When did you start to be interested in zoos?

My parents often used to take me to London Zoo when I was very young child back in the 1950s.

It was my regular childhood visits to London Zoo, back in the days when it had one of biggest animal collections in the world, that inspired my interest in zoology and my obsession with zoo visiting.
 
I think most people on this site became interested as children, but I became interested in my mid twenties. Of course I went to my local Los Angeles Zoo as a child with my parents, but once I got into junior high and high school I stopped going. When I was 23 or 24 years old and just getting into photography I was invited to photograph a friend's behind-the-scenes encounter with a koala at Los Angeles Zoo. Afterwards I decided to walk around the zoo on my own to finish up the roll of film. I found two tigers sparring and that is what got me hooked on zoos and wild cats.
 
Like most people on this site it was during my childhood on trips to the local zoo that I first developed an interest in these institutions.

However, now my interest is far more nuanced and centred in the role that zoos can potentially play with regards to assisting with ex-situ captive breeding and contributing to the in-situ conservation of endangered species.
 
My parents started me very young :) Which I've always thought was odd, because they both have never really been into animals at all, they'd never had pets or anything. But I seemed to really enjoy going to places with animals, so they kept taking me.

Under a year old:
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1 year:
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5 years, soon after we first moved to the USA:
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My 8th birthday party, zoo themed:
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My interest in animals and zoos started somewhere in the late summer or fall of the year 1997 (if I remember the date well), when I was 7-8 years old, during a visit to my local zoo, Zoo Planckendael. 1997 was the first year we had a membership for Zoo Antwerpen and Zoo Planckendael (which we continue to this day) and became somewhat regular visitors. I really don't have that many memories from before the time I was interested in animals.

Apparently during that faithful visit to Planckendael I took a real interest in animals and I remember receiving my first two animal-related books from my parents' collection that same night, or at least very soon after (the beginning of a collection of for the great majority animal and science-related books now probably numbers around 400).

Given that I have an autism spectrum disorder the interest in animals quickly became my overwhelming interest and something that soon dominated much of my free time. Over the years my interest in animals grew into a general interest in life sciences and environmental science, and it also ended up determining my choice in higher education (I have a Bachelor degree in Environmental Management and a Master of Science degree in Environmental Science) and my choice of career, as I work for a government environment agency (from home is these times).

Given that my interest in animals and science began with a zoo visit, I have always continued to love them and feel a connection to them, and they have remained a place where I can see and learn more about the animals I read about and watch documentaries on. Over the years we have begun to visit more and more zoos, especially once photography also became a passion (which happened progressively since around 2005).
 
KevinB said:
My interest in animals and zoos started somewhere in the late summer or fall of the year 1997 (if I remember the date well), when I was 7-8 years old, during a visit to my local zoo, Zoo Planckendael. 1997 was the first year we had a membership for Zoo Antwerpen and Zoo Planckendael (which we continue to this day) and became somewhat regular visitors. I really don't have that many memories from before the time I was interested in animals.
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I always had assumed that you were much older because of the maturity of your posts so I'm honestly quite suprised to learn this.
 
Onychorhynchus coronatus said:
I always had assumed that you were much older because of the maturity of your posts so I'm honestly quite suprised to learn this.
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I can't say I don't feel older than 30.5 some days, physically and/or mentally...

That said, it is not unusual for people with autism spectrum disorders to appear more mature in some areas and less in others, compared to their peers of the same age.
 
Funnily enough, my first zoo was Montpellier zoo, not London, at around 7 months old. It was essentially just for a walk because the zoo is free and has some nice paths through it, but my mother noticed that I was really interested in the animals. She took me to the London zoo a few times, and then on my fifth visit to a zoo I went to the London zoo on my birthday. Since then, almost all my birthdays have included zoo visits, whether Pafos, Vincennes, Montpellier, Thoiry, London, Hamerton or Parc des Felins :)
 
I had trouble reading as a Kindergartner - I didn't like the look of words and preferred pictures. Then one day (I don't even remember how) I got my hands of two books - Field Guide to Insects and Spiders of North America and Guide to Birds of North America. Every day I would have my parents read to me about one of the animals featured in the guide. I actually learned to read this way, and this helped me gain my love for both animals and books.

My Grandma, who I visited often, was just as crucial to my love of animals today. She had a huge setup of bird feeders in her yard, and I would spend hours watching the chickadees, cardinals, squirrels and other animals that visited them.

After I gained a love for animals so early in my life, I just naturally began to love zoos as well.
 
I’ve been an animal lover since childhood, so zoos and aquariums were always appealing places to visit. They didn’t really become one of my main passions until I became more aware of their conservation efforts and undeserved demonization by the animal rights movement in my teens. Since then, I’ve been avid supporters of them.
 
From the age of about six, I used to spend every weekend at the local public library and I quickly discovered the animal section. I used to spend hours [and still do to some extent] reading every book I could find about animals. Once I finished reading most of the books in the local library, I began ordering books from the other libraries. Let's just say the librarians got to know me very quickly! :p

Zoos naturally followed. I don't think I will ever forget the first time I saw something like a quoll when I was a child. As I am sure many of you can agree, certain memories stick with you for life.
 
Growing up with my mother in the Navy, I've had the chance to live in quite a few places able to see many zoos.

My first memory of zoos was when I was very young in San Diego. I barley remember anything about the zoo at the time due to the fact I was a toddler, but my parents used to tell me I'd cry when we had to leave, not a good sign!

I made my first collection of animals/zoo map when I was about 5 or 6

At recess in elementary school (heck, a bit of middle school too) I remember just being alone and creating species lists in my head.

I always wanted to grow up and own a zoo when I was young, but I now realize financially hard that would be, so I just keep them as fantasies. :)
 
I've been interested in animals since I was a baby, and when my parents took me to Cabarceno I really fell in love with the animal and zoo world. I don't really have many memories of this visit (I was just 2) but I've seen VHS tapes of the trip and I also know that the 2-year-old me had a great time.
My love for zoos and wildlife, in general, went increasing when they took me to other zoos like Sendaviva or the Barcelona zoo (I have a special sweet memory of my first time in Barcelona, when my dad took me to say goodbye to the elephants because we had to leave the zoo). I have many memories of being looking in the map days after visiting zoos when I was a kid, just thinking about making my own zoo once I grew up, telling to the other kids at school names of "weird animals" (I really remember being explaining to some kids what an okapi, takin or colugo was, or even explaining the difference between a common and Grevy's zebra, even though it wasn't very accurate) and going to the library to browse some old illustrated books with loads of animals in them, and just fantasizing and drawing maps of zoos I created in my mind until I realized I wasn't awfully rich.
This passion didn't die with the pass of time, and the older I got, the more I asked to visit zoos, and the more I learned about animals.
 
I was born across the street from the World Famous San Diego Zoo™, and grew up visiting it and the Wild Animal Park. A videotape exists somewhere of my attempt at an A-to-Z video safari, but I vaguely remember only getting to C for crocodile.

While I never stopped being interested in nature and animals I was zoo agnostic from my late teens to late twenties. I didn't start visiting regularly again until I was thirty.

MonkeyBat said:
I always wanted to grow up and own a zoo when I was young, but I now realize financially hard that would be, so I just keep them as fantasies. :)
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I have a vintage atlas (Germany's flag is the German Reich flag) and in it I carved off half of central India that I was going to turn into my own private tiger reserve. The Indians totally wouldn't mind!
 
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