Northwest Trek: Wildlife Park

Website: 
https://www.nwtrek.org
The primary links on the website are under the titles; Visit, The Trek Experience, Special Events, Education & Programs, Support Us, and Conservation. This basically follows along with the other zoos I have visited. Having a link to the conservation projects the zoo is involved in is something I think is important, as too many people have no idea about all the things that zoos and aquariums do behind the scenes.
There are very thorough animal fact sheets for every species exhibited in the park. Unfortunately they are not the easiest to locate and the fact sheets themselves are only available as downloadable PDFs. So a computer with a child safety setting or guest setting would not be able to access them. This also makes it impossible to view them by phone.
The zoo map, on the other hand, is readily available to view online, as well as print out and/or download as a PDF. Of course you also get a copy when you purchase your tickets at the zoo entrance.

Prices:
        Adults (13-64 years)      $19.75
        Seniors (65+)                 $18.25
        Youth (5-12)                  $12.25
         Tots (3-4)                      $9.25
         2 and under                   Free

Hours:
Opening hours vary depending on the time of year, on average they are open from 9:30am - 4:00pm. Check the website for more specifics.

Zoo:

Northwest Trek is located in a remote area, far from any bus routes. If you want to get there it will have to be by car. At least the parking lot is beautiful and shaded for most of the day.
The entire zoo is very wheelchair friendly, with smoothly paved paths and always a close by option around the few stairs there are. The only area that could be a problem for those in wheelchairs is the tram tour, where they may need some assistance getting on and off. I didn't see anyone in a wheelchair go on the tram tour, even though I did see several people in wheelchairs around the other parts of the zoo.

It may be a long drive to get there, but being out in the middle 

of nowhere has its advantages. Such as exhibits like this.

About the tram tour. It is the main attraction to the park, and goes through a huge area of free-roaming native herbivores including bison, moose, elk, black-tailed deer, white-tailed deer, bighorn sheep, mountain goats, and caribou. Along the way, the tram driver gives an educational talk about the animals , the exhibit space, and habitats that occur in Western Washington. I was lucky enough to be there at a day and time when the tram's windows were removed, which made for much better photography. In the winter the windows are always in place. Be aware though, people will bring their toddlers and babies on the tour and they can cry the whole time.

On the topic of toddlers and other small children, there are not yet any play areas designated for children to let off steam. I see this as a design flaw as it forces parents to allow their hyper and noisy kids around the animal exhibits. Thankfully that will change soon, as there is a big children's play area under construction that is scheduled to open in 2016.

The food court was a little disappointing. It was basically an average fast food place that also sold classic zoo-going treats like kettle corn and ice cream bars. The interior was a bit cramped, and the summer crowd season was over, I can't imagine how packed it gets in summer. Same with the bathrooms as there are only one set of bathrooms near the zoo entrance. There was a line in the Women's shortly after lunch time.

Exhibits:

In a word; beautiful. Due to all the species being endemic to Washington State, all the exhibits could blend in with the natural forest all around and within the zoo. Second-growth forest trees grow in all the large animal exhibits and local understory plants grow in the small animal exhibits.
The only exhibits that seem a little outdated are the small animal exhibits. They are quite small and might not be enough space for the small but intelligent animals.

The only animals I saw performing stereotyping behaviors were the skunk and one of the two black bears who paced, and the grizzly bear who did a weird licking thing with its tongue.

Something definitely in this zoo's favor is its exhibit signs. Every single exhibit (except the free-roaming area that is only accessible by the tram tour) has at least a good sign on it with basic information and some fun facts on the species within. The lynx, cougar, bobcat, coyote, red fox, beavers, wolves, grizzly bear, black bear, and turkey vulture all had excellent signs for their exhibits. Signs with more than the basic information, often talking about their place in the environment and their relationship with humans over time.

A sample of an extra education sign (separate from the basic information one).

This zoo is great for photography. All but the owl and vulture exhibits have an open air viewing area where you can get an unobstructed view into the exhibit. Many of them are designed to let you get a close up look at the animals if they are out and active.

As I walked around there were not a whole lot of keepers or docents around to answer questions. There were a few education carts with hands-on learning tools like pelts and a docent to answer any questions, but very few animal/keeper talks. I was unable to attend any of the few animal talks due to scheduling, but the zoo obviously relies on having good signs and the tram tour for the visitors' education.

