Aww, I didn’t know about the NC Zoo being so cool. I went right through that area and didn’t know.
The place I just visited in New York was well incorporated into the local landscape. The first animal we got introduced to there was the river otter at the entrance. I wouldn’t have even known it was an exhibit, it was a sectioned off area of the stream running through the park and it looked like it was just meant to keep larger local wildlife out of the zoo.
The otter (Scooter was her name) came when the keeper called her, she followed us back to the area where they check on her and feed her, and she was having the happiest zoomies!
All the other areas looked larger than they likely were required to be, and every animal looked relaxed, and we got to interact hands-on with a few, and they were all very chill.
The worst zoo I was ever at was one near my home. A coworker wanted to go, as they had a baby tiger advertised, which was her fav animal. I was curious where this zoo was, since the area wasn’t where I’d picture us getting more than a very small zoo.
It was inside a building in an industrial park! We were both kinda sketched out, but she really wanted to see the tiger, so we went in. It felt like a smuggling operation. Everything was indoors in pens that looked meant for transport. Animals were all very obviously depressed. Not a single thing in there appeared relaxed. We quickly got out of there, and it was thankfully shut down that same summer.
Now that I’ve worked with animals for a bit, I talk to the keepers about more details of their care, and what regulations they deal with and what rehab or conservation projects they’re involved with, and can appreciate a lot of what goes on other than the exhibits, and it’s so obvious how much these keepers care about their animals and the support they provide to get animal populations up to return animals to the wild. I don’t think anyone would picture animal care as some get-rich type career, it’s stinky and dirty work where you can potentially be hurt by animals. These people are there because they care about animals. Some owners I think may give into temptation and cross over into collecting more animals than they have capacity to care for, and then that becomes the problem, but I have gone to many zoos in many states, and there’s maybe been 2 or 3 that have been meh, but most are pretty cool. I think zoo haters have either been sadly unlucky and their first one was a crappy one, they just humanize animals in an unrealistic way, or they don’t consider the conservation programs they participate in that involve many more animals than are in display.
Aww, I didn’t know about the NC Zoo being so cool. I went right through that area and didn’t know.
The place I just visited in New York was well incorporated into the local landscape. The first animal we got introduced to there was the river otter at the entrance. I wouldn’t have even known it was an exhibit, it was a sectioned off area of the stream running through the park and it looked like it was just meant to keep larger local wildlife out of the zoo.
The otter (Scooter was her name) came when the keeper called her, she followed us back to the area where they check on her and feed her, and she was having the happiest zoomies!
All the other areas looked larger than they likely were required to be, and every animal looked relaxed, and we got to interact hands-on with a few, and they were all very chill.
The worst zoo I was ever at was one near my home. A coworker wanted to go, as they had a baby tiger advertised, which was her fav animal. I was curious where this zoo was, since the area wasn’t where I’d picture us getting more than a very small zoo.
It was inside a building in an industrial park! We were both kinda sketched out, but she really wanted to see the tiger, so we went in. It felt like a smuggling operation. Everything was indoors in pens that looked meant for transport. Animals were all very obviously depressed. Not a single thing in there appeared relaxed. We quickly got out of there, and it was thankfully shut down that same summer.
Now that I’ve worked with animals for a bit, I talk to the keepers about more details of their care, and what regulations they deal with and what rehab or conservation projects they’re involved with, and can appreciate a lot of what goes on other than the exhibits, and it’s so obvious how much these keepers care about their animals and the support they provide to get animal populations up to return animals to the wild. I don’t think anyone would picture animal care as some get-rich type career, it’s stinky and dirty work where you can potentially be hurt by animals. These people are there because they care about animals. Some owners I think may give into temptation and cross over into collecting more animals than they have capacity to care for, and then that becomes the problem, but I have gone to many zoos in many states, and there’s maybe been 2 or 3 that have been meh, but most are pretty cool. I think zoo haters have either been sadly unlucky and their first one was a crappy one, they just humanize animals in an unrealistic way, or they don’t consider the conservation programs they participate in that involve many more animals than are in display.