Top Ten Zoos In the Southeast

It is my birthday today and one of my favorite things on this earth are countdowns and countdown shows. Because of that I decided that I would do a countdown of the top 10 zoos in the southeast. We live in Florida and I grew up in Virginia so the majority of the zoos I have been to are in the southeast. For purposes of this assignment we will call the southeast anything south of Baltimore on the east coast.

Add in Maryland and take out the non coastal states and then this map is where we are going off. MD, DC, VA, NC, SC, GA, FL. We will count theme parks and aquariums as part of this countdown. Unfortunately if we have not been to the zoo it can not be included on the countdown.

10) Florida Aquarium, Tampa, FL
Review to come soon. Visit in 2011.

9) National Aquarium, Baltimore, MD
Review here

Main Tank at the National Aquarium

8) National Zoo, Washington DC
Review Here

The biggest draw at the National Zoo, their Giant Panda Exhibit. Well other than the fact that it is free!

7) Sea World, Orlando, FL
Review coming soon. Trying to wait for a return visit to get an updated review before posting.

Shamu

6) Lowry Park Zoo, Tampa, FL
Review Here

Penguin Feeding at Lowry Park Zoo

5) Jacksonville Zoo, Jacksonville, FL
I've been to this zoo many times in the past, but Jenna and I just went together last week. Our review is coming very soon.

4) Maryland Zoo, Baltimore, MD
Review Here.

Arctic Fox @ Maryland Zoo

3) Busch Gardens, Tampa, FL
Review posted 3 days ago. Click on the FL tab for more on Busch Gardens Tampa.

This picture was not in the review. It is a Gorilla napping @ Busch Gardens Tampa.

2) Disney's Animal Kingdom, Kissimmee, FL
Review Here

Tree of Life @ Disney's Animal Kingdom

And the number one animal attraction in the southeast is.....
Zoo Atlanta, Atlanta, GA
Full Review Here

They had close views of my favorite the Rhino!

They also had a baby komodo dragon feeding when we went.

Zoo Atlanta is very deserving of #1. It was so close between it and Animal Kingdom though.

However, if this was talking about each park and not just the animal portion, I would go with Busch Gardens Tampa. I suggest you check out all of these places if you can!

Let us know if you think we missed anything or if we need to check another zoo out. Also if you have different rankings please share.

-Noland

Friends of the National Zoo Membership

Noland and I just signed up for the "FONS (Friends of the National Zoo)" membership! If you are interested in signing up here is some MORE FONZ info!

The cool thing about FONZ is that you get discounts into zoos all over the country! And some of them, you even get in for free! Here is a list of the reciprocation zoos: Reciprocating Zoos and Aquariums - National Zoo| FONZ

We just went to the Atlanta zoo, which we will be posting information on in the coming weeks and got an awesome discount by using our FONZ membership! A final great thing about being a member of FONZ is that you recieve zoo news like, for example, a new baby Asian elephant was born at the St. Louis zoo!

Anyways, if you have any questions, post them below and we can definitely look it up for you.

Since I am out of town right now and on a family computer, I am unable to do a real zoozooreview post but I googled some funny animal pictures! Have a Happy Monday and enjoy!

I think someone photoshopped...? but the Lion King is great! Truly, a Disney Classic & everyone's fave!

Signing off -jenn

Smithsonian National Zoological Park

Smithsonian National Zoological Park
"National Zoo"
Washington DC

Noland grew up in the DC area so he has been there plenty of times. While for me, this was my first visit.

Date of Visit: Sunday, March 6, 2011

Highlights:

The zoo was big! There were a lot of different types of exhibits, which is a good thing because it will take up a whole day. Also, its FREE, there is absolutely NO COST to get into the zoo! So its a great thing to do if you are in the DC area. We packed a lunch in order to save money.

They had a lot of cool animals like the panda bear, cheetah, bird house, reptile house, ape house with an an orangutan - that was impressive. My favorite of all the animals in the zoo was the KOMODO DRAGON. It is awesome! They look like dinosaurs and I'm sure a little kid would be more amazed than I was. The spiders and snakes always creep me out but they were cool too.

Pictures:

cheetah! They are so fast!

 Here are the zebras! It was difficult to get a good picture of them and they smelled like manure so we just kept walking.

nice shot of a panda through some bamboo type plants.

 Panda bear! They were so cute but I didn't realize they were so big!

 This little guy is called the Red Panda but he is a member of the raccoon family.

 Toucan

This was some type of exotic animal similar to an ostrich. I will find out the name and get back to you but it totally came to us from a distance after calling, "here pretty birdie"

flamingoes. I think they look so funny when they curl up their necks and sit on their little bodies.

the fam!

meerkat - he looks a little fuzzy because he kept moving. but what a cutie, he looked just like Timon from the Lion King

Crocodile

another Croc

Giant Iguana! Oh my gosh! He was sooo cool!

Tortoise eating some grub.

Starfish

Huge Hermit crab.

Spiders. ew, they give me the creeps!

Here is the tiger. It was a somewhat cold day so he was just chillen in the sunlight.

Lions. They just had lion cubs. Unfortunately, they were not outside when we got there.

Golden Lion Tamarin

I was proud of Noland for remembering this little guy's name.

Disappointments:

There were a lot of exhibits that were empty which was disappointing because it makes you wonder if the animals died or are they going to put them back in there later.. Also, in the bird house, there were little mice in almost every display. Mice are just gross and carry germs. I am almost 100% positive they were not a part of the exhibit. I don't know if I will go back in the bird house the next time we go.

Overall Rating and Review:

Overall, I really had a great time at this zoo. There were parts that seemed to be under construction but they had enough animals that still allowed the visit to be a good one. And we really saw some neat and interesting animals. I didn't get pictures of everything but I did give you a sample of some of the animals you could see there. For more information on the National Zoo, check out their website. If you have any questions or disagreements, feel free to leave me a comment!

We gave this zoo a 4.5 out of 5 elephants. I  mean its FREE!

signing out. ♥jen