Overall I think this zoo is a place worth going to. It certainly has some areas that can be improved - the amenities are not quite built for how popular the zoo has become, and there is definitely a privilege barrier just to get there because of its location - but the educational component definitely gets its message across with the great exhibit signs and the tram tour talk. The opportunities for photography are the best I've seen so far, having the highest percentage of exhibits with open air viewing. The one docent I met was friendly and happy to answer questions.
Last but not least, I did not have to exit through the gift shop!

The photos I took there!

Point Defiance Zoo and Aquarium

Website:
http://www.pdza.org
The primary links on the website are under the titles: Visit, Animals, Events, Education, Conservation, Support Us, and Connect. These links are all easy to navigate and they include information on the conservation projects the zoo supports, as well as options for the viewer to look into their educational programs.
The animals fact sheets are fairly complete for mammals, reptiles, amphibians, birds, and sharks, but they are severely lacking when it comes to fish and invertebrates. The fact sheets they have are all very complete with a lot of information on the species.
A map is available for viewing and downloading as a PDF. They also offer a handheld map when you purchase a ticket at the zoo entrance.

Prices:
         Adults (13-64)           $17
         Seniors (65+)            $16
         Youth (5-12)            $13
         Tots (3-4)                 $8.75
         Ages 2 and under     Free
         Discount for Pierce County residents and military
Hours:
      Winter hours mostly 9:30am - 4pm
      Summer hours mostly 9:30am - 6pm
      ~ For more detail and specific dates, see website.

Zoo & Aquarium:

Unfortunately the closest bus stop to the zoo entrance is quite a ways away, outside of the sizable parking lot. So not the easiest to access by bus, especially for young children and the elderly.
The entrance itself is not super easily accessible by wheelchair, there is a good ramp down to the entrance, but the gates to get in are those annoying turnstiles. They have a separate gate that an employee has to open to let in people with wheelchairs.

The food amenities mostly consist of one centrally located building. It's not a very big zoo, so this works out just fine as you are never more than a 10 minute walk from it. There are also several "food" stands around the zoo that mostly serve treats like ice cream, popcorn, and cotton candy.

The kids areas of the zoo are clearly marked on the map, and consist of two large playground areas and a carousel near the entrance. Around the playgrounds are small exhibits of mostly reptiles, amphibians, and invertebrates, but also have the meerkats, lemurs, and wallabies. In one of the kid's areas is a small petting zoo of friendly goats you can feed little pellets to (feed pellets are paid for with quarters). Other animal interactions for children (and in some cases adults too) are camel rides, a sting ray and shark touch tank, a sea life activity room with more touch tanks, scheduled animal interactions taking place at designated areas around the zoo and specified in the list of daily talks/shows, and a budgie feeding aviary where you can buy little seed sticks for $5, or just watch others feed the birds.

One of the playground areas

The sting ray and small sharks touch tank. 

The tank had a side were the animals could go to get away from people.

Exhibits:

The exhibits were mostly designed really well, making it easy for people of all ages and ability to get a clear view. A few of them had railings that were a bit high for young kids and people in wheelchairs, but most of those had fencing below you could see through.
All the exhibits had places for the animals to hide/get out of public view, plus an array of plants that represented that particular habitat/region.

The signs for the exhibits were for the most part good. All the mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, and invertebrates had signs for each species with at least the scientific name, common name, range, and some facts. The exhibits with the most informational signs were the red wolves and polar bears. Both areas had extensive signs about the species and their conservation.

A small part of the signs about the red wolves.

As I am finding out to be a common theme, the aquarium part of the zoo had the worst signage. It was really quite dreadful. The best signed area was the hallway of tropical exhibits, but a lot of the signs did not cover all the animals in each exhibit, so I have no idea what half the stuff I was photographing is. The worst signed area was the big tropical tank by the sharks, it had no signs whatsoever. None. The shark tank had iPad signs that probably were supposed to show all the species in the tank, but they were both broken when I was there. The area with all the local species was spottily signed at best, with some scientific drawing style identification signs scattered on the walls that had nothing more than the picture, scientific name, and common name. They were so dimly lit that I found most people would not even look at them while walking around. There were no signs whatsoever along the big central tank.
If you think I sound frustrated about this, I am. If aquariums want to say they are being educational then I think they need to make a better effort at providing information on the species they show. Otherwise it's not education, but just pure entertainment.

