And no, this isn't meant to get into some great philosophical debate. Why do you visit zoos? I know many people on this site have visited many, many facilities (I am in the mid 40's at this point myself), and I always wonder. What specifically is it that drives people to visit one place or another? Now I think there is one that everyone has, and that is a love for animals, so that can go without saying. For myself, I'd say I have 3-4 large contributing factors(depending on how you look at it). One would be SpOI's*. I am generally very motivated to see some SpOI* I have not seen before or particularly enjoy. For example, I am a very big fan of Birds of Paradise, and more recently, Hornbills. At this point have seen every species and sub-specie of BOP currently in North America and have worked with a couple as well. Hornbills are a newer interest, however I've been doing rather well with them and have seen the majority of species currently represented, and hope to complete the list in the next few years. My motivation to visit a facility can be greatly influenced by a particular SpOI* or closely related AOI** Another would be facility reputation, good or bad. Whether it is famous or infamous, if it has a lot of hullabaloo surrounding it I want to check it out. The last two are a bit more self specific. I have two personal goals, one recently completed and the other VERY close. I wanted to see every single orca in captivity in North America, which I recently achieved with a recent trip to Miami. The other is to see every species and sub-specie of cetacean represented in captivity in NA within the past ten years, and I am tantalizingly close with only two species left, both of which I intend to see within the next year. So now that I've gone, what makes everyone else tick? *SpOI: Species of Interest **AOI: The closely related Animal of interest, this being focused more on an individual animal for other reasons than just what species it is.
Rip :') I'll copy pasta my response real quick and ask the mods to delete this! Edit: In my defense though, the old topic has not been posted in since March, 9 months ago. A quick search through didn't yield anything, and I also feel like I am asking a (slightly) different question.
Cause they're fun. I like animals, I like to see them and learn about them. And it's a good way to get out of the house.
Because it allows me to see animals I would otherwise have to travel great distances and spend oodles of money to see and still not be guaranteed to see the ones I want.
