Earlier this month Adelaide Zoo said goodbye to Miss C, the oldest known Hoffmann’s Two-toed Sloth in the world. She was also the last sloth in Australia.
It had been my plan to go through our old photo directories in order to put some of the older photos into storage, taking out the better shots for posting on Fridays here, for the rest of this year. I was planning on working on it, soon.
But then Hailey from Discourse of a Divine Diva went to meet some sloths, and she mentioned Miss C passing, and I thought if I set myself a time limit maybe I would Get Some Photo Viewing Done. And I did!
I still have a lot of directories to go, and Miss C was not the most photogenic of zoo animals. I have found these shots, thus far.
As zoo members, we could drop into the zoo for a short visit or a long visit, show our membership card, and go in for “free” – you pay a yearly fee which is some very low amount of money in my opinion.
So whenever we got there, we could choose – which way will we like to go today, which animals do we want to visit. There were times we went for the whole day and walked the entire zoo and took a lot of photos, and there were times when we dropped in first thing for a half hour to check on the new lion cubs or to see a specific animal.
We no longer live close enough to a zoo to be members. If you do, you should check with your local zoo and find out how much it is. Most of the time in Australia it is around $2-4 a week across the space of a year, and you may get some benefits like free entry to other zoos and the ability to volunteer or go behind the scenes, discounts in the zoo shops, and other unique experiences. You can find out more about Zoo Membership on the website for your local zoo. :)
The reciprocal rights to other zoos can make membership well worth people’s while, but you do have to use it.
The reason we first became members was so we could go walking at the zoo and I was really glad we did. We visited Melbourne, Taronga, Dubbo, and a few others included in the membership all for free and we were at the zoo most weekends for several years there, even if it was just a quick 30 minute visit. Some of the experiences we had are not ones I will ever forget. :)
When we lived in San Diego, very near our favorite zoo, we immediately became members and kept upping our membership over the 5 years we lived there. The best money we ever spent. We now live in a small city, Fuengirola, with a surprisingly world-class zoo, Bioparc Fuengirola. We couldn’t wait to join up and I now will walk over whenever I need a little uplift. I love the sloths — perezosos in Spanish!
Zoo membership is so worthwhile. :) I have been going back through the photos and there really are some amazing ones in there. :) I will be posting some of them here! :)
If I was more of a zoo going person I’d be a member, but I rarely go. I walk the entire zoo each time, and usually at the wrong time when most of the animals I want to see are asleep. I was lucky enough to see the lions feeding time a few years ago and before that I got good photos of the older Flamingo a few months before he died.
That is where membership can really be of use, River. We got offered opportunities as a member and also as a volunteer which would not have happened otherwise. For example I recall members got to go on an early morning behind the scenes tour I think once a year, there are other unique tours offered in the zoo magazine some of which there was a small cost, others were free, and once we became a part of zoo watch we got to stay overnight in the zoo – at a time when you could not do that at all otherwise – watching a new animal settle in to their enclosure.
As tour guides we got to tour people at events like weddings etc which were often held after the zoo closed and especially in summer that was very special as we got to see the animals at times we otherwise would not. And best of all was the training for the tour guides which went for several weeks and we got to know so many of the staff and ask all those questions which rarely I would get to ask.
I think you would probably most love to volunteer for BEAZA which is behavioural enrichment for the animals – the folks involved in that are great people and they really had so much fun creating things for the animals and the enjoyment of watching the animals interact with those things they created. :)
One of my brothers volunteers at our local zoo. He works hard, but the benefits are huge. I really enjoyed your sloth photos – thank you.
That particular zoo is one of my favourites, Elephant’s Child, we had a great day there doing one of their special tours. I will never forget that day. :)