The Things I've Learned...

Zoo's are great. I remember going to the Philadelphia Zoo in Pennsylvania when I was a kid. I'm not sure if my first visit was with school or with family but in any case I loved it. I remember just falling in love with the place. So many animals, some amazing, some frightening, but all wonderful. I remember the vampire bats and the prairie dogs being of particular interest. All of these thoughts and memories were coming back to me as I was looking into getting tickets to take my wife to the Philadelphia Zoo for her birthday (it's kind of a surprise so I'm not going to publish this post till after we go). :-) I'm fortunate enough to live only a hour or so away from this zoo. Apparently it is the first zoo to be opened in the United States. I read that on the Zoo website at philadelphiazoo.org. Reading that it got me thinking about other zoos. Well, here are a few of the things that I found out.

• It seems that the first recorded zoo was built by egyptians sometime around B.C. 1500 under the rule of Queen Hatshepsut. Other early zoos were built by the Chinese and the Greeks. (reference links: [1], [2])


• The San Diego Zoo in California (U.S.) is currently the world's largest zoo.


• The Detroit Zoo has the world's largest Polar Bear exhibit


• The National Zoo in Washington DC is part of the Smithsonian complex and is free to the public.


• The Cleveland Metroparks Zoo has the largest primate exhibit in North America


• Check out this site made for Microsoft's Zoo Tycoon 2. It lists 15 of the top zoos in the United States with links to all of them.


• You can find the nearest zoo to you by using Google Maps. Click this link and then enter your ZIP code or City Name in the Where? box (the second text box at the top).
  • You can also use the AZA Zoo Directory to aid in your search


• About.com has a page that will help you find a job at a zoo


• To help save endangered animals around the world you could consider making a donation to the World Wildlife Fund (WWF). Most Zoo websites have an area that you can make donations direclty to them as well. All decent zoos have a conservation program of some sort and I'm sure they would love your donations.

Well there's a few things that you maybe didn't know before reading this. If so, then this blog has done it's job. What's the use in learning things if you can't pass along your knowledge to others?