As a continuation of my previous thread http://www.zoochat.com/2/2012-your-year-review-301398/ I thought it would be a good idea to start a thread detailing next years plans. Some of you have started to do this on the other thread but here is your chance to go in to more detail if you want to. Next year I hope to make it oversea for my first zoo based foreign holiday but I don't really know how realistic this plan is at the moment. Plans that are set in stone are return visits to Dudley, West Midlands Safari Park and Birmingham Nature Centre as has been the routine for many years now. I'd like to return to Bristol and possibly double it up with the aquarium. The British holiday will either be Norfolk or Newquay which will enable me to make visits to a couple of collections either way and I am hoping for a 2 night stay with the missus in Chester which will involve at least one trip to the zoo. Other than that I want to visit Edinburgh, a return visit to Cotswold and I would like to make it to zoohistorica. I really need to sort out my IZES membership as well since I lost my form last year. (Someone chucked it away thinking it was a fast food leaflet! ) As always I'm looking forward to hearing more of yours!
Wrapping up 2012 with a returning visit to the Buffalo Zoo. Possible Zoo Visits in 2013: * Smithsonian National Zoo (return - definite) * Maryland Zoo (return - definite) * Virginia Zoo (return) * Columbus Zoo (return) * Cleveland Zoo (return) * Denver Zoo * Cheyenne Mountain Zoo * Bronx Zoo
Definitely for 2013: -Saint Louis Zoo -Brookfield Zoo (return) -Lincoln Park Zoo (return) Possibly for 2013: -Lowry Park Zoo
My big hope is to get to the Welsh Mountain Zoo for the fiftieth anniversary. Other than that the usual culprits - Sewerby (my second home), Flamingo Land a few times, Lotherton once or twice, the Tropical Butterfly House (I can't wait to see the Green-winged Macaws free-flying again), Filey Bird Garden (I have made one additional visit each year, so it is due to be seven next year all being well), and Yorkshire Wildlife Park especially as I have not made it there this year despite Maguari tempting me with a Blue and Yellow Macaw in a flying display. I am just not sure about splashing out on my usual trip to the West Country as really it is beyond my means and if I have been to Colwyn Bay I shall have had a holiday anyway; if I do go it would be Paignton three times, Wingz, Tropiquaria, Axe Valley and Paradise Park - having not gone to Tropiquaria this year I should drop Exmoor in its favour.
Well since the world didn't end I guess it's time to plan my 2013 zoo trips. Definitely for 2013 Bronx Zoo (revisit) Prospect Park Zoo (1st) Queens Zoo (1st) New York Aquarium (1st; if it's fully open) Cincinnati Zoo (1st) Possible Beardsley Zoo (revisit) Mystic Aquarium (revisit) Maritime Aquarium (revisit) Columbus Zoo & Aquarium (1st) Staten Island Zoo (1st) Maybe I'll make plans for Franklin Park Zoo, Roger Williams Park Zoo, and New England Aquarium but who knows? ~Thylo
Definite for 2013: Connecticut's Beardsley Zoo (revisits) Bronx Zoo (revisit) Busch Gardens Tampa Bay (revisit in April) Either Mystic and/or Maritime (It depends if I make Mystic at the end of 2012. Either way, revisits.) Possible for 2013: Mote Aquarium (Just to see Patagonian Sea Lions, revisit) Lowry Park Zoo Florida Aquarium Roger Williams Park Zoo (Only if Tigers or Moose are added, or a major new birth, revisit) Stone Zoo Franklin Park Zoo Southwick's Zoo (revisit) Central Park Zoo/Queens Zoo/Prospect Park Zoo (revisit for CPZ) ZooAmerica Smithsonian National Zoo Staten Island Zoo
I doubt that the ZooAmerica visit will happen due to limited time, but I put it on the list now for kicks.
