Ouch! You missed a good chunk of the park! Hope you're able to go again soon and see everything you missed!
Your 2018
- Thread starter kiang
- Start date
Ouch! You missed a good chunk of the park! Hope you're able to go again soon and see everything you missed!
It was terrible. We were only there for 4 hours to start with, and of course everyone else wanted to ride rides first. And when we were done with that we had to eat which took an hour. I wasn't supposed to go off on my own, but looking back now I should've just "accidentally " gotten lost.
1. Going to go with stuff I’m allowed to talk about...three way tie between visiting zoos I’d always dreamt of visiting (62 zoos in total were visited this year), meeting zoochatters I’d never met before such as @devilfish, @TeaLovingDave and of course @ThylacineAlive, and finally seeing pangolins!
2. So much stuff! All the Hamerton developments, sun bear birth at Chester, the new arrival of a ton of incredible species at various places across Europe and so on
3. On a news note, Chester’s fire. On a personal note, JUST missing black lion tamarin (and also marsh mongoose) at Magdeburg mere months before visiting.....
2. So much stuff! All the Hamerton developments, sun bear birth at Chester, the new arrival of a ton of incredible species at various places across Europe and so on
3. On a news note, Chester’s fire. On a personal note, JUST missing black lion tamarin (and also marsh mongoose) at Magdeburg mere months before visiting.....
Since posting this I’ve been to the Cincinnati Zoo and so for highlights I would have to add seeing my first Aye-Ayes, Aardwolf, Genet, Porto and Pallas Cat, with all but the Aye-Aye being found in the incredible Night Hunters building.
1. 2018 was a great year for zoo visits for me, and I took a total of three zoo-focused trips (I believe this is a personal record). I got all kinds of lifers, from yapok to Tongan megapode to more herps than I could imagine. I think my favorite moment, though, was a rather nondescript one; walking through the phenomenal gardens of the Living Desert under the blistering sun. It truly reflected the desert in which the zoo is found and connected it superbly to the exhibits of the animals themselves.
Subcategory: favorite wild animal experience: by far, my travels around the Galapagos Islands. It was my first time out of the country and one I was delighted by! Never before have I been in a place where the wild animals are so prevalent.
2. The arrival of a few species in American zoos for the first time was definitely great. I also enjoyed hearing of the slew of new arrivals at Hamerton.
3. This was a tie between two heartbreaking pieces of news: the closure of Al Wabra and the truth about ACTP. Both will have devastating effects for zoo world's future.
Subcategory: favorite wild animal experience: by far, my travels around the Galapagos Islands. It was my first time out of the country and one I was delighted by! Never before have I been in a place where the wild animals are so prevalent.
2. The arrival of a few species in American zoos for the first time was definitely great. I also enjoyed hearing of the slew of new arrivals at Hamerton.
3. This was a tie between two heartbreaking pieces of news: the closure of Al Wabra and the truth about ACTP. Both will have devastating effects for zoo world's future.
1. There was so many this year, it's hard to pick just one...but I would say Arnhem and Cologne visits top it.
2. Babirusa piglet in Jihlava, I'll never forget the moment I saw it for the first time.
3. Every death of an animal and every other inconvenience that happens in zoos worldwide are of course bad (well...at least most of the time) but I guess this should be probably something more personal and in this case, I pick having to cancel meetups with @FunkyGibbon and @Rayane because of my work duties. Here's to hope we'll materialize it sometimes in the future.
2. Babirusa piglet in Jihlava, I'll never forget the moment I saw it for the first time.
3. Every death of an animal and every other inconvenience that happens in zoos worldwide are of course bad (well...at least most of the time) but I guess this should be probably something more personal and in this case, I pick having to cancel meetups with @FunkyGibbon and @Rayane because of my work duties. Here's to hope we'll materialize it sometimes in the future.
