Aquarium News

Ripley's Aquarium of the Smokies Named Best Aquarium in United States

Ripley?s Aquarium of the Smokies

Ripley?s Aquarium of the Smokies has been honored as the top Aquarium in the United States by TripAdvisor, the world?s largest travel community. The ranking was determined based on traveler popularity, consumer ratings, and TripAdvisor editors. Since 2000, Gatlinburg has been home to Ripley?s Aquarium of the Smokies, which has hosted more than 10 million visitors since it opened its doors. Nestled at the gateway of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Gatlinburg is a year-round, family-friendly destination that offers a variety of attractions, activities, and accommodations for vacationers of all ages.

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Monterey Bay Aquarium Places Its Fourth White Shark on Exhibit

Oregon Coast Aquarium Prepares for Its First Fund Raiser

An Aquarium Visit:
Taking A River Journey and Ocean Voyage at the Tennessee Aquarium
by Rudy Socha

Tennessee Aquarium

Visiting the Tennessee Aquarium in Chattanooga, TN, I was immediately impressed by the size of the buildings and campus. What makes this remarkable is that my visit took place one day after touring the Georgia Aquarium, a massive facility in its own right.

There are many things that make this facility unique and worth a visit.

It starts with two impressive and attractive buildings, River Journey and Ocean Journey. Both buildings are filled all the way to their glass roofs with exhibits and very attractive and informative graphics. The glass roofs have plants growing in the rafters with free flying birds nesting. The walls between displays serve as a gallery, and host some great marine life photos taken by staff members.

The main buildings are filled with themed exhibits at every turn. Scattered throughout the aquarium is one of the largest displayed turtle collections.

River Journey is the original Aquarium building. It features stunning freshwater creatures and habitats from the Southeast United States and from around the world. Visitors can explore two living forests under glass, and get face-to-face with giant catfish, prehistoric sturgeon, and American alligators.

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Zoo News

Palm Beach Zoo Gives Phoenix Zoo a Low Mileage Jag

Palm Beach Zoo
Phoenix Zoo

The Phoenix Zoo is pleased to welcome the newest addition to its family: a beautiful three year-old female yellow jaguar. The new jaguar, named "Caipora," will make her public debut Friday, August 8, 2008. This jaguar comes from the Palm Beach Zoo at Dreher Park in Florida. Her keepers here at the Phoenix Zoo have observed that she seems to be a very calm and relaxed cat. Her name, "Caipora," means Goddess of the Wilderness; one that protects animals from human hunters. Jaguars are endangered due to over-hunting and deforestation.

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Female Offspring is Seventh Endangered Orangutan Born at Tampa?s Lowry Park Zoo

American Elephant Give Birth While on Extended Vacation in Canada

Rosamond Gifford Zoo

Rosamond Gifford Zoo's elephant gives birth in Canada. African Lion Safari announces the birth of the first third-generation Asian Elephant calf in North America. The Rosamond Gifford Zoo is pleased to announce that Mali, one of the zoo's two female Asian Elephants on loan to the African Lion Safari in Cambridge, Ontario, gave birth to a healthy male calf on July 15. The calf was named "Chuck" by the staff at the African Lion Safari after the director of the Rosamond Gifford Zoo.

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Update on Missing Zoo Director Pablo Caligiuri-Urban

A Zoo Visit:
Going "Down Under" in Dawsonville, Georgia to see Species Not Displayed Elsewhere in the U.S.
by Rudy Socha

Kangaroo Conservation Center

This is a place where things hop, bounce, run and fly. A visit to the Kangaroo Conservation Center is a great learning experience even for an old dog like me. Prior to my visit I did not know the difference between a kangaroo and a wallaby. Let alone wallaroos and rat-kangaroos. And guess what? I'm not giving away the answers. The next time you visit Atlanta, GA, Chattanooga, TN or the North Georgia area, I recommend that you go to the Kangaroo Conservation Center to experience the difference.

Roger and Debbie Nelson own and are the Directors of the AZA certified Related Facility. They are very hands-on and have a staff of 13 humans, and one burro who works security. Unfortunately, I did not have the opportunity to meet with their security guard. I assume she was off doing her job, patrolling the outer perimeter to insure no coyotes entered the property.

Although this is a specialized venue zoo due to a small number of species, it offers many things that differentiate it from other facilities. It has more dedicated animal space (over 80 acres) than many metropolitan zoos.

The Kangaroo Conservation Center also has several species that are very rare, and not found but at one or two other facilities in the United States.

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BIAZA Appoints University Chancellor as President

British and Irish Association of Zoos and Aquariums

BIAZA, the professional body representing the British and Irish zoo and aquarium community, today announces the appointment of its first President ? Professor Sir Drummond Bone, who will next month retire as Vice-Chancellor of the University of Liverpool. He took up the post on 1 August, and on Tuesday, 12 August he will be at ZSL London Zoo to meet the staff and a black-and-white ruffed lemur, a threatened primate from Madagascar.

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Zoo and Aquarium Visitor News

Contest Winners

On Zoo and Aquarium Visitor winners for the contest ending July 31, 2008 are:

Bass pendant ? Andrew Gordon, Reminderville, OH. Andrew sent us a photo of his daughter holding up Dad?s pendant prize.

