What does your partner make of zoos?

Mr T

Mr T

Well-Known Member
I love zoos but unfortunately my partner does not. This means that I don't get to visit as many zoos as I would like as she does not enjoy the experience. I was wondering what the situation was fellow zoochatters. Do your partners love zoos just as much as you or do they flat out refuse to go with you? (I tried to do a poll for this but couldn't figure it out)
 
Having reached 50 without ever having had a partner I don't have that problem!! In the unlikely event of finding anyone to put up with me she would have to be a zoo enthusiast, and a Parrots one, as zoos always come first for me. As you can see it is not surprising I am permanently single :D.
 
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Im glad you brought this topic up. I used to hate zoo's when i was younger. I thought they were dumb,boring and stupid. but as i got older the love for animals grew on me and know i just love zoo's. My gf never was into zoo's but im glad now she loves em just as much as i do :). If i was just into zoo's when i was younger the many more zoo's i could have seen like zoo atlanta,LA zoo,all the NY zoos,Detroit zoo,Buffalo zoo,Baltimore zoo and Palm Beach zoo.
 
surely adults can have different hobbies without the need to supress their partners ones?
So for example if I want to visit a zoo then I can and my partner can go and do what they like - no pressure on either of us and we'll get together after we're both all hobbied out?
Yes it's nice to share hobbies but it's not mutually exclusive and it's refreshing to mix with different people too.
 
I'm very fortunate, my better half - just incase she reads this - enjoys going to zoo's almost as much as me.

Although I think I like going slightly more than she does. As any we go to involves a lot of travel on the buses.
 
karoocheetah said:
surely adults can have different hobbies without the need to supress their partners ones?
So for example if I want to visit a zoo then I can and my partner can go and do what they like - no pressure on either of us and we'll get together after we're both all hobbied out?
Yes it's nice to share hobbies but it's not mutually exclusive and it's refreshing to mix with different people too.
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I totally agree with you. I do go and visit zoos without her and she will do her own thing but because of our lack of proximity to a good zoo it makes it much more of a trip with at least one overnight stop over which means it can be quite expensive. When we visit London I will visit the zoo and she will go and catch up with friends which is great for both of us.
 
My parents don't really like visiting zoos, my grandparents often take me. Although my parents do take me to a zoo once a year.
 
My wife is okay with it. I think it gets old for her, though. There are other things that she'd rather be doing if we are in a place with a nice beach and good weather. I don't blame her in that respect.

I went to zoos by myself all the time when I was single, and sometimes I think that's the way I'd rather do it. It's not the way we usually do things, but when it happens, both of us are usually pleased with the way things work out.
 
My girlfriend, Hel, is just as fond of visiting zoos as I am - as a matter of fact we shall be visiting three next weekend for her birthday!
 
Fiona is not only a highly tolerant individual but also an intelligent woman with a real feel for animals. With five children between us they tend to take over our zoo trips, but on the rare occasions we've ever gone anywhere on our own she's thoroughly enjoyed herself.
 
Yep!,i gotta say im lucky as my wife enjoys zoo's and looks forward to going, although she finds it hard keeping up with me as im still as excited and eager with zoo's as i was when i was an 8 year old. :D
 
This question assumes the fact that some of us are able to get a partner despite or in spite of our overwhelming zoo nerd-dom.
 
Me and 'my significant other' as Delboy says... enjoy zoo visits and any animal encounters equally. However some differences we do have at zoos etc are, I am probably more interested in animals exhibits/homes and their taxonomy where as she likes to watch the behaviour and movements of the animals more. We don't go on holidays to see several zoos in a set period of time, but we do always visit at least one zoo whenever we go away as part of the holiday, as it just wouldn't be a holiday without a zoo visit in my book :D.
It is also healthy to have seperate hobbies, she wouldn't want to go fishing with me or go to the pub to watch some football as I don't like the idea of baking cakes at all!
 
When it comes to zoos my wife can take them or leave them but I usually visit alone. I’m not very tolerant of others while I’m in a zoo and it irritates the hell out of me if someone I’m with wants to stop for lunch, coffee, a sit down, or the toilet; why can’t people do these things before they leave the house?
 
Where I live there is several zoos close by and my childhood treat was to visit 4 of them regularly and my children then did the same! As well as others on our holidays.
My partner on the other hand where he was brought up had none close by and he had only even been to the zoo on a couple of occasions.
Soooo when he met me, our first proper date was to the zoo, next time we went we bought membership! Since then during the last 8 years together our holidays and days out are planned to involve as many zoos as we can fit in.
I lured him into it, as he had a lapsed photography hobby and he has developed a love for the big cats.
Its not just about the animals with us, its the photography, being outside in all weathers and walking our feet off and meeting and chatting to like minded people. Oh and we like to hold hands and act silly too :D
 
I am single and have never been in a relationship, but occasionally I have managed to inveigle female friends to come with me on a visit to a zoo. On one such visit to Colchester Zoo back in 1994, my female friend (whom I secretly rather fancied) and I returned to the car park after going round the collection, and I sat in the car and studied the map to see if there were any exhibits we'd missed. I discovered there were several. I told her that, according to the map, we had somehow missed the Geoffroy's Cats, the Fossa, Spot-nosed Monkeys, the Bush Dogs...and I suggested to her that we set off again to find these animals that we had missed the first time round. She then surprised me by saying no, thus revealing that, as interested as she was in animals, the level of her interest didn't match mine. So she sat in the car and waited for me while I set off on my own to find them.
I took another woman to Banham Zoo, but all this woman wanted to do was to sit down and have a break all the time. At first I indulged her, not wanting to upset her. We sat on a bench near the Colobus Monkeys for twenty minutes or so before she finally felt refreshed enough to carry on with our tour of the zoo. This, as far as I was concerned, was time wasted. I should have gone off on my own at that stage, but I felt this wouldn't have been a very nice thing to do. I then suggested we go to the tiger talk, as it wasn't far. But she wasn't interested and once again I didn't argue or try to change her mind. Then she wanted to sit down yet AGAIN. This time I finally lost patience. Leaving her on a seat, I went off on my own to look round the reptile house. I think she was quite surprised by this because after a short while she came to find me.
For me, a girlfriend would have to be at least as keen on zoos as I am, or there would be no chance of a longterm relationship.
 
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