1. Top of the list has to be my first proper zoo trip to Germany and Czech Republic allowing me to see lots of lifers including the Leipzig Pangolins, along with a trip to Valencia, which got me Klipspringer, Spot-necked Otter and Beluga. It was also great to meet some new people from the ZooChat world, whilst also catching up with others I have previously met. I also managed to reach my highest amount of zoos in one year so far (33).
2. Another successful year for Orang-utans in Europe in terms of breeding and the opening of the new Chimp house at Twycross Zoo are up there, but all of Hamerton's arrivals top the list.
3. The fire in the Monsoon Forest, along with the 2 Elephant calves and young male Orang-utan Tripa passing at Chester all top my list. And personally, Alfred-Brehm House closing a few weeks before my visit to Tierpark Berlin, and like @ShonenJake13 missing the Marsh Mongoose and Black Lion Tamarin at Magdeburg were both blows.
2. Another successful year for Orang-utans in Europe in terms of breeding and the opening of the new Chimp house at Twycross Zoo are up there, but all of Hamerton's arrivals top the list.
3. The fire in the Monsoon Forest, along with the 2 Elephant calves and young male Orang-utan Tripa passing at Chester all top my list. And personally, Alfred-Brehm House closing a few weeks before my visit to Tierpark Berlin, and like @ShonenJake13 missing the Marsh Mongoose and Black Lion Tamarin at Magdeburg were both blows.
FunkyGibbon
Well-Known Member
1.
2.
- For various reasons, my Mentawai trip (coming soon to a thread near you!)
- Jihlava Zoo. Despite some drawbacks, a really eye-opening example of just how good a 'small' zoo can be
- Having eleven belugas to myself at Hangzhou Polar Ocean World. Utterly magical even though it wasn't my first time.
- My first whale sharks, at The Cube Oceanarium. My nose was pressed to the glass for 45 mins.
2.
- Loosely, this year seems to have seen a slew of good news for European Zoos. It's been a pleasure to follow it.
- The fires at Chester and other British zoos.
- Missing the Bay Cat at Bogor.
- This has been the first full year since I arrived in Asia that I didn't visit Singapore; I miss it.
With apologies to Tim May and Sooty Mangabey (given my list is similar to both of theirs):
1. Zoohistorica 2018, whilst I enjoyed all the zoos visited and peoples I met/hung/traveled with the highlight, if I had to pick, was Antwerp zoo (very nice collection, zoo embracing it's history and it's just beautiful). I'm, seriously, still trying to process Pairi Daiza (good? mad? both?)
.
2. The news of the animals coming to Hamerton, can't remember this much of a buzz about a place since the brief heydays of Rare Species Conservation Centre. Props to Andrew Swales.
3. The announcement of the closing of London Zoo's aquarium. For me this trumps all the other bad zoo news of the year due to it's permanency, level of impact on the collection and realistic likelihood that it will be another piece of the zoo stuck in stasis and ZSL's near inertia will mean that nothing significant will replace it anytime soon. I've always stuck up for London on the basis that whilst lacking multitudes of ABC mammals (Antwerp manage it for Pete's sake!
) it always had significant strength in other areas -the aquarium closing will knock a big hole in my argument. 
1. Zoohistorica 2018, whilst I enjoyed all the zoos visited and peoples I met/hung/traveled with the highlight, if I had to pick, was Antwerp zoo (very nice collection, zoo embracing it's history and it's just beautiful). I'm, seriously, still trying to process Pairi Daiza (good? mad? both?)
.2. The news of the animals coming to Hamerton, can't remember this much of a buzz about a place since the brief heydays of Rare Species Conservation Centre. Props to Andrew Swales.
3. The announcement of the closing of London Zoo's aquarium. For me this trumps all the other bad zoo news of the year due to it's permanency, level of impact on the collection and realistic likelihood that it will be another piece of the zoo stuck in stasis and ZSL's near inertia will mean that nothing significant will replace it anytime soon. I've always stuck up for London on the basis that whilst lacking multitudes of ABC mammals (Antwerp manage it for Pete's sake!
) it always had significant strength in other areas -the aquarium closing will knock a big hole in my argument.