Hello everyone. I've noticed that most ZooChatters live in cities where there is a zoo, and I was wondering how many have to drive to a different city to get to a zoo. Do you have a zoo in your home city/town? I'd appreciate your input in this poll.
My nearest 'proper' zoos are all at least an hour's drive away (Twycross, Blackbrook, Yorkshire WP). The actual nearest public exotic animal collection these days is a couple of towns over, around 20min drive away - and is rather less exctiting: Matlock Bath Aquarium Gallery
I live in a town with a small zoo and there is also a birds of prey centre that is developing as a small zoo a couple of miles south of the town. To visit anywhere else I travel by train and either bus or folding bicycle as I do not drive! This means my travelling times are much longer than for people with cars, for example it takes around 2 1/2 hours to get to Flamingo Land whereas it is about one hour by car.
I have a zoo, a Nature Centre and a Sea Life centre in my town. To be fair, I suppose I have 2 zoos and an aquarium now as the small collection has expanded in to a mini zoo now! The biggest waste of money has to be Sea Life as the other two provide far more "bangs for the buck".
Maybe the people with no zoo in their hometown are more interested in zoos, since they visit less often.
I have a zoo in my town, although it only keeps one species. Barbary Macaque at Trentham Monkey Forest.
I actually have three zoos in the city I live in. One is right in the middle of Melbourne and you can walk there from the cbd (it's quicker to catch a tram though), and the other two are on the very outskirts on opposite sides of the city and take me about an hour to drive to.
What's the zoo? I'm unaware of a zoo in Birmingham apart from the excellent Nature Centre (just visited). You've not annexed Dudley have you?
Indeed I have, let's be honest folks Dudley isn't really a city and for the sake of convenience it is now part of Birmingham! It may not be an official suburb but since I can access it in an hour by using 2 buses I've decided it is!
I can access Newcastle and York within a half hour on the train from Darlington, but I'm not claiming them to be the same city
Trains are different, they move further a lot faster! Besides that, there is absolutely no green space between Dudley and Birmingham minus parks, therefore I'm standing by my statement. It may not technichally be Birmingham but it's close enough to count! (in my opinion anyway.)
I'm 50% Black Country so I will respectfully disagree! Dudley Zoo is a town in the West Midlands conurbation, but Birmingham it ain't! Get your own zoo, Brummie!
There's a surprise! You Yam-Yams are all the same! Dudley Zoo is a town? Really? And we've got a zoo, we just call it a Nature Centre!
Yeah, well one day the whole of the West Midlands will be called Birmingham! It's the march of progress and it'll make life easier for all those kids who suck at basic geography. (Like me! )
This a simple border dispute! Within the West Midlands, the big city of Birmingham borders the group of towns known as the Black Country, which is often (wrongly! ) lumped in with it - to the annoyance of the residents! The best US equivalent I can think of is to imagine West Midlands = Bay Area, Birmingham = San Francisco, Black Country = Oakland. Then tell an Oakland resident he lives in San Francisco.
That's a very good example, I wouldn't have had the foggiest about trying to explain it. Anyway Chesterfield boy, why are you so defensive? Do the Black Country roots really run that deep? I wasn't expecting such a backlash for simply trying to big up my city!
