Name a zoo which no other zoochatter visited!

Several of us have been to Eaton Canyon, at least.

 

I also visited the Undersea Gardens in Newport back in 1996. It was a whirlwind day where I went to that facility as well as the Oregon Coast Aquarium plus the Ripley's Believe It or Not museum and Wax Works museum. Unfortunately, I was touring with someone who didn't like to pause to take pictures so I don't have very many images. My only photo evidence is a garter snake underneath a bench at the aquarium, a creepy looking fish at the Undersea Gardens, and some wax wolves at the museum!

 

Thinking about aquariums that I've visited reminded me of the fact that I've been to the New Brunswick Aquarium and Marine Centre. I looked and it isn't even listed in Media. This is a place that I know I have pictures from somewhere on my family's many hard drives. I vividly remember taking pictures of a blue lobster with my waterproof camera that I thought was the coolest thing in the world because I was like 12 or something

I've also been to the Fisheries Museum of the Atlantic which had a neat little aquarium in it with a collection of economically important species such as cod and halibut. This is another place that I did not see listed in Media. I just looked at their website and it seems the aquarium section of the museum is no more.

 

I believe I am the only ZooChatter to have visited Mariposario Alas del Destino in San Carlos, Costa Rica.

 

Even though the term "zoo" is stretching it, I believe I'm the only zoochatter to have visited the Dubrava Falconry Centre in Šibenika, Croatia.

 

I might be the only one to have visited several places in Aruba: Philip's Animal Garden, the Aruba Butterfly Farm, the Aruba Ostrich Farm, and the Aruba Donkey Sanctuary (although this one definitely doesn't count as a zoo).

 

Anything interesting about these places? Can't say I've ever heard of Aruba being a zoo destination before.

 

I’ve been to the animal garden. Lots of interesting species, im a big parrot guy so I was pleasantly surprised with the variety they had

 

You haven’t heard of Aruba being a zoo destination because it definitely isn’t a zoo destination . I went because my family wanted to go, not because of the zoos there.

Overall, the butterfly farm, the donkey sanctuary, and ostrich farm were all nice. The island has a population of feral donkeys, which are rescued by the sanctuary when they get into conflict with people. The ostrich farm, while primarily having ostriches and emus, also has reptiles and various smaller birds. They also have a cafe with ostrich egg omelets.

The Animal Garden has the coolest species from a rarity perspective (red howler monkey, jaguarundi) but the exhibits are mostly appalling. I didn’t know what it would be like before going, and while it was cool to see the rare species, I wouldn’t return as it’s probably the worst zoo from a welfare perspective that I’ve ever been to.

For my trip I found a great tour on viator.com that takes you to three of those places in half a day, which was a great deal: https://www.viator.com/tours/Oranjestad/Half-Day-Aruba-Animal-Sanctuary-Tour/d50211-7389P10

However, if you are an animal nerd in Aruba, there are much better things to do in the wild instead of going to the Animal Garden. I went snorkeling with wild sea turtles, saw magnificent frigate birds and burrowing owls and parrotfish, and saw so many other amazing birds and fish and reptiles as well.

 

1,Birmingham zoo, the one which Birmingham Nature Centre replaced
2,Henley in Arden, Warwickshire, Bird Gardens
3, Feckenham Bird Garden
4,Norton Grange zoo, a private zoo in Worcestershire set in approximately. 4 1/2 acres. It held Lions, leopard, a range of enclosures for various primates. There was also a large planted tropical house whith reptile accommodation and aquaria while dotted around the grounds were many attractive landscaped and well populated aviaries. Within the tropical house were many species of sunbird as these were of particular interest to the owner. A large pond was well stocked with Koi,Goldfish and Golden Orf.There was even a well equipped quarantine building .The grounds and gardens were particularly beautiful with an abundance of flower beds, trees and choice ornamental shrubs.