I was pleasantly surprised by the small number of animals I saw performing stereotyping behaviors. Though as always, it is very hard to determine stereotyping in fish, I think that it may be safe to say they are exhibiting a stereotyping behavior if they are swimming laps or patterns in the tank consistently throughout the day. In which case, I would say that almost a third of the fish on exhibit were showing this behavior. Unfortunately, due to the bad signage I could not write down what species I saw doing it.
The species I did see performing stereotyping behavior that I could write down were one of the two asian small-clawed otters, one out of two asian elephants, three out of five shark species in the big shark tank, and both walruses. I saw possible stereotyping in the harbor seals, who were swimming in similar laps and patterns together as a group, and the Magellanic penguins, four out of eight of them were swimming around and looking underwater but not diving for anything.

There are so many animal keeper talks and shows throughout the day that it is impossible to see them all in one day. I did my best to make it to as many as possible. Every animal keeper talk I went to was very good at being completely educational as well as accessible for all to understand easily. They included time to answer questions, and the keepers I saw happily answered any questions a child or adult had. The elephant keeper even had a couple of props with her to show to the audience during the talk. The polar bear talk finished with giving the bears some enrichment feeding in the pool to get them close to the glass. The information of the talk was great, but unfortunately it is done in a small room and when I was there the crowd at the time was super rude and completely talked over the presenter.
So the talks were great, but other than that I did not see any opportunities to ask questions. No volunteers or staff were walking around or standing by exhibits.

Elephant keeper talk.

There is also a big performance show put on twice a day in the amphitheater. It is mostly silly and geared towards the younger audience, but it still has some educational information and stuff for adults. It also contains a selection of animal ambassadors of species not on general exhibit at the zoo. The animals walk or run across the stage and the keepers show off their natural skills while sharing information about the animal. This is a great photographic opportunity, especially if you are in the first couple of rows. They switch out the animals every show, so it is worth seeing more than once.
The star of the show is a domestic dog, who is adorable and obviously loves doing the whole thing. I never saw his tail stop wagging.

The star of the show.

Good news for photographers in that most of the exhibits had either open air or glass viewing.
The species with open air viewing are the dwarf nigerian goats, red wolves, muskoxen, arctic foxes, tigers, asian small-clawed otters, asian elephants, budgies, Magellanic penguins, harbor seals, sea otters, and marine aviary (common murres, tufted puffins, and horned puffins).
The exhibits with glass viewing are the meerkats, ring-tailed lemurs, polar bears, siamangs & anola, opossum, iguana, clouded leopards, walruses, mole rats, and all the aquarium tanks and the reptile, amphibian, and invertebrate exhibits.
The only exhibit with mesh-only viewing was the wallabies.
Many of the exhibits listed as having clear air viewing also had glass viewing, and many of the exhibits listed as having glass viewing also had mesh viewing.

Overall I enjoyed this zoo & aquarium. The website is easy to navigate and has what I consider to be the most important primary links and information, including good animal fact sheets. The area is accessible for wheelchairs, though the bus stop location is bad. I thought the signs were for the most part quite good (except the aquarium area). The keeper talks were educational and clearly posted for time and location. It was disappointing to not be able to ask docents about animals and exhibits, but the talks always had time for questions. The twice daily show was cute and entertaining as well as funny and a good opportunity to see and photograph species they do not have on regular display. They had a lot of exhibits with open air viewing, and those with glass viewing were often inside to reduce refections and glare.
Last but not least, I did not have to exit through the gift shop!

See you all later when I post the best photos on Google+

Seattle Aquarium

Website:
http://www.seattleaquarium.org
The primary links on the website are under the headings Plan a Visit, Membership & Donate, Animals & Activities, Events & Programs, and Conservation. This is a pretty comprehensive list and I like how it includes conservation. The animal fact sheets however, are far from comprehensive. They only have fact sheets of individual species for their mammals, birds, the giant pacific octopus, and a very small selection of fish. If, for instance, I were to take a photo of a fish and later want to look up what it was I would only be able to find out a very general idea of what kind of fish it is, like a rockfish, or sculpin. Not at all helpful to those who like specifics.
A downloadable and viewable pdf of the aquarium map is available on the website, but the map portion is sideways (it is a direct pdf of what they hand you when you enter), so it can be difficult to read.