Well, here on the island we have no zoos, just the harps i work with. BUT considering im a CAZA student and finishing up next summer....I really hope to get employed by the fall
At the moment, UK plans are pretty loose - I intend revisiting my 'regular' just-about-annual (Bristol, Cotswold, Dudley, West Mids, Whipsnade, London) and more-often-than-annual (Chester, Blackbrook, Twycross, Yorkshire) zoos. I'll hopefully have at least one UK weekend away as well (besides the Bristol Zoohistorica event, which I shall certainly be attending - and I will keep mentioning on here until everybody comes!). I have two European long weekends in the planning phase - one for Hamburg, Hannover and Walsrode in March and one for Bratislava and Vienna (Schonbrunn and Haus des Meeres) in the summer some time. These are all repeat zoos for me but with big new exhibits to see at Hamburg and Hannover, Bratislava having been extensively rebuilt and Walsrode and Vienna just plain overdue (last visits in 2007 and 2003 respectively) these should both be really good trips. The 'big event' in 2013 though is the slowly-taking-shape US trip in October, which should see me hitting the zoos of Atlanta and Florida, as well as nearly a week wildlife-spotting in southern Florida. That should be a great trip.
What zoos in Florida? You've probably seen them already since I know quite a few European zoos hold the species but Mote Aquarium has a temporary Patagonian Sea Lion exhibit for next year. Just pointing that out to everyone since it seems only me and BZF visit the news thread. ~Thylo
Plans still being finalised but Mote is on the radar as for part of the trip we're staying with a friend not too far away from it. We'll certainly be hitting Georgia Aquarium, Zoo Atlanta, Zoo Miami, Lowry Park Zoo, Disney's Animal Kingdom and Sea World, and if we can plan it out OK Jacksonville, Lubee, St Augustine's and Brevard as well - plus whatever smaller places we can squeeze in (rescue places like Busch Wildlife Sanctuary would be great for us to give a chance to see some of the more elusive natives!). Probably not Busch Gardens, as we just feel we can probably use the time and money better (though never say never). And I just got in from seeing Patagonian Sea Lions today at Dudley!
If you go to Zoo Atlanta take the hour and a half drive and see the all Bull elephant herd in Birmingham. Its a better Elephant/African exhibit than Atlanta. All Atlanta has going for it now days is the big three rare species (Panda Gorilla Raccoon Dog).
While rare in the wild, plenty of American zoos seem to hold gorillas. The Giant Pandas and Japanese Raccoon Dogs I can see. ~Thylo
The main body of the trip is in Florida so Birmingham is probably in the wrong direction to fit - we'll fly into Atlanta and then either drive down to Jacksonville or possibly fly down to Florida - so we'd have to come back from Birmingham to Atlanta before we carried on. Much as it's tempting, it would need an extra day and the trip is already monopolising my annual leave allocation as it is! We wouldn't actually be doing Zoo Atlanta if it weren't in the same city as Georgia Aquarium - the Whale Sharks and co. are the big reason for us to be there. But it'd be rude to miss the zoo out once we're there! And for us, the zoo's big rarity is the Wolf's Guenons - a species absent from Europe and which I've never seen before (though it shouldn't be our only chance on the trip).
I know Gorilla's aren't rare in Zoos. Im just saying that outside of those three exhibits Atlanta really is overrated. The Masaai Mara/African Plains hasn't been upgraded in 20 years. Atlanta has not improved at all since the mid 90s other than the Pandas. It rests on its own laurels and gets high off its own praise way too much. I live closer to Atlanta than Memphis but if I want to see Pandas then Memphis is worth the drive. I just don't see how people still see Atlanta as a destination zoo. Its funny how old prejudices never die toward the good and the bad. Atlanta isn't worth the 20 dollars to get in. Atlanta has to be badly mismanaged for all the hype and money it has to be in bad overall shape as it is.
The one day you take to see Zoo Atlanta (you cant do the Aquarium and the Zoo in one day), you could make the hour and a half trip west, see Birmingham in 5/6 hours and then make it back to Atlanta all within an 8 hour day. And the money you would save would make up the gas. Especially if you hit Birmingham on a tuesday when admission is 7 dollars.
We'll be overnighting, so we either do the Aquarium day one and then the Zoo day two, then in the late afternoon/evening drive (at least part way) or fly down to Florida, or if the flight arrives too late for that then we hit the Aquarium first thing in the morning then see how it goes. We've no reason not to use the full opening hours so even if we only spend a couple of hours at the zoo that would at least allow us to see the highlights. But either plan, the second day ends with the journey down to Florida so we don't want too much travel in the day itself. Does the map/species list on Zoo Atlanta's website show all the exhibits? With the amount it shows we'd normally treat that as a half-day zoo on our trips (we're not inclined to dawdle and we very much prioritise our time for the animals that most interest us).
