( now standing at more then 27.000 :).
Zoo-wise 2021 was a little better then last year and I was able despite still some restictions to visit 10 different zoos in 11 visits, among them even 2 complete new ones.
Also met for the first time in 2 years again a new ZooChatter and spend a real great day at Plzen with @Jana - thanks again Jana for your kind help to make it possible to visit this great zoo !
Animal-wise a lot of highlights with a good number of Lifers for me both at zoos, animal-exibitions and at dealers !
Altogether there is again some positive progress and hopefully 2022 will become again an old-fashioned zoo and ZooChat year, all the more because 2022 will be my 10th year on ZooChat and I hope I can have some real great highlights in both zoo-visiting, meeting ZooChatters and seeing new species !
Wish to thank all fellow-ZooChatters for their contributions on ZooChat, I real enjoy it every day !
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Congratulations with your 9th year anniversary!
I really enjoy reading all your comments, interesting threads and photos (keep them coming!)!
Hopefully we run into eachother one day ;D
 
10 years on ZooChat !!!
During this period I :
- visited 88 different zoos
- was 303 times at a zoo / aquarium / other public animal-collection
- was at zoos on 4 different continents ( just missing Australia on my list )
- met at least 16 fellow-ZooChatters
- posted 17.500 posts on ZooChat
- uploaded 33.000 photos on ZooChat
Zoowise it was not a very good year with just a little higher number of zoos and zoo-visits then last year ( 11 zoos and 13 visits with 3 new collections I had never been before ) and just met one new ZooChatter ( @Rayane ) and missed another one ( @PossumRoach ) during his visit to the Netherlands because I was at that time myself in the Gambia.
Animalwise 2022 was however one of the best years in my life ! Saw a good number of new species ( at zoos, in the wild, at shops and at shows ) and my visit to the Gambia in June this year was also a real highlight !
The best thing happened however in October when I was able to start again as a profesional animal-keeper at a privat collection and in the past 2 1/2 month I was able to take care for at least 100 animal-species I had never taken care for before ( bringing the number of species taken care for to around 3.500 / 4.000 ).
For the last 10 years I wish to thank all members and the moderators of ZooChat for the wonderful time I had on this site and hope the next 10 years will be as good ( or even better ) as the past 10 years !!!
 
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December 10 again. Eleven years on ZooChat ! ZooChat-wise the worst year sofar. Only went to 7 zoos ( 8 visits ) and of these 7 only 1 new one, posted only 150 posts ( this being number 17.650 ) and uploaded ( only ) 1000 photos ( now I'm on 34.000 ). On the positive site I met 2 ZooChatters ( both of them I had met already before ) : @Rayane on his visit to the lowlands at Antwerp Zoo and @Sicarius a number of times on his search to new and intresting species at several exibitions.
Sounds maybe a little depressed but no way, animal-wise 2023 was one of the best years I had sofar. At work I had the opportunity to take care again for a huge number of animals ( a lot of them being new for me to take care for ), a number of Lifers ( both at work as well as at zoos, shops and exhibitions ) and a nice number of breeding results, some of which were personal firsts for me like :
- Five-striped mabya
- Spotted mabuya
- Water skink
- Long-tailed lizard
- African house snake
- Asian jungle scorpion
- Fat-tailed gerbil
- Lesser Egyptian gerbil
- Lesser Bamboo rat
- Serval
- Two-toed sloth
- Marbled polecat
Also started this year again to keep animals in my private collection ( just 2 species sofar but it's a beginning ) :
- Four-toed tortoise
- Tropical screech owl
With the hope to be a little more active on ZooChat next year I again want to thank the moderators for this great site and all the members who had more time as I to provide us with all the intresting news, discussions and photos from zoos around the world !

YouTube

( clip of nest of Marbled polecats ( we bred 2 nests of 2 different females, totaling 9 young ) - just to make some ZooChatters envious ( @TeaLovingDave ;) )




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