Zoo Highlights of 2013!

So 2013 is drawing to a close and I was just wondering what everyone's zoo/animal highlight(s) was/were! This is preferably for any big trips you went on (for example, Hix and Chlidonias' travels to Uganda and Asia), zoos you visited, or species you saw but could also be any big piece of zoo news you heard.

For myself, my highlights definitely had to be my trips to Cincinnati and Florida over the summer! Between the two I got to visit (in order) the Newport Aquarium, Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden, Tampa's Lowry Park Zoo, and Discovery Cove which gave me a whole ton of lifeticks both wild and captive! Cincinnati was probably my highlight zoo for the year and my highlight species were Sumatran Rhinoceros, Malaysian Elephant, Banded Palm Civet, Cape Genet, Eastern Aardwolf, Shoebill, and Pacific Walrus for captive and Florida Manatee, Virginia Opossum, and Osprey for wild!

And I look forward to reading about all of your's!

~Thylo

 

The highlight of my year had to be getting a chance to see Harry the Sumatran Rhino before he left to the Cincinnati Zoo. I had seen Andalas before, but it was nice getting to see another Sumatran Rhino not knowing if I will ever see one again. Although hopefully I get to travel to Cincy in the near future and get another chance at seeing them again!

 

For me as a hoofstock fan the big news for me was the return of gerenuk to Europe, closer to home the arrival of west Caucasian tur at Paignton was very pleasing.
The news that the RSCC in Kent is expanding with new and exciting species promised is the must see for 2014.

 

For me it's no contest: seeing Mountain Gorillas in the wild. But the whole Uganda trip was one supersized highlight.



Hix

 

Europe Trip April 2013.

1) Scottish Wildcat at Highland Wildlife Park (my first clear photos, only previous sighting was one on a distant ledge at Port Lympne).

2) Big Cats at photo tour in Wildlife Heritage Foundation (my best ever photo of black leopard).

3) Two month old kitten of an Asian golden cat at Le Parc Des Felins (which favored my camera by walking across a log).

 

For me one of the biggest highlights of this year is that an aquarium finally opened in Toronto (even though I haven't visited it yet).

I got to see my first giant panda and giant salamander. Also I saw my first short beaked echidna and brush tailed bettong in over five years!

 

Mine is probably getting to go to Seattle and going to the Woodland park zoo and the Seattle Aquarium. While I was up there I also saw some wild orcas and some seals.

 

Definitely visiting Bronx Zoo! It's certainly one of the best zoos I've ever been to (Prague and Berlin may be able to compare, though). The fact that it is part of NYC, a really awesome city, made it even better.

Other than that, it's not been an especially interesting zoo year, but I have very few money and can't actually afford going to the zoo. All visits have been someone inviting me along, so I guess I can't complain. The only other new zoo I saw this year was Zoopark Sydsjælland in Denmark, and it certainly wasn't anything to write home about (not that I expected anything).

The second highlight probably was revisiting my "childhood" zoo of Aalborg Zoo after almost three year and seeing their rather nice new carnivore exhibit.

Other than that, I've only visited three collections that it is several years since I last went to: Hobro Mini Zoo, Nordsø Akvariet and Knuthenborg Safaripark.
The two former are pleasant enough, but very small and not at all noteworthy in a bigger scheme. I did see two species I had never seen before - coqui francolins at Hobro and arctic skates at Nordsø Akvariet - so that was nice enough, but otherwise the visits weren't terribly memorable.
Knuthenborg has a lovely park setting and the animals generally live in huge exhibits like other safari parks, so I did enjoy the visit here, but the collection is small and about as standard as can be for a safari park.

 

2013 was a bit of a disappointment for me zoo-wise. I still haven't been to Bearizona nor have I been able to re-visit any of the northern zoos/sanctuaries I told myself I was going to. I took one trip, to Las Vegas, and had planned to re-visit Siegfried and Roy's with a friend who's never been but I decided I wants to go to Red Rock Canyon instead. The only exciting thing to happen, animal-wise, was finally getting to see some of the wild horses that live in the area. That made me happy.

 

Highlights for me include our Frankfurt trip and seeing red duiker and black lion tamarins at Chester

 

Biggest species highlights were giant otters at Chester, water shrew at Slimbridge and kowari at Bristol. My biggest zoo-visiting highlight was Zoohistorica which netted me four new collections and a long overdue return to Bristol. Biggest surprise was Noah's Ark not being completely awful, not that I'm planning on a return visit though!

 

My personal highlights

Being able to witness/record a 45 minute play mud fight/territorial battle between the four bull Elephants at Birmingham. Better than pro wrestling.

My first trips to the following zoos - Tampa, Jacksonville, Miami, and Dallas.

Making the personal/business decision to expand my family's cattle/bison farm to some exotics mostly as pets/hobby animals.

 

As Hix says, seeing mountain gorillas which was a very longstanding ambition has to be up there but I also loved the chimp trekking, following the group patrolling the forest was something I'll always treasure.

 

So now we all want to know which exotic species you have?

 

* Meeting a tamandua at the Lowry Park Zoo.
* The baby bear boom at the Smithsonian National Zoo.
* Seeing Nanuq (polar bear) at the Columbus Zoo.
* Surprise visit to the Cleveland Zoo.

 

none yet, still getting feedback on what we can have exactly (Alabama has some tough laws on cervids that depending on the interpretation may apply to all non-cattle/bison bovids as well). The next step will be modifying fences etc. Then we will do the best research we can on which animals will thrive in the Alabama climate.

We are probably 6 months at minimum from our first purchase. Personally I would like animals that I enjoy looking at that are no longer present at local zoos - Kudu, Gemsbok, Oryx etc.

 

Oh so you're going with hoofstock? You should try and breed a few species that are on phase-out. Is you wanna go with oryx I'd suggest Fringe-Eared Oryx or Arabian Oryx, even though Gemsbok is an oryx in itself.

~Thylo

 

Well we raise grass fed Hereford and Bison so I thought it would be cool to have a few animals as pets. Especially with browsing antelope, they would find ideal habitat in the virgin hardwood (oak poplar pecan hickory) on the backside of our property.