Prices and hours:
Open from 9:30am - 5:00pm daily, with a few exceptions on some holidays and special events. See website for specifics.
Admissions:
        Adult (13+ years)    $22.95
        Youth (4-12)           $15.95
        Child (0-3)               Free
    Discounts:
             Seniors (65+)                 $2 off
             People with disabilities  $2 off
             Military (have ID)          $2.95 off

Aquarium:

The closest bus stops are by the Pike place Market, a good walk away with a lot of stairs (downhill to the Aquarium, uphill back). Not easily accessible for people in wheelchairs or with difficulty walking long distances and/or stairs. There is some parking across the street from the Aquarium, but no free parking on most days.

There is a small cafeteria on the upper floor of the building, which can be accessed by stairs. There is an elevator for people with wheelchairs. The cafe is marked on the map, but can still be confusing to find. You can bring your own food into the cafe area, but there are signs discouraging it even though there are no other picnic type areas to sit and eat. The bathrooms are marked clearly on the map and are easy to spot while walking around.

There are a couple of special areas for younger children to be entertained by activities and to participate in interactive learning. One is basically self-serve, and the other also has periodic staff members running different activities.
An exhibit that counts as an all-ages interactive activity is the two large touch pools where people can look at and gently touch a variety of animals, including anemones, sea cucumbers, sea stars, and urchins. The pools are always staffed and monitored to keep both the humans and the animals safe. The staff can also answer any questions you may have about the exhibit and the animals.

One of the touch tanks.

Exhibits:

For the most part the exhibits did a great job in showing the variety of aquatic species and how they live together in their environment. Every fish exhibit had more than one species displayed in an area that replicated how their natural habitat looks. 

The signage, however, was terrible. From my experience so far this seems to plague most aquarium exhibits. While they had a lot of screens with slideshow signs that slowly paged through a list of species, they were almost never a complete list of what was in the exhibit represented. Especially in the Pacific Coral Reef area. I would think they would use the screens to make it easier to add and subtract species from the signs as the exhibits get switched out and new fish are added. But they seem to be rarely updated. The signs for the birds and mammals were much better and showed all the animals in each exhibit. The best signed exhibit by far is the pacific giant octopus exhibit, but the signs are on the wall so most people have their backs to them while viewing the octopus, making them harder to see.

There were also a lot of signs about conservation projects and what everyday people can do to help protect the marine environment. The signs were in plain view and one area even had little interactive screens for children to learn from. 

The aquarium may not have had any large sharks on exhibit, but they still had an area with information on the local species of sharks and what research is being done on them. Sometimes there would be a staff member there to answer questions.

The six gill shark education about research station.

At almost every exhibit area there was at least one docent/staff member to answer any questions you might have. They were very knowledgable about the animals and exhibits, sometimes having small props or specimen jars to show to people. 

The one keeper talk/show I was able to see was focused almost exclusively on education about the exhibit and the area in the wild it represented. The show was engaging to both children and adults and featured a scuba diver in the tank with a special mask allowing her to talk to the audience directly. 

A diver and her assistant educate the crowd and answer questions.

It can be hard to try and note any stereotyping behavior in fish, as some species have to constantly move in order to breathe and in a small enclosed space that inevitably leads to swimming around in the clear areas. I can say that some fish looked like they were circling in much more of a patterned way than others, but I admit that I had a limited time at the aquarium so I was unable to watch for a while and take note of species doing that. From what I remember it was mostly the larger species of fish showing the patterned behavior, but not always. 

The animals that definitely had stereotyping like behavior were the mammals. One out of the two harbor seals was swimming laps in a particular way, and so was one of the two fur seals. It can be hard to tell with sea otters, because they naturally spend most of their time grooming themselves, but it seemed like some of the grooming was in a pattern where they would groom a particular spot over and over again in the same way. 

All zoo and aquarium photographers know that marine exhibits pose a special challenge as almost all the exhibits are underwater through glass. The only exhibits where there is any viewing through open air are the touch pools, the oystercatcher, and the other shorebird exhibit with the long-billed curlew, black-bellied plover, and killdeer. The good news is the Pacific Coral Reef area is dark with brightly lit tanks, so has minimal to no glare on the glass. Everywhere else has lots of glare and the Puget Sound Fish area has low lighting in the tanks as well as the room, which makes photography in there more difficult. Some exhibits, like the giant pacific octopus and the side viewing area of Window on Washington Waters have curved glass (plexiglass) surfaces, which can be hard to photograph through. 

