I've been obsessed with zoos for my entire life and the last 10 years has seen me be fairly active on ZooChat as I finally found a whole group of individuals that shared the same obsession as I do. Those that have corresponded with me or know me via my online road trip reviews have long since realized that I track a lot of information when it comes to zoos and I've always been a "numbers guy" on this site. About 6 months ago I created a list of zoo nerds that had visited more than 300 different zoos and aquariums in their lifetime but I've been sitting on that data as I wasn't sure if I wanted to post it in a thread. I definitely didn't want anyone to think that I was creating a competition as I visit loads of zoos for myself and I've never thought about attempting to see more zoos than an overseas friend as that has simply not been my aim. I think that there are many folks that would be intrigued to see such a list and so I've decided to post it, although obviously the totals are consistently changing and I'm estimating some of the numbers. I'd be grateful to anyone willing to edit the statistics and I'd also really like to know who else is out there in the world of zoos that has been to more than 300...where are you? I've gone with ZooChat names even though I'm quite familiar with "sooty mangabey", "devilfish", "zoogiraffe" and "maguari" and if those individuals want their real names on this list then it would be easy for a moderator to make those alterations. Jonas Livet - 1,400 different zoos/aquariums Tim Brown - 780 Harry Schram - 720 (sadly deceased earlier this year) MJB - 635 Talli - 550 Rob MV - 480 Wally War Eagle - 450 Tim May - 400 Devilfish - 385 Sooty Mangabey - 375 Snow Leopard - 372 (Scott Richardson) Zoogiraffe - 360 Maguari - 360 (Ben Gilbert) Bernhard Blaszkiewiz - 350? (ex-Berlin Zoo director) Allen Nyhuis - 320 Steve Taylor - 310? (ex-Cleveland Zoo director) Mark Reed - 310? (ex-Sedgwick County Zoo director)
I'm currently on 359 (and have no problem with my name being used if you see fit!). That's zoos, of course, not visits. I've no records of visit numbers before summer 2002, when I was 18 and starting my gap year before uni, but I've just discovered I've made exactly 800 zoo visits since then. Edit: That 800 includes 69 Chesters and 26 Twycrosses.
@Maguari I edited my post to include your real name...thanks Ben. You go to a zoo once per week (on average) while I only visit a local zoo or aquarium perhaps 6 times per year...but then I have my crazy road trips where I visit several zoos every day for weeks on end! Also, I feel as if you have brought up a good point with my use of the word "visits". Perhaps a moderator could alter the title of this thread to something like "300+ Different Zoos Visited" as that is what I was aiming for and I don't want any confusion.
Mine also tend to come in batches (half of this year's visits to date were on the September Zoohistorica trip, for instance) but I have stuck to at least one zoo (zoo/wildlife park/aquarium/bird park/falconry etc) per calendar month since July 2004.
That is impressive! I can just picture you running around Chester Zoo for an hour on the 31st of a particular month just so you can maintain your 13-year streak.
Yikes! I'm close to being over-taken by a Canadian. Time to make that long-awaited visit to Beaver Waterworld.....
I try to follow a similar mantra but, inexplicably, I didn't visit a zoo in July 2013. I've kept a record of every zoo visit since 1998 and the only other blank months are August 1998 (I was just getting warmed up then) and March 2001 (when almost every zoo was closed due to the foot and mouth outbreak).
No sign of @MikeG or @Designaka ? I thought they would be up there with Rob, Ben and the two Tims...?
I think Jonas has a very liberal interpretation of what it is that constitutes a zoo, so a number of places amongst the 1400 may well be places that others would not thus categorise....
Indeed. Having seen his list (as of two years ago) it included many museums and farm parks with barely an exotic animal in sight. In fairness he has been to a LOT of proper zoos as well.
I would think Kowari, a former German member here easily makes this list. Additionally there is another German "Locke" from the German Zoofreunde forum, who had visited 371 collections by the end of 2015...
You should have come to Dudley with me. (very minor correction, actually - it was August, not July, 2004 that was my last zoo-less month - so my streak's a month shorter than I thought!)
My full list is up to 490 now. This includes any place worthy of an entry in my notebook: zoos in the broadest sense of the word (certainly restricted to places with exotic species, but including a few parks with aviaries, significant private collections, etc.).