 

1 Zoo du Puy de Dôme, Orcines in France, closed in 2003
2 Safari Saint Vrain, France, closed in 1998

 

There's no way I've visited a zoo that no one else here has been to, ha ha. It seems only a handful of other people here have been to the Gladys Porter Zoo, but I'm not the only one. Maybe the closest thing MIGHT be the St. Francis Wolf Sanctuary in Navasota, Texas? Doubt many people here have had reason or convenience to go.

 

Smith Hills Open Farm in Bolton is a possible contender. Although it is largely a working farm, they hold a decent number of exotic species. This includes meerkats, coatis, wallabies, raccoons, emus, ostriches, many reptiles and amphibians and owls.

 

Sorry, i've also been to Meserani Snake Park in Arusha, so you have to delete it

 

Until the early 90s, there was a little zoo close to my then hometown, called Tierpark Silberweide in Mönchaltdorf, Switzerland (that is now closed for good). It has had macaws, amazones, white-nosed coatis, common porcupines, fallow deers and - if I remember correctly - capuchin monkeys among other commonly seen smaller species. I don't think that anyone else in this forum has ever visited it.

 

Ever since I made this post back at May 2022, and updated my list in early 2023, I have been to many zoos in Turkey, many of them not having any media of them prior to my visits. I did double check public lists of other zoo nerds, such as Johnathan Liver and Alexander Kantrovic who are known for having a larger roster of zoo visits around the world, to make sure that the places I did visit are not visited by anyone else. So here’s my updated list of zoos only I have visited:

Bold is previously listed. Star is not listed in Les Zoos dans le Monde. Slash is closed for good.

Ataturk Forest Farm Zoo/
Gaziantep Municipal Zoo*
Eskişehir Municipal Zoo*
Konya Municipal Karatay Zoo*
Keçiören Aquarium*
Ankara Domestic Animals Park*
Aqua Vega*
Samsun Zoo*/
Istanbul Birds Paradise/Kuş Cenneti*


Of course a huge chunk of these visits aren’t necessarily visits to be proud of. I wouldn’t even object people saying that most of these places aren’t zoos despite my personal belief that pulling a no true Scotsman is a foolish idea.I would only suggest Eskişehir to anyone who is willing to take a train ride and a minibus ride to the zoo there. Otherwise these are not places worth visiting.

 

I do not think that most zoochatter have visited Parc Omega, in Quebec, Canada. there isn't a thread channel about it. It is in the CAZA. It is not a zoo, like a safari park but huge. The animals(deer, elk, boars, ibex, wapiti, goose ) can roam in the park(exclude for the predators). The link is the Google map tour. It is right in front of the boat house. The google Maps trip is long. I have been there 2 times, summer and fall.
Google Maps
Look at that mountain goat exhibit, they have real rock to climb on after this enclosure it will be the cinnamon bear and the black bear.
Google Maps

 

Now that Sooty Mangabey no longer posts I'm going to go for Malvern Hills Wildlife Park, somewhere I visited many times as a child and loved... Apparently it wasn't as great as I remember.

 

I am very confident I am the only zoochatter that visited the Thermas-do-vale zoo.

Why am I so confident that I am the only one here that visited this zoo? Well, the zoo was in a not so famous city here in brazil, inside of a club that was popular by it aquatic park and some other things, so the zoo end up being overshadow, besides being very small, with only 15 species or so. On top of all that, the zoo closed down sometime before the pandemic, so this made it even more obscure.

In the talk of my visit to the zoo, i went there multiple years ago when i was a kid, when i visited the aqua park with my family, they decided that we could visit the zoo because i annoyed them to do so, lol.

Regard the animals the zoo collection was very "basic", the few animals i remember was peafowls, rheas, macaws, llamas, donkeys and a ocelot

 

I wonder if any other zoochatters have visited Langedrag Naturpark in Geilo, Norway. Norway is not a particularly zoo-rich nation and Langedrag is a pretty small institution fairly far from any major tourist-y hubs. From what I can see on the site no one has mentioned visiting before

In a similar vein I also went to Līgatnes dabas takas in Latvia. Which is another park of mostly native fauna in a pretty rural area and I can't find any mentions here on Zoochat