Overall, this aquarium has really great docent presence, allowing visitors to get answers that are not on the signs. Unfortunately that is super important because a lot of the signs are not very helpful and a lot of species are not identified by them. The keeper talks are informative and educational more than just entertainment, but are still entertaining enough to pull crowds to watch. The food situation is not great, with a limited cafe and eating area. The small space the aquarium has really limits the sizes of the marine mammal exhibits, and several of those mammals display stereotyping behaviors, mostly pacing in regular routs underwater. 

Last but not least: you do in fact have to exit through the gift shop. It's not an easy exit either as you are forced to weave between racks of merchandise to get to the exit doors. 

Rub your head and your tummy at the same time!

Woodland Park Zoo

Website:
www.zoo.org
The primary links on the website are under the titles of Visit the Zoo, Animals & Plants, Conservation, For Educators, Camps & Programs, and Membership. This is a good selection as it makes it easy to access and clear that the zoo is involved in conservation programs. The animal fact sheets are not completely comprehensive, but they do feature mammals, birds, invertebrates, plants, reptiles and amphibians. The fact sheet pages include many of the animals featured in the zoo, but the bird section is the least complete list.
A downloadable and viewable PDF of the zoo map is available on the website.

Prices and hours:
May 1 - Sept 30         9:00am-6:00pm
     Adult (13-64 years)       $19.95
     Child (3-12)                  $12.25
     Toddler (0-2)                Free
     Senior (65+) & disabled, discount of $2 off regular admission.
October 1 - April 30    9:30am-4:00pm
     Adult                             $13.75
     Child                             $9.25
     Toddler                          Free
      Senior & disabled, same discount.

Zoo:

There is a bus stop very close to the entrance of the zoo, as well as returning ones right across the street, both are stops with shelters and places to sit. A sheltered bike rack is located right next to the entrance and there is a close parking option though it costs some money to park there. The entrance to the zoo is easily accessible for wheelchairs, though the ticket buying booths are a bit high up.
You are given a handheld map of the zoo upon ticket purchase.
Several conservation projects the zoo is involved in are pointed to immediately upon purchase of tickets. With your ticket you are given a little coin token to use to "vote" for one of six conservation projects displayed on what is essentially a huge donation box. The projects are for wild elephants, snow leopards, tigers, hornbills, and Oregon spotted frogs.

The amenities in the zoo are fairly evenly spaced out. There are two primary places to purchase and eat food, plus several snack carts spread around the zoo, though those are not always open. There are four-five separate picnic areas in the zoo for those who bring their own food and want to eat it outside. Nine bathrooms are scattered around the zoo, many in the food or entertainment/education buildings. The map has all of these things clearly marked and labeled. What is not labeled are all the small playground and statue areas where kids can play when they are tired of viewing animals. All these areas are themed with the exhibits they are near, like the hippo statue next to the hippo exhibit.

The playground near the tiger exhibit.

Exhibits:

Almost all the exhibits were appropriate for representing the animals' habitats, with plants and other structures depicting aspects of the wild areas in which they live.

Signage of the exhibits was fairly good, but not evenly so.
Exhibits with the best signs were the Humboldt penguins, snow leopards, Malayan tigers, grizzly/brown bears, northern river otters, Stellar's sea eagles, elk, orangutan, siamangs, meerkats, Komodo dragons, Chilean flamingos, Jaguars, and Gorillas.
The only places with bad or inconsistent signs were in the family farm area, tropical house and the day exhibit/reptile house. The tropical house had signs for almost all the species of birds, but they were often not located near the exhibits with those birds. The toucans had a sign with several species labeled on it, but none of those species were the ones in the exhibits. Very frustrating. The reptile house had a sign for every species, but several were obscured almost completely by the plants in the exhibit.

A fraction of the signs in the conservation area of the tiger exhibit.

There were areas of extra signs focused on the conservation aspects of the zoo and what people can do to help in a variety of ways. The signs are not always particularly obvious and sometimes out of the way of most people walking around, so I do not know how effective they are. The ones that were effective were the more interactive conservation focused signs and areas attached to exhibit viewing areas, like at the Malayan tiger exhibit. Though there were not many of these.

Disabled access for exhibit viewing was quite varied. Almost all of the newer exhibit areas were very accessible with many having glass windows all the way down to the ground. Older exhibits were more likely to have a higher railing that a tall person in a wheelchair could see over, but a shorter person or a child would not be able to.

