Finally got to see that species you've wanted to see for years.

The memory just randomly came up. When I was I want to say 4, maybe 5, I saw a picture of African wild dogs in an animal binder I was flipping through with my grandmother, and I immediately felt a passion to see them. I mean, they're like painted German shepherds with Mickey ears, of course I was dying to see some in person. Finally, the summer after 9th grade, I took a trip to Disney's Animal Kingdom with my mom and sister, and the moment that truck pulled up to the cave and I saw those dogs resting behind it, I was overcome. Sounds odd, I know, but I love dogs, wild or domestic, and considering these specific dogs have been at the top of my list to see in person since the younger days, I felt accomplished. Couple of years before DAK, we went to Zoo Miami and missed the wild dog exhibit. The zoo's massive, you'll miss some stuff if you don't know it well. Went to Birmingham just for fun, not knowing they had the dogs until after we got home, and I felt like I just missed them. since it wasn't long after they left. Disney finally gave me the gift.

Anyways, got to see the dogs at Disney 11th grade summer and again at Miami 12th grade summer, so enough about me. Has there ever been an animal you've been wanting to see for so long, and you finally got to see it and witnessed the beauty of it in person? What was it and what was your reaction?

 

When I was little boy, the aye-aye was listed as one of the rarest animals on the planet and I never expected to see it in my lifetime.
In 1987, I had enough money to go to Madagascar and my itinerary included a trip to Nosy Mangabe, where aye-ayes had been introduced in 1966. I saw the island, but some administrative problems meant I never got there.
When I returned home, I found out that there were captive aye-ayes at the Zoo Vincennes in Paris. I saw Humphrey, which was cat-sized and hardly the 'diminutive' animal I'd read about in books. He put his third finger in a gap between two panes of glass and we made finger contact. At that time, the zoo had examples from all lemur families, including my first greater bamboo lemur and the only time I've seen a fork-marked dwarf lemur or a red-tailed sportive lemur.

 

I'd wanted to see a maned wolf since I was very small, after reading about them in books like the Animal Atlas. I begged my dad to take me to Colchester Zoo when I was about 10 or 11, having only been to London Zoo and Paradise Wildlife Park previously, and saw so many new carnivores there (binturongs, marsh mongoose, Asian black bear, Amur leopard cat, bush dog), but the memory that stuck with me was seeing the maned wolf in that massive enclosure that later housed black-backed jackals. I was enthralled by its long legs and bright colours, and took quite a few pictures which I still have somewhere. There's even one of me watching the wolf at close range, with a fascinated look on my face, while Dad took a picture with the camera from the other side of the enclosure!

 

I'm glad you saw the maned wolf. I remember seeing the marsh mongoose at Colchester Zoo.

 

I remember the first time I saw a cheetah. I was 10 years old and at Animal Kingdom in Disney World. The first animal we see as we enter the savanna is a cheetah laying on the ground up against a chain link fence. I know cheetahs are pretty common in zoos, but my hometown zoo doesn’t have them. As it turns out, Animal Kingdom was where I saw a lot of animals for the first time.

 

Fisher last year It took multiple visits - she likes to sleep in a log - but when I finally got to see her out, I was so happy!! I watched her pretty much until I had to leave to get to the event I was attending (I left home extra early and made a 45 minute detour to try and catch her out). Ringtail at ZooAmerica too, but they're inside in the dark so not quite the same excitement.

Ooo and the cloud rats at Smithsonian! Though they're in the dark, too. But I adore them. They are one of the cutest species ever.

 

Another species I never expected to see in a zoo was a hoatzin. I saw four of them in the Diving Birds House at the Bronx Zoo in 1991. I wasn't expecting to see them and it's a shame there weren't any chicks. I would have liked to see them clambering about in trees. Do any zoos keep hoatzins? They are a very interesting species and should interest visitors, especially if there were interesting educational material nearby.

 

Colombia's National Aviary has taken in a few rescues and so they don't have a permanent population, but other than that, I don't think any zoo has hoatzins.

 

Komodo Dragons - In March of 2016, I went on a family trip to Lanzarote. My family, knowing I like to visit zoos, surprised me with a trip to Rancho Texas Lanzarote Park (great place, worth a visit) and I got the opportunity to see the parks pair. In October of that year. I went to Disney Animal Kingdom, and holy moly that enclosure was 100x better!

Baird’s Tapirs - Being a unique species of tapir, that species was on my checklist when I visited Mexico in July of 2013. My family had booked a trip to Xcaret, where I saw the male tapir in the park at that time. He was bigger than I expected.

King Penguins - I had unfortunately missed them in most of the visits I paid to Edinburgh. It wasn’t until early January of 2015 that I finally saw them, including Sir Nils Olav.

Drills - I often go to Edinburgh in the winter, so I never got the chance until the day I saw my first king penguins. The drills were surprisingly outside.

Gorillas - Yes I know it’s a shock, but I come from a part of the UK where there is no gorillas (Scotland). However I did see the species in Busch Gardens Tampa in October 2016

 

Meerkats, don't remember when, but till date I've seen them only once.

 

I dearly remember the first (and second) time I saw okapis. The first time was in Beauval in 2016. I was walking up the elephant exhibit, knowing what was coming next. When I arrived at the exhibit and I saw one of the okapis, excitement filled my body. I learned what an okapi was when my grandfather showed me a picture of one of them when I was 5 years old. Since that day I have dreamed to see one. Soon I realized that there were actual okapis in zoos, which made me even more excited about it. Sadly, all the zoos with okapis were far away from me. Beauval's encounter was unforgettable, but then I had the second chance to see them. My family and I decided to go to London on a trip, but we didn't plan on visiting the zoo. Luckily, I convinced my parents to see the zoo from the outside, since I knew that you could see the warthogs and African wild dogs from the canal. Then luckily, I was allowed to spend two hours in the zoo by my self. My main goals were the aye-ayes (animals that I forgot London had so I was very surprised and excited to see), Bornean bearded pigs (which I sadly missed) plus the whole nocturnal house, and of course, the okapis. I was quite sad that I didn't see them in the outdoors, but once I got to the stable and saw them up close, I knew why the okapi is my favorite animal.

