What does everyone collect Zoo related ?

I collect souvenir cups in general (though I don't always get them), and Mold-A-Rama plastic... things, as of recently. Otherwise I just in general like random zoo stuff from their gift shops. I would like to collect physical maps and such (to my knowledge I have two) and those little metal medallion things (I have one).
 
I used to collect Zoo leaflets (I have 3 folders full of them) but sadly the tourist information centre in my town closed in 2020. I still collect Zoo guidebooks whenever I visit a collection.
 
I try to collect maps, but I keep losing them!

If the gift shop has nice shirts, I make it a point to buy a shirt. But it has to be a nice one.
 
We've just come back from holiday, and visited 7 zoos.

Not everyone had something nice I would have wanted, so didn't buy something at all of them.
But this is the haul from the past 2 weeks.

- parc de félins (fr)
- pakawi park (b)
- zoo krefeld (d)
- zie zoo (nl) (we all got our own ticket with a different animal on it, which I thought was great)
- planckendael (b)
- overloon (nl)

I squealed when I saw the red panda ears! As the ones in the UK are being sold & labeled as 'red panda' but they are really not, color wise.
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Tim May said:
My main collecting interest is old (i.e. before 1950) zoo postcards particularly those from London Zoo. I also especially like old postcards from Berlin Zoo, the original Hamburg Zoo (i.e. the zoo before Hagenbecks) and the Jardin des Plantes Menagerie.

Whenever I visit a zoo I normally buy a copy of the current guidebook so, over the years, I have accumulated a large number of these.

However, I don’t go out of my way to collect modern zoo guides although I am always on the lookout for historic zoo guides, especially those from London Zoo. Unfortunately those before 1900 are now extremely hard to find and, when found, very expensive.
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I own a 1895 London Zoo guide ,the cover is an advert for Holloways pills ointment. Do you know if this sort of cover was usual for those days. The guide is intact and in good condition other than the staples are a bit rusty
 
Strathmorezoo said:
I own a 1895 London Zoo guide ,the cover is an advert for Holloways pills ointment. Do you know if this sort of cover was usual for those days. The guide is intact and in good condition other than the staples are a bit rusty
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I believe your guidebook is missing the actual front cover, in that case - the covers for the guidebooks issued by London Zoo up to and including 1903 comprised a combination of text and an illustration depicting one or more animals, with several pages of advertisement material within prior to the main body of the guidebook. For instance, this is the cover of my copy of the 1877 edition:

full


The 1895 guidebook, when intact, has a giraffe on the front cover I believe :)
 
Strathmorezoo said:
I mainly collect zoo guides the older the better. I have also a collection of guides of zoos that have closed down. The full collection numbers just over 400..Nearly. forgot also have 156 zoo related books
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Ah, a man after my own heart - last year I did a thread highlighting some of my own personal collection selected (mostly) at random:

A Guidebook Library: TLD's year-long randomised walkthrough of zoo guides

It includes reviews of guidebooks pertaining to more than a few closed collections, including the only guidebook ever published by Stanley Zoo, along with material from Lambton Lion Park, Belle Vue Zoo and Kilverstone Wildlife Park.

At some point I want to return to that thread to post further reviews of my complete run of 20th century Zoo Berlin guidebooks.
 
TeaLovingDave said:
I believe your guidebook is missing the actual front cover, in that case - the covers for the guidebooks issued by London Zoo up to and including 1903 comprised a combination of text and an illustration depicting one or more animals, with several pages of advertisement......
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I agree entirely with Dave's comment here; I was about to make some similar comments but he beat me to it by a few minutes..,.
 
TeaLovingDave said:
I believe your guidebook is missing the actual front cover, in that case - the covers for the guidebooks issued by London Zoo up to and including 1903 comprised a combination of text and an illustration depicting one or more animals, with several pages of advertisement material within prior to the main body of the guidebook. For instance, this is the cover of my copy of the 1877 edition:

full


The 1895 guidebook, when intact, has a giraffe on the front cover I believe :)
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Thank you, I have owned this guide for nearly 10 years I just couldn't believe that it was the original cover
 
tigris115 said:
Do any of you guys scan these books, maps, etc.?

This is good stuff
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I refer you to my aforementioned thread from last year!

It only covers 150 guidebooks - less than a tenth of my total - but I think it provides a fairly representative selection :) and does indeed include scans and maps.
 
TeaLovingDave said:
Ah, a man after my own heart - last year I did a thread highlighting some of my own personal collection selected (mostly) at random:

A Guidebook Library: TLD's year-long randomised walkthrough of zoo guides

It includes reviews of guidebooks pertaining to more than a few closed collections, including the only guidebook ever published by Stanley Zoo, along with material from Lambton Lion Park, Belle Vue Zoo and Kilverstone Wildlife Park.

At some point I want to return to that thread to post further reviews of my complete run of 20th century Zoo Berlin guidebooks.
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I also have at least 12 Belle Vue guidebooks and Lambton lion Park, plus way too many to mention at this time
 
I collect zoo and museum magnets, but I only started a little over a year ago. I have ~25 magnets so far:
  • American Museum of Natural History
  • Bronx Zoo (two magnets)
  • Capron Park Zoo (two magnets)
  • Central Park Zoo
  • Franklin Park Zoo (two magnets)
  • La Brea Tar Pits
  • Los Angeles Zoo
  • Maryland Zoo
  • National Aquarium
  • National Zoo
  • New England Aquarium
  • Penn's Cave
  • Philadelphia Zoo
  • Prospect Park Zoo
  • Roger Williams Park Zoo
  • Rosamond Gifford Zoo (two magnets)
  • Santa Monica Pier Aquarium
  • Southwick's Zoo
  • Wolf Hollow (two magnets)
  • Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute
 
I used to collect zoo leaflets, and I think I may have some of the more unusual ones still lying around (older leaflets, or ones from foreign or closed collections), but the modern state of zoo leaflets makes collecting them pretty uninteresting.

Also got my first ever piece of proper older zoo memorabilia - I have now purchased an old Colchester Zoo guidebook, partly to celebrate the zoo's 60th anniversary.
 
DesertRhino150 said:
I used to collect zoo leaflets, and I think I may have some of the more unusual ones still lying around (older leaflets, or ones from foreign or closed collections), but the modern state of zoo leaflets makes collecting them pretty uninteresting.

Also got my first ever piece of proper older zoo memorabilia - I have now purchased an old Colchester Zoo guidebook, partly to celebrate the zoo's 60th anniversary.
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Watch out, collecting guides can become addictive, haha
 
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