Scattered around the zoo and regularly moving from place to place were zoo docents, both volunteer and staff, who were always happy to answer questions about exhibits and animals. They had the information on the animals they were near and not once did I feel like they were not approachable or not helpful. The only disappointment was them not being in the areas with the worst signs, like the tropical house.
The keeper talks/animal shows were also very competent and educational. Every keeper talk and show I attended included the conservation information on the animals and, if applicable, what organizations the zoo works with to help endangered species in the wild and how they do that. The talks were engaging and informative without being either dumbed down or going over the average person's comprehension. Some included props that could be passed around, and the bird of prey flight program catches the audience's attention with the birds flying from post to post around a small field and even right over the audience's heads. The flight program show was put together in a way that the trained tricks performed by the birds were more about exercise and showing the animal's natural abilities than about entertaining the crowd.

A keeper with a barn owl during the flight program.

There were various hands-on activities for kids and adults to participate with around the zoo, mostly attached to signs. There were also several staffed carts with educational materials such as animal skulls, furs, and claws where people can touch and learn about them from the staff member at the cart.

I noticed very little stereotyping behavior in the animals at the zoo. As I have said in my introductory post on this blog, what I observe in my single visit to each exhibit is not a complete understanding of the animals in it. There may be stereotyping behaviors I missed due to the animal sleeping or hiding off view. I can't really help that.
The animals I did observe repetitive behavior from were one of the two grizzly bears, several of the meerkats, and one sloth bear out of two. I saw possible stereotyping behaviors in the northern river otter (it would swim back and forth against the glass, but would also obviously follow and play with kids while doing so), one of the two Malayan tapirs (it would get up, shift, lie down and repeat, but the sign also stated the animals were currently under veterinary care, so possibly it was uncomfortable for some medical reason), one of the two southern screamers (it would pick up and toss sticks in a consistent way, but did not do so the entire time I watched).

Now the section for photographers.
Exhibits with an open air view of the animals (many of these also have glass viewing): penguins, wallaby & emu, bird feeding station (Willawong Station), small-clawed otters, sloth bears, gray wolves, grizzly bears, elk, raptor flight program, orangutan, siamang, Malayan tapir, warthogs, lions, patas monkeys, hippos, savannah aviary, African savannah exhibit, Family Farm area, orb weaver spider in the insect house, conservation aviary, waterfowl aviary, white-naped crane, hooded crane & bar-headed goose, red panda, Chilean flamingos, tropical aviary, red ruffed lemur, ring-tailed lemur, yellow-spotted side-necked turtle, African dwarf crocodile, Asian brown tortoise & three-banded armadillo, and radiated tortoise.
Exhibits with a view through glass (some also have chain link): kookaburra & others, snow leopard, Malayan tigers, northern river otters, Indian python, lion-tailed macaque, meerkats, flying foxes & springhare, two-toed sloth & tamandua anteater, Komodo dragon, insect house exhibits, jaguar, ocelot, emerald tree boa, poison dart frogs, tiger rat snake, golden lion tamarins, black and white colobus monkeys, gorillas, tree kangaroo, and most species in the day exhibit/reptile house.
Exhibits with view through mesh or just chain link: Asian aviary, porcupine, snowy owl, Stellar's sea eagles, kea, great gray owl, knobbed hornbill, conservation aviary, red-crowned crane, maned wolf, pudu, southern screamer, and many tropical house exhibits.



Overall I think this zoo does a pretty good job of informing the visitors of the conservation involved with the zoo. The signs are for the most part accurate and informative, and if people want more information the website has many animal fact sheets with all the accurate info. The docents and keepers are helpful and friendly and regularly move around from exhibit to exhibit so most places will at some point have someone there to answer questions. The animal shows and keeper talks are based in education over entertainment. Few animals exhibit stressed or stereotyping behaviors, and many exhibits are good for those who take photographs.

Last but not least, you do not have to exit through the gift shop.

Tiger sniffing face :) 

What, Why, Where, and How

Welcome to this blog! I am constructing a long-term project to visit and review as many zoos and aquariums as I can.

I got the idea when I found myself looking for quality reviews of zoos and aquariums, thinking about possible future vacation trips. What I found was a mess of sites that would sort of talk about a few places, lists of people's personal favorites, and lists of the most popular. What I wanted to know was which were the most educational. Not one of the sites I found talked about the zoo's conservation efforts or educational exhibit structures. They were all about entertainment.

