As we get closer to the start of 2020, we pause to take a look back at our year. In our personal lives, this probably means looking at our strengths, weaknesses, and accomplishments, with some goal setting for 2020. For us, we take a look at all of the great zoo experiences we had in 2019, with some plans for even better ones in 2020!
Hitting our Goals
Over the past four years, we’ve been averaging between 9-10 new zoos per year. This allowed us to have visited 47 zoos through 2018. Our goal in 2019 was to surpass the milestone of 50 zoos, but then to focus on having more animal encounter experiences. We feel we definitely succeeded here.
Our final tally for 2019 was visiting 7 new zoos. However, we hit a record number of total zoos attended (new, as well as visits back to zoos we previously visited), visiting a total of 28 zoos this year. We were able to visit eight zoos in our top 10 this year, including a fall trip to Omaha, Nebraska, the sight of our number one ranked zoo!
We also teamed up with friends for many of these visits, and we truly appreciate those that zoo’d along with us. While visiting zoos is a great family experience, visiting friends in other states and going to their zoo with them was a lot of fun this year, and something we hope to do more of in 2020. We also enjoy bringing friends to Brookfield Zoo (our ‘home zoo’), so if you’re ever visiting Chicago, or live here and want some company on a trip to the zoo, be sure to let us know!
Animal Encounter Highlights
As mentioned above, our goal in 2019 was to have more animal encounter experiences. We wrote about this late in 2018, and gathered a list of available animal encounter experiences (available here). We also published some 2019 animal encounter highlights last month, in which we provided feedback on each in a grading scale format. Here is a complete list of animal encounters we experienced in 2019:
- Budgie feeding at Miller Park Zoo (Bloomington, IL)
- Parakeet feeding at Brookfield Zoo (Brookfield, IL)
- Pet a wallaby at Brookfield Zoo
- Participated in Dolphin show as trainer at Brookfield Zoo
- Met penguins in penguin encounter at Brookfield Zoo
- Pet baby farm animals at Minnesota Zoo (Apple Valley, MN)
- Fed penguins at NEW Zoo (Green Bay, WI)
- Fed bison at Potawatomi Zoo (South Bend, IN)
- Fed giraffes at Peoria Zoo (Peoria, IL)
- Fed and played with Digger the tamandua at Columbian Park Zoo (Lafayette, IN)
- Fed baby goats at Columbian Park Zoo
- Fed Irma the sloth at Columbian Park Zoo
- Fed flamingos at Indianapolis Zoo (Indianapolis, IN)
- Touched sharks at Indianapolis Zoo
- Fed budgies and lorikeets at Indianapolis Zoo
- Fed giraffes at Indianapolis Zoo
- Fed giraffes at Racine Zoo (Racine, WI)
- Met Doppsee the rhino behind the scenes at Potter Park Zoo (Lansing, MI)
- Fed deer, bison, elk, goats, llamas, giraffes, cows, and others at African Safari Wildlife Park (Port Clinton, OH)
- Fed giraffes at Cleveland Zoo (Cleveland, OH)
- Rode camels at Cleveland Zoo
- Fed lorikeets at Cleveland Zoo
- Fed elephants at Cleveland Zoo
- Pet goats at Pittsburgh Zoo & Aquarium (Pittsburgh, PA)
- Watched Cheetah run at Columbus Zoo
- Fed giraffes at Columbus Zoo
- Watched Cheetah run at Cincinnati Zoo (Cincinnati, OH)
- Touched sharks and sting rays at Toledo Zoo (Toledo, OH)
- Fed goats, cows, llamas, and camels at Randall Oaks Barnyard Zoo (Huntley, IL)
- Fed sea lions at Milwaukee Zoo (Milwaukee, WI)
- Fed giraffes at Lincoln Children’s Zoo (Lincoln, NE)
- Fed goats at Lincoln Children’s Zoo
- Fed Camels at Lincoln Children’s Zoo
2020
In 2020, we set our sights back on visiting more zoos. We’re in the planning stages of a big trip for July. Although the full list of participating zoos isn’t known yet, our main goal is to get to Memphis, Tennessee, to see the giant pandas. There are currently three zoos in the US that have giant pandas. We have visited them at Zoo Atlanta (Atlanta, GA), but our family hasn’t been to Memphis or the National Zoo in Washington D.C. (one family member has, but that doesn’t count towards our total). We currently sit at 54 zoos visited, so we hope to cross the 60 mark, perhaps getting to 65.
There are a few small zoos in Illinois that we haven’t yet visited, and we’ve been asked about. These include Summerfield Zoo in Belvidere, IL, and Scovill Zoo in Decatur, IL. We hope to visit these in 2020 to provide our insights for those that are interested.
Thanks again to everyone for following along with us on our journeys. We’ve enjoyed sharing our travels with you this year, and hope you continue to enjoy sharing in them as well!
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