 

The okapi is the favourite animal of Ralph Armond, the former Director of the Zoological Society of London. He retired in 2017 and I presented him with a framed photograph of him and one of London Zoo's okapis.

 

You saw the last (only?) hoatzins in the zoo world.

 

This to me is the most interesting comment on this whole thread so far. Despite all the fancy species mentioned, this one really made me think how we take Meerkats for granted over in the UK, Europe and the States and yet in some places they are rarely seen. A fact that is hard to grasp when every animal collection these days, zoo or not houses them it seems. Makes me wonder what else we take for granted seeing on every zoo trip, that some people long to see

 

I suppose I must have been in the right place at the right time. I realise that other Zoochatters saw them, but I don't remember there being many visitors that stopped to look at them.
There are times when I've been unlucky. When I visited Taronga Zoo soon afterwards, the Nocturnal House was closed, so I didn't see many of the animals I wanted to see. I did see a platypus and a male lyrebird, though.
I tried a few times to see the hairy-eared dwarf lemur at Paris's Vincennes Zoo, but was unsuccessful.

 

I was also fortunate enough to see hoatzin in Bronx Zoo's Diving Birds House in 1990.

They weren't the only zoo hoatzins as London Zoo had the species in 1931 and then again in 1955. The two hoatzins London Zoo acquired in 1955 were collected on one of David Attenborough's Zoo Quest Expeditions.

 

Lake Titicaca frog - St. Louis Zoo, 2018. I thought only Denver had them, so you can imagine my surprise when I saw them at the reptile house. They looked different from what I saw on Animal Planet when I saw ten. The frogs in STL looked smaller and grey, like baseballs. Even better, a few days later, I went to the Fort Worth Zoo and saw them there too. Fantastic little creatures!

Saltwater crocodile - Fort Worth Zoo, 2018. I knew for a long time that he was there. He was the main reason I went to this zoo. He is beautiful.

Chimpanzee - Lincoln Park Zoo, 2017. Finally! My first chimpanzee. They were fantastic and in such a fantastic enclosure to boot.

Komodo dragon - National Zoo (U.S.), 2014 or thereabouts. Family vacation to Washington D.C.. He was a beautiful specimen, at least as long as our dining room table.

West Indian Manatee - Columbus Zoo, 2018. A class trip to zoos across Ohio took us to Columbus. The manatees were really cute and in a great exhibit. The next day, we went to Cincinnati and saw the manatee exhibit at the Cincinnati Zoo. Great time also.

Tasmanian devil - Toledo Zoo, 2017. This was a few years after Tassies made their way back to the States. My class went here and we were all excited to see these rare animals.

Echidna - Brookfield Zoo, 2017. These spiky little potatoes were adorable!

 

These are the ones that come to mind......

Sumatran Rhinos Ipuh, Emi & Andalas - Cincinnati Zoo, June 2002
When you know the Cincinnati Zoo has the only remaining Sumatran Rhinos in the country you know you MUST see them!

Patas Monkeys - Southwick's Zoo, July 2012
In summer 2012 I became fascinated with Patas Monkeys and made the effort to visit Southwick's Zoo while I was in the Boston area that summer. This zoo is the best one in New England so don't pass up the chance to visit. They have a huge primate collection!

Gaur - Toronto Zoo, June 2017
Not only did I want to see the Indian Rhino exhibit with Vishnu, Ashakiran and Nandu who I had been reading about for nearly a decade before joining Zoochat, but as a huge Gaur fan I had to see Flower and Wilma and document their exhibit for posterity before they were shipped to Parc Safari Quebec.

African Spoonbills - Jacksonville Zoo, December 2018
I know this sounds kind of odd but during fall 2018 I became a really big fan of African Spoonbills and when I was home for the holidays I was able to see them and not take them for granted like how I usually would when passing through the River Valley Aviary.

Barasingha Deer & Maguari Storks - Audubon Zoo, September 2019
I was so excited to see Barasingha because I had only seen specimens beforehand in dioramas at AMNH in New York and the Field Museum in Chicago. I was surprised by how big they are. Pretty much as big as the average Sambar and much more colorful, Mac is quite the stag! The Maguari Storks were worth the visit as well and I got to see them being fed. Walter and Lucy sure know how to put on a show during feeding time!

 

I also have a very good memory when seeing Somali wild asses, Indian gaurs, Aardvark, Klipspringers, and Manatees.

 

Proboscis monkey: When I went to Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia, for a family trip in 2017, On the last day of the trip, we were on a tour to look for proboscis monkeys along the waterway at Kota Belud. I only saw one of them twice, but by the end of the tour, we were able to see a group of about one male and three females in the near distance. That proboscis monkeys were real wild monkeys who didn't even have a transmitter on their necks.

Technically it wasn't a species that I really wanted to see, but it was a very rare monkey, and it still remains a rare and happy memory.

On that family trip, I was able to take pictures of some species of animals on Borneo Island, such as proboscis monkeys, bearded pigs... Which are not seen in my country, but unfortunately I lost an SD card two years ago with that pictures and the another animals pictures from various zoos and aquariums. I'm trust I'll find it. I hope that.

The pictures below are some of the pictures I took at that time that I put on my personal blog.