On a side note, my daughter visited approximately 130 zoos before she was even 3 years old! Almost all of those were major collections and she has probably toured more major American zoos than 99% of the people on this forum. Crazy, right? The catch is that she peaked when she was still technically 2 years old, she hasn't really added many new zoos in the past 6 years, and of course she doesn't remember any of those places when she was a toddler. She also visited 41 out of the 50 U.S. states while she was still 2 years old, back when my wife and I traveled everywhere with two young kids. Now that we have 4 children it is an era of 'solo zoo traveling' for me. By contrast, my second child has been to perhaps 100 zoos, while the two youngest kids have visited less than 10 zoos each. Those guys got ripped off.
Wow 41/50 States by age 2!? Has she added anymore? At age 35 my count is exactly 41/50 which blows away most Americans. I'm sure I have her beat on foreign countries visited though haha!
Wow.I was jealous. But she wouldn't remember it when she is adult. I suppose she don't take a species list?
My wife and I have been to all 50 U.S. states, although I've only made it through the Honolulu airport on a few occasions and so technically Hawaii counts as well. Our daughter is at 41 U.S. states (plus Mexico and Australia), our second kid is at around 36 U.S. states (plus Australia), our third kid is at 1 U.S. state (plus Australia) and the fourth kid is also at 1 U.S. state only. Those guys got ripped off. No species lists for the kids, although having 4 children means that I'm well equipped to judge Children's Zoos...an Achilles Heel for many zoo nerds. Omaha's Henry Doorly Zoo is possibly the best zoo that I've ever seen for small children, even though there are very few animals in that section of the grounds.
Impressive stuff! How many Canadian provinces have you made it to? And did you never leave the airport in Honolulu? If so you're at 49 According to my rules you have to leave the airport for it to count.
The zoos I visited the most are actually the closest to where I am living: 24 visits in Zoologischer Stadgarten Karlsruhe and 21 visits in Zoo d'Amnéville. ;-)
Not to hijack the thread of anything, but is this only for zoochatters? If so, we have former zoo directors on this forum?!
The worst thing about a big zoo visit with the kids, you miss a lot of bloody stuff unless you can persuade your partner that they don't need to see the echidna/tur/cuscus etc. whilst you can wander off on your own for half hour.
Why don't you just come up with bedtime stories involving Bruce the Echidna or GusGus the Cuscus, and then when you go to the zoo you will be begged to take them to see those animals...?
I do have a children's book that features an echidna, along with lots of other cool Aussie species but the main protagonist is a bush rat, which makes sense since the story is called "The Little Brown Bush Rat". There's another book in the collection called "Amazon Adventure" or something similar that features silky anteater, three-toed sloth, ocelot and cock of the rock amongst many others. Only the best for my little girl!
Since 2019 my wild animal expeditions have far outweighed those of the captive variety. Still, as compared to 2018 I'm now well over 200 (282 to be exact) so I'm now knocking on the door of 300. I've also just recently made my first visit (finally!) to the Staten Island Zoo, (with a couple of zoochatters) even though I've lived only 20 minutes away the past 3 years.
Sorry for bumping this topic, but I came across an article about Steven van den Heuvel who also should have hit the 1000+ barrier. I cannot find a list of the zoos visited, but for sure it's an impressive amount. Mijlpaal: Nederlander bezoekt duizend verschillende dierentuinen As I came past this topic I was curious what the status is on the number of zoos visited for the people named in this topic?
