For the sake of the season you should do “10 fansatic beasts and where to find them (rare animals not usually found in zoos)”
Just thought of another top ten topic. Top ten upcoming exhibits. You can talk about the best designs for exhibits that are planned or being constructed. Then, after they are built, you can go back and review them and see if they live up to the hype
I would think Philly's Zoo360 should be included in Most Unique. I don't think there's anywhere else where you can stand under a sleeping tiger or watch them stalk a gibbon that's climbing along above. I would also include Philly for exhibit transformations - big cats, meerkats, and penguins. For mixed exhibits, I don't think this one longer exists but until recently the Central Park Zoo had arctic fox in with harbor seal. Unexpected animals in aquariums, Adventure Aquarium also has Cape Porcupine. Maritime Aquarium at Norwalk has meerkats. Tennessee Aquarium has virginia opossum, woodchuck, red ruffed lemur and ringtail lemur. Texas State Aquarium has Prehensile-tailed Porcupine, Serval, Vampire Bat, White-nosed Coati.
Rare Animals in U.S. Zoos & Where to Find Them vicuñas at southwick's zoo. I love seeing them at my local zoo and if u need pics of them I could get them at my next visit.
I've never been found of countdown videos for a variety of reasons; a lot of this comes down to a basic pet peeve that I prefer in-depth information on a subject rather than summarization, and a personal feeling that lists are such an overused route to summarize information that I find many of them only end up using one or two sentences to really say anything specific. (Especially entertainment lists!) Often they feel so half-hearted that the host feels as if awkwardly summarizing something they might not even fully understand, or the list feels thrown together to summarize a very broad subject without thought as to the list itself. I approach even the best of these sorts of videos with a strong skepticism. I say this so that you know that it's a relatively strong compliment from me to say that you've succeeded in creating some very engaging videos that seem both accessible to a mainstream audience but nonetheless well-researched and with enough depth to satisfy us zoo nerds! The voice acting is clear and satisfactory, the scripts generally contain some good detail without becoming too much, the video selection is top-knotch, and the lists do feel like actual countdowns. For 'Best Exhibits' you do specifically explain how each exhibit is different or special (though I might've liked to hear more about the Savannah) and even if someone disagrees it feels like you've made enough effort to explain. Nothing feels half-hearted or sacrificed. I have a few tiny recommendations, but they're minor nitpicks that don't have a serious impact on the video quality. There's a few points where you may mention a class of animals or animal, and not cut to it for another few seconds, and it's a little jarring. If you say "This exhibit has X mammals, X birds, and X reptiles" you should make sure an example of each is on screen as the words are given. I also think there was a point you mentioned the 'AZA' very quickly in passing and wondered if someone outside ZooChat would recognize the acronym's meaning. Those are tiny quibbles. Your videos are overall, wonderful and very well-produced! Good work!! I might recommend, when you work through your concepts in the first post, throwing out a few historical ideas - such as iconic (individual) zoo animals. There's plenty to fill a list like that. Or exhibits that were innovative for the time - Tropic World is a great contender for the latter but there's plenty more to come up with. Species saved from extinction by zoos maybe. I'm just spitballing.
I've held off on these after I was monetized, as YouTube is getting strict about duplication rules. You can use other people's footage as long as you give credit, pretty standard, but that's not always the case. I can't make these lists without doing that. Anyways, none of my lists have been flagged so far, so I'm planning on continuing them. Though I can only find a few small ones, I wouldn't mind a little help on finding the best exhibits that are set to open this year.
It actually already opened, but it did open this year: a few weeks ago my local Sacramento Zoo opened a new okapi exhibit. This makes them the fourth zoo on the West Coast and the only one in Northern California to exhibit this species.