So I am going to attempt to create a comprehensive review for every zoo and aquarium I can go to. For now, my limits are that I will only do public AZA (Association of Zoos and Aquariums) accredited places. The reasoning for this is that there are tons of small, privately owned facilities and I cannot possibly visit even a small fraction of them all. As for-profit operations they are most likely to not score very high at all with my review criteria.

I will visit places only during the summer, as that is the most likely time I will have off for doing this, animals are often most active during the summer, most people who visit zoos and aquariums do so in the summer, and I want to be consistent with my data.

Below I will list and talk about the many different things I will take notes of while visiting or looking up each facility. Keep in mind that this list is comprised of things from the perspective of someone who has only been to a few, fairly local zoos and aquariums. I may add things to consider as I see a wider variety of facilities.
The noted thing is in bold while the explanations for them are normal.

Website:

• What are the primary links? The links most prominent on the front page of their website. (ex: "our mission", "conservation", "visit us", "tours", etc.)
• Animal fact sheets/pages? Can you get information about the species at the zoo on their website. How many species are represented in these pages, biases towards certain phylums, etc.
• Map? Is there a map of the zoo/aquarium itself? I know I like to get an idea of the scale of the facility and plan out my general path. I bet other people like this too.

General:

• Admission prices
• Nearby bus stops? I think this is highly important for people who don't have cars, and the proximity of the stops is important for people who have difficulty walking long distances or people with young children.
• Handheld maps? Do they give you a map when you walk in. I can't imagine why a place wouldn't, but I think it's important to mention how up-to-date the maps are and such.

Food, Bathrooms, Etc.:

• Number and locations of food areas? Are they easily accessible.
• Picnic areas? I think it's important to have an outdoor dining option for people who bring their own food. 
• Number and locations of restrooms? People, especially kids, have to pee. No one likes hunting a big distance to find a bathroom. I will also take note of cleanliness. 
• Children areas? Are there separate playgrounds where parents can take noisy children to burn off their energy. Do these places have an educational component.
• Gift shop exit? Do people have to exit through the gift shop. This is a pain for anyone with younger children.

Exhibits:

• Visibility. Can the animals be observed clearly within the exhibit (ex: tight mesh fencing, glass, dirty glass, etc.). Photographers want to know this stuff.
• Disabled access? Can people in wheelchairs or with other walking aids get to the exhibit viewing areas and see clearly. This could also go under general stuff. 
• Habitat representation? Do the exhibit designs accurately depict the animals' natural habitat.
• Signs. All species identified? Scientific name? Animal facts? Location of species? Conservation info?
• Docents/keepers? Are there staff/volunteers around to answer questions.
• Animal stereotyping behavior? This type of behavior is often done to relieve chronic stress. It includes things like pacing, performing the same act repeatedly in the same way, chronic licking or chewing, etc. While this can be a sign of poor exhibit design that does not mentally stimulate the animals enough, these behaviors could have been formed at another or earlier facility. For example; if a tiger is kept in a small cage it will often develop pacing behavior. If that same tiger is then rescued from that space and put in a spacious enclosure with lots of things to do and interact with, an exhibit that would not produce a pacing behavior if an animal was raised in it, that tiger from the small cage would probably still perform that pacing behavior. Stereotyping behavior is not always a reflection of poorly done zoo exhibits, but I want to take note of the percentage of animals in a facility that have it and the species, to see if there is a pattern of certain species being more prone to it than others.
• Shelter/hiding places? Do the animals have access to areas where they can get out of view of the public.
• Keeper talks. Are they entertainment shows or educational ones. do they give time for questions.
• Animal shows. Are they all entertainment, do they include educational components. do they show training for medical care. Do they give time for questions.

Other:

• Hands-on activities? Are there areas/activities for more hands-on learning for children and adults. are they appropriately themed for the habitat/animal they are near.
• Conservation-focused areas? Are there places to learn about what the zoo/aquarium is doing for conservation efforts. are they eye-catching and easy to read. Do they have information on what the public could do to help. 

While visiting each facility I will take copious notes and photographs. Then I will do my best to edit it all down to a not-too-long comprehensive review. I will not be making a final list of "best to worst", because I think it is important to know that different facilities will have different things they do well and things they need to work on.
It is also important to note the date I visit each place, as they are always changing and improving.

If you have questions or suggestions about any of these points, please feel free to leave a comment :)
(but be respectful and thoughtful, please)