T.C.'s Zoo Thread

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By popular demand ... of the Boss Man ...
T.C. wrote: Wed Mar 20, 2019 8:22 am
JMC-STL wrote: Tue Mar 19, 2019 8:41 pm
bradleygt89 wrote: Tue Mar 19, 2019 8:03 pmdefinitely going to be spending time at Forest Park too, and the Zoo is part of that trip :)
I love going to zoos (have visited 58 of them), but even I'd have a hard time stretching a visit to the STL Zoo into a full-day adventure. ...
wow! how have we never talked about this? that's awesome. what's your favorite? least favorite? coolest? best story?
Favorite: The Audubon Zoo in New Orleans. The lush greenery & the extensive use of animal habitat areas with natural barriers rather than cages were very refreshing. I've seen nothing quite like it since me 'n' Mrs. JMC first visited 35+ years ago.

Honorable Mention: Skip the San Diego Zoo (too pricey for what they have to offer) & instead visit their Zoo Safari Park (fka, San Diego Wild Animal Park). Well worth the drive AND the admission price.

Least Favorite: I've been to several municipal & private zoos around the U.S. that were dreadful places for animals to live & for people to visit. The most unmemorable to The JMCs is thankfully now replaced by a slightly better & more humane facility. The facility formerly occupying the general footprint of the Alabama Gulf Coast Zoo consisted of an entry shack selling crappy merchandise, with one large caged area behind it housing a motley collection of mostly unremarkable animals but included what might've been the world's largest domestic pigeon. Its wings couldn't have lifted its own weight to a perch one foot above the sandy ground of the cage, which I vaguely recall being littered with cigarette butts (from patrons or the pigeon?).

Dishonorable Mention: The Southern Nevada Zoological-Botanical Park just south of the Las Vegas Strip. Closed in 2013 (gratefully), the story I heard was that it started as someone's backyard menagerie of tropical birds. It was expanded at some point to include one lonely Siberian tiger and a couple of other large mammals by the time I visited back in the late 1980s. The original (or maybe just the last) owner was a Vegas cop who mismanaged the business & the animals in his care, and that's what finally shut down ops to the benefit of man & beast.

Coolest: Hmmmm, tough call. My Favorite & Honorable Mention zoos above fit that description, presuming by "cool" you don't mean air temperature (zoos being warm weather attractions for me). For "coolest" as in most unusual or noteworthy for zoo junkies, I'd have to mention the Marwell Zoo in Hampshire southwest of London, England. John Cleese shot scenes there for his 1997 movie Fierce Creatures (the supposed sequel to A Fish Called Wanda). Most noteworthy for my visit in the late 1990s was having to stop at the zoo entrance, and step in a trough of who-knows-what to make sure my shoes weren't still carrying any traces of the infectious proteins linked to mad cow disease. Cool AND creepy.

Best Story (hands down, no contest): Me 'n' the missus and our two kids visited the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo in Colorado Springs back in the late 1980s (a peak time in my zoo obsession). At the time they had their great apes housed in enclosures with thick glass walls on one side for viewing. I was walking several paces ahead of Mrs. JMC and the little JMCs, and paused to make faces at a large male orangutan who was hanging out approx. 15 feet inside the glass. As I stepped away, my wife arrived at the spot just as the ape swung on his enclosure rope & crashed into the glass wall. To this day, my wife blames me for one of the biggest scares of her long life. Maybe it was my howling laughter that gave me away.

Re: T.C.'s Zoo Thread

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wow thank you for that! love it. bummer to hear about the san diego zoo, it's been on my list to visit for decades. thanks for the alternate tip.

i used to try to hit any zoo that was near anywhere i was staying, but then i visited one that just made me really depressed so i stopped going. not sure which one it was. i kind of switched to aquariums, unconsciously (yes, i realize this is counter-intuitive - the same reasons i found a zoo depressing are magnified exponentially in an aquarium, one would think). the one in vancouver is really amazing. and shedd is always nice in chicago.

have to get back into zoos and hope that they've gotten better in general. until then, i'll just keep watching "we bought a zoo".

Re: T.C.'s Zoo Thread

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Consensus best aquarium The JMCs have visited is the Monterey Bay Aquarium south of the Bay Area. New England Aquarium in Boston is well worth a visit. Georgia Aquarium in Atlanta, Audubon Aquarium of the Americas in New Orleans, and Shedd in Chicago (been there a few times) are probably the next tier down. Mrs. JMC will go to any facility featuring jellyfish or seahorses. I'm more a marine mammal fan. Columbus Zoo & Aquarium in Ohio (home base of Jack Hanna - I have his personally autographed photo on my desk at work) has a big manatee pool that's fun to visit - especially at feeding time - and the zoo ain't bad, neither.