Bear earrings and matching pendant ? Virginia Murr, Pecatonica, IL.

Elephant earrings ? Maria Jones, Connersville, IN.

Dolphin pendant ? Tim Hogan, La Place, LA. Tim works for St. John Humane Society in the New Orleans, Louisiana area. We are happy to give them a plug along with our congratulations to Tim.

Bear Pin ? Allen Bivins, San Antonio, TX

FUN STUFF

Zookeeper's Words of Wisdom

• Don't judge visitors by their vacation outfits.
• Remember that silence is sometimes the best answer.
• Don't interfere with something that isn't bothering you.
• Timing has a lot to do with the outcome of a rain dance.
• Sometimes you get, and sometimes you get got.
• The biggest troublemaker you'll probably ever have to deal with watches you from the mirror every morning.
  
  
• Techniques for being a good animal trainer will not work with your spouse.
• You can tell a lot about a visitor by the way they handle a rainy day.
• Zoo fences need to be giraffe-high, monkey-tight and elephant-strong.
• Keep scented skunks, bankers, and lawyers at a distance from visitors.
• A disturbed wasp is considerably faster than your zoo cart.
• Animal meanness dosen't just happen overnight.
• Do not corner something that you know is meaner than you.
• Every path has a few puddles.
• When you wallow with warthogs, expect to get dirty.
• Most of the stuff my boss worries about will never happen.

A Paid Zoo Gorilla Encounters a Lion

One day an out of work mime is visiting the zoo and attempts to earn some money as a street performer. Unfortunately, as soon as he starts to draw a crowd, a zookeeper grabs him and drags him into his office.

The zookeeper explains to the mime that the zoo's most popular attraction, a gorilla, has died suddenly and the keeper fears that attendance at the zoo will fall off. He offers the mime a job to dress up as the gorilla until they can get another one. The mime accepts.

So the next morning the mime puts on the gorilla suit and enters the cage before crowd comes. He discovers that it's a great job. He can sleep all he wants, play and make fun of people and he draws bigger crowds than he ever did as a mime. However, eventually the crowds tire of him and he tires of just swinging on tires.

He begins to notice that the people are paying more attention to the lion in the cage next to his. Not wanting to lose the attention of his audience, he climbs to the top of his cage, crawls across a partition, and dangles from the top to the lion's cage. Of course, this makes the lion furious, but the crowd loves it. At the end of the day the zoo-keeper comes and gives the mime a raise for being such a good attraction.

Well, this goes on for some time, the mime keeps taunting the lion, the crowds grow larger, and his salary keeps going up. Then one terrible day when he is dangling over the furious lion, he slips and falls. The mime is terrified. The lion gathers itself and prepares to pounce.

The mime is so scared that he begins to run round and round the cage with the lion close behind. Finally, the mime starts screaming and yelling, "Help, Help me!" but the lion is quick and pounces.

The mime soon finds himself flat on his back looking up at the angry lion and the lion says, "Shut up you idiot! Do you want to get us both fired?"

Kangaroo Has a Sundae

A kangaroo hops into a drugstore and orders a fifty-cent sundae. He puts down a ten-dollar bill to pay for it.

The clerk thinks, "What can a kangaroo know about money?" So he hands back a single dollar in change and says, "You know, we don't get many kangaroos in here."

"No wonder," answers the kangaroo, "At these prices you won't get many more."

A Blonde Zookeeper and a Lawyer Are Seated Next to Each Other on a Flight

A blonde zookeeper and a lawyer are seated next to each other on a flight from LA to NY. The lawyer asks if she would like to play a fun game. The zookeeper, tired, just wants to take a nap, politely declines and rolls over to the window to catch a few winks. The lawyer persists and explains that the game is easy and a lot of fun. He explains, "I ask you a question, and if you don't know the answer, you pay me $5.00, and vise versa. "Again, she declines and tries to get some sleep. The lawyer, now agitated, says, "Okay, if you don't know the answer you pay me $5.00, and if I don't know the answer, I will pay you $500.00."

This catches the zookeeper's attention and, figuring there will be no end to this torment unless she plays, agrees to the game. The lawyer asks the first question. "What's the distance from the earth to the moon?" The zookeeper doesn't say a word, reaches into her purse, pulls out a $5.00 bill and hands it to the lawyer. Okay says the lawyer, your turn. She asks the lawyer, "What goes up a hill with three legs and comes down with four legs?" The lawyer, puzzled, takes out his laptop computer and searches all his references, no answer. He taps into the air phone with his modem and searches the net and the library of congress, no answer. Frustrated, he sends e-mails to all his friends and coworkers, to no avail. After an hour, he wakes the zookeeper, and hands her $500.00. The zookeeper says, "Thank you," and turns back to get some more sleep.

The lawyer, who is more than a little miffed, wakes the zookeeper and asks, "Well, what's the answer?" Without a word, the zookeeper reaches into her purse, hands the lawyer $5.00 and goes back to sleep. Never assume blonde zookeepers are dumb.

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Zoo and Aquarium Visitor magazine
P.O. Box 410
Lorain, Ohio 44052