In Fall of 2014, our family went on a 4-day trip that included three zoos. Seeing as how (outside of driving and staying at hotels) the only thing we did on this mini vacation was visit zoos, we called it a “Zoocation”. The concept stuck with us, and we’ve continued it ever since.
Recently we finished our 6th zoocation, this time seeing nine zoos (and one aviary) in nine days. It was a great trip, full of amazing moments. We felt the best way to share this with you was in a top ten list…but inevitably we couldn’t fit them into ten! So here’s our 15 of our Top Zoo Moments from our most recent zoocation.
15. Seeing Fennessy, the baby giraffe and Fiona the hippo at the Cincinnati Zoo – Cincinnati’s animal babies have been getting attention for years. Fennessy is the latest in animal births that has captured our hearts. It was so great to see him in person. We also had our first meeting with Fiona the hippo, who is now two years old.
14. Observing the keepers facilitate a move of the elephants from one part of the enclosure to the other at Elephant Crossing at the Cleveland Zoo – This was super cool. Twice each day the keepers facilitate a move from one side of the exhibit to the other. They talk about the elephants, and demonstrate a training session with each of them. Elephants are so cool – we had to find room for them in our Top Zoo Moments!
13. Coming face-to-face with macaws at the bird show at the Cincinnati Zoo – Admittedly, we went to the bird show due to the massive heat. But once inside, we received quite a treat! The show highlighted several birds, and after the show the keepers came back out with each macaw to let visitors come up close for pictures.
12. Feeding giraffes from a wide platform at the Cleveland Zoo – We’ve fed giraffes at almost 20 zoos, but this one was a ton of fun. Most zoos provide a single file line where you take turns feeding the giraffe. At Cleveland, there was a wide platform where you basically facilitated the feeding yourself. No one else was really feeding while we were there, so it was almost as if we ran a giraffe feeding show ourselves!
11. Seeing clouded leopard babies tumble and play at the Pittsburgh Zoo – The Pittsburgh Zoo was a lot of fun. The best part was probably the few minutes we spent watching the clouded leopard babies tumble around on top of each other. These animals have distinct patterns that make them stunning to look at.
10 Top Zoo Moments
10. Our daughter announcing “Here Comes the African Cheetah!” at the Cheetah Run at the Cincinnati Zoo – The Cheetah Encounter at the Cincinnati Zoo is a show. It lasts about 25 minutes, and features five different animals and 3 human volunteers. On top of seeing the world’s fastest animal run at lightening speed across the field, we enjoyed our seven-year-old announce her arrival!
9. Meeting Doppsee, the pregnant rhino behind the scenes at the Potter Park Zoo in Lansing, MI – It was an extremely hot day, but it was worth it. Sarah Foote, General Curator at the Potter Park Zoo took us behind the scenes to meet Doppsee. She was amazingly calm, and is expecting a calf this winter. Read more about Doppsee and our experience with her in a full feature article here.
8. Watching “Secrets of the Zoo” stars move the Persian Onagers from one pen to another at The Wilds – Ok, we’re nerding out a bit on this one. We watch the National Geographic show that follows the Columbus Zoo and The Wilds. We frequently see the animal care team at The Wilds guide animals from one area to another with their trucks on the show. The day we visited, they had moved the Persian Onagers to a pen near their facility where they could give them a checkup. During our tour, they were guiding them back safely to their normal area. Our tour stopped, and we watched them for about ten minutes.
7. Watching feeding time for the penguins from the underground tunnel at the Polk Penguin Conservation Center at the Detroit Zoo – The penguin building at the Detroit Zoo was phenomenal. We visited this building immediately after entering the zoo. Because we enjoyed it so much, we went back at about 2pm, and they were feeding the penguins. When viewing them in the underwater tunnel, you can see dozens of penguins swimming around, scooping up the fish. Or, you can focus on one penguin and watch as it finds food. Click here for a video of the feeding.
6. A mama wallaby hopping across the path with a joey in her pocket at the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo – We had just finished a train ride around the Australia exhibit. From the train, we saw a Mama wallaby snuggling next to her baby. After the ride, we went into the exhibit to see if we could find her – and as we turned left, this Mama and her joey in her pocket came leaping toward us. Quieting our daughters’ shrieks of joy was a bit difficult!
5 Top Zoo Moments
5. Feeding a toucan (aracary) at the National Aviary in Pittsburgh, PA – The National Aviary is 95% birds. The birds are all kept in their own environments. For a small fee ($5), we had the chance to feed a toucan aracary. This friendly little bird took some food from our hands, and then playfully bounced around for a few seconds before moving on to the next visitor.
4. Feeding multiple birds from our hands at the National Aviary in Pittsburgh, PA – The first stop on our visit to the Aviary was the Wetlands. We arrived just before their 10:30am bird feeding. This presentation allowed multiple opportunities for guests to feed birds, and two of our daughters happened to be picked! The presentation finished with an opportunity for all guests to feed pelicans for $1. The embedded video of the feeding has our oldest daughter feeding in the first two minutes, and our middle daughter feeding around 6-7 minutes (video is 8 mins long).
3 Top Zoo Moments
clear choice for a top Zoo moment!
3. A baby manatee giving us kiss at the Columbus Zoo – If you’ve followed us long enough, you know that Jill absolutely adores manatees. We had the chance to swim with them in Florida in 2018, but unfortunately did not have an interaction. You are only allowed to touch them if they “choose” you. This video shows the “choosing” happening through the glass at the Columbus Zoo from one of their babies.
2. A bison pushing its head into our car at the African Safari Wildlife Park in Port Clinton, Ohio – On the drive from Detroit to Cleveland, we decided to squeeze in a trip to the African Safari Wildlife Park in Port Clinton, Ohio. We had heard great things about this place – and they were all true! We arrived late in the day, but the animals were all still very active and hungry. While we enjoyed all the animals we came into contact with, one in particular wanted to reach in extra far to say hello. While four of us enjoyed it, one did not. Our three-year-old, who had been sitting on a lap in the front seat, high-tailed it through the car to the back row to escape the beast! At least the rest of us thought it was fun.
was the runaway winner for Top Zoo Moment
1.Meeting Erma the Sloth at the Columbian Park Zoo – This was absolutely the best way to end our vacation. On the ninth day, visiting our 10th zoo (nine zoos, one aviary), we had the chance to meet Erma. Amber from the Education team at the zoo did a great job of letting Erma do whatever she wanted to, while also facilitating a visit with us. Our kids were beyond cloud nine. Not only was this encounter amazing, but it’s also actually very affordable. We have an article coming out on our experience soon. Head over to the zoo’s website to book your encounter (3 people for just $45 total!) today.
Thanks for reading our list of Top Zoo moments from our recent trip. To find out more about the zoos we visited, click here.
© 2019, Zoo With Us. All rights reserved.