ETA: I'd rank the National Aquarium in Baltimore equivalent to New England, below Monterey. I was unimpressed by the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach, CA; but it's been maybe 15 years since I visited, so perhaps they've invested in updates since then. The aquarium inside the Henry Doorly Zoo in Omaha is relatively small, but they have a long "shark tunnel" that's fun to linger in & they have Mrs. JMC's faves the jellies. Henry Doorly is a very good zoological facility overall.

Re: T.C.'s Zoo Thread

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Me 'n' Mrs. JMC have been STL Zoo members for 35+ years, but we've used the membership privileges far more often for discounted admissions to other zoos around the country. See below a list - with weblinks - of 20 of the zoos that my family & I have visited over the years, these all within a day's drive of St. Louis. When The JMC Kidz were in grade school & I said: "Let's go to the zoo this weekend," their standard response would be: "Which zoo?" :?

The facilities with the (**) in front are IMO worth a visit as a primary tourism destination. The rest fall more in the categories of: "Let's visit if we have time while we're in town" or: "What the hell is there to do around here?!" But each one has its unique features & attractions, and they each provide a valuable resource to their local communities as a learning & a gathering space. Support your (or their) local zoo!

MISSOURI
(**) St. Louis Zoo – St. Louis, MO
Kansas City Zoo-Kansas City, MO
Dickerson Park Zoo-Springfield, MO

ILLINOIS
Henson Robinson Zoo-Springfield, IL
Miller Park Zoo-Bloomington, IL
Peoria Zoo-Peoria, IL
Scovill Zoo-Decatur, IL
Brookfield Zoo-Brookfield, IL
(**) Lincoln Park Zoo-Chicago, IL

INDIANA
Mesker Park Zoo & Botanic Garden-Evansville, IN
Indianapolis Zoo-Indianapolis, IN

TENNESSEE
Memphis Zoo-Memphis, TN

IOWA
Blank Park Zoo-Des Moines, IA

KANSAS
Topeka Zoo-Topeka, KS
Sunset Zoological Park-Manhattan, KS

ARKANSAS
Little Rock Zoo-Little Rock, AR

KENTUCKY
Louisville Zoological Garden-Louisville, KY

OHIO
(**) Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden-Cincinnati, OH

WISCONSIN
Milwaukee County Zoological Gardens-Milwaukee, WI

NEBRASKA
(**) Omaha’s Henry Doorly Zoo & Aquarium-Omaha, NE

Re: T.C.'s Zoo Thread

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CaptSMRT wrote: Fri Mar 22, 2019 3:35 pm
JMC-STL wrote: Fri Mar 22, 2019 1:27 pm
CaptSMRT wrote: Fri Mar 22, 2019 12:43 pmFree Phil the gorilla!!!
Been there, done that, had him stuffed. You could be next. Don't try the hunger strike thing.
If that story doesn't make you cry then you have no heart.
Why cry? Phil lived TWO good lives: One behind bars, the other in a sealed glass case. He could've been a hairy prostitute in Amsterdam with such a resume. Turk would've paid for that, what with his Bigfoot fetish.

Re: T.C.'s Zoo Thread

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JMC-STL wrote: Fri Mar 22, 2019 7:01 pm
CaptSMRT wrote: Fri Mar 22, 2019 3:35 pm
JMC-STL wrote: Fri Mar 22, 2019 1:27 pm
Been there, done that, had him stuffed. You could be next. Don't try the hunger strike thing.
If that story doesn't make you cry then you have no heart.
Why cry? Phil lived TWO good lives: One behind bars, the other in a sealed glass case. He could've been a hairy prostitute in Amsterdam with such a resume. Turk would've paid for that, what with his Bigfoot fetish.
Phil was scared shitless of Bigfoot... that's why he hid out in the Lou-Zoo.

Re: T.C.'s Zoo Thread

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JMC-STL wrote: Fri Mar 22, 2019 7:01 pm
CaptSMRT wrote: Fri Mar 22, 2019 3:35 pm
JMC-STL wrote: Fri Mar 22, 2019 1:27 pm
Been there, done that, had him stuffed. You could be next. Don't try the hunger strike thing.
If that story doesn't make you cry then you have no heart.
Why cry? Phil lived TWO good lives: One behind bars, the other in a sealed glass case. He could've been a hairy prostitute in Amsterdam with such a resume. Turk would've paid for that, what with his Bigfoot fetish.
It is a crime to try and own an intelligent creature.