A trip to the zoo can be a good time, but it may not be feasible to visit a zoo every day. These cams are an example of how you can bring the zoo into your home.
Zoos may come in a variety of different names: animal parks, zoological gardens, and menagerie tend to be the most common. They all provide facilities where animals are kept confined and offered for public display. Many zoos will also breed animals, especially endangered species, due to the safety of their enclosures.
There are more than 1,000 major zoos in the world today, with hundreds of millions of visitors walking through their gates every year.
Interesting Facts About Zoos
#1. Some zoos have started banning clothing that resembles animal prints. Zoo trainers have noticed that animals tend to move toward people who wear a similar print to their fur, while they run away from people who wear clothing printed with the pattern of a predator.
#2. Many animals live longer in captivity than in the wild, but that isn’t true for elephants. The average lifespan of an elephant in captivity is less than 20 years, yet in the wild, the average lifespan of an elephant is approaching 60 years. Elephants that are born in captivity won’t even live as long as elephants that are captured and brought into captivity.
#3. It’s not just animals that have been kept in zoos. In 1906, the Bronx Zoo kept a man named Ota Benga in an exhibit with a parrot, chimpanzees, and an orangutan. The last known human exhibit was offered to the public in 1958 in Brussels when a Congolese village was reconstructed for public viewing.
#4. There are different types of zoos that are offered today. Petting zoos are a way for domesticated animals to be fed and cared for by visitors. Safari parks and other theme parks combined different entertainment options with habitat-specific exhibits that are generally larger and may have fewer fences or borders to confine the animals. Roadside zoos are also found in rural areas, offering visitors a chance to get closer to animals than a traditional zoo would allow.
#5. Zoos today are transforming their exhibits to better mimic the natural habitats of each animal. This has had an improvement on the health of the animals that are at each zoo and most visitors prefer to observe the animals in more of a natural state.
#6. Some form of zoo has always been part of human history, but the first modern zoo was founded in 1794 in Paris, France. The first modern zoo in the UK was founded in 1828 and in 1860, the Central Park Zoo was founded in New York City.
#7. One of the most popular animals to visit at a zoo is the panda. China rents out pandas to zoos at a cost of $1 million per year. A zoo must usually sign a 10-year contract to receive just one panda. If a cub is born at a zoo, then China receives a $400,000 payment.
Live Zoo Cams
Thanks to modern webcam technology, you do not need to visit a zoo to get the opportunity to view many of the exhibits that are offered. Here are some of the best zoo cams that are streaming right now.
View San Diego Zoo Panda Cam.
View Woodland Park Zoo Bat Cam.
View Reid Park Zoo Lion Cam.
View Kansas City Zoo Penguin Cam.
WebCams < Global Access < BioTrek
This site has six different animal/nature streaming video webcams as part of the Prete Global Access Project at BioTrek in Cal Poly Pomona, California. Webcams include turtle, Caiman (kind of like an alligator), grotto, garden, flooded forest and a mangrove webcam where you can watch fish swimming around. You can watch each Aquatic Center webcam individually or view all of them together.
View Live Webcam: WebCams < Global Access < BioTrek
Tierpark Dähöhlzli Bern, Aktuelles, WebCam
This webcam is located at the Dählhölzli Zoo in Germany and is sponsored by the Zoological Society of Berne.
View Live Webcam: Tierpark Dähöhlzli Bern, Aktuelles, WebCam
Animal Web Cams at the National Zoo – National Zoo| FONZ
The Smithsonian National Zoological Park in Washington, DC is home to some of the best zoo webcams on the Internet. Here you can see Amazon river fishes, otter, cheetah, leopards, flamingo, gorilla, lions, panda bears, tigers and more. Webcams are also high quality streaming video.
View Live Webcam: Animal Web Cams at the National Zoo – National Zoo| FONZ
Zurich Switzerland Zoo Webcams
These zoo webcams are located at the Zoo or Zooh! in Zurich, Switzerland. There are currently two cameras – one featuring African lions and another featuring Orangutans.
View Live Webcam: Zurich Switzerland Zoo Webcams
Heidi the Cross Eyed Possum Webcam
A cross eyed opossum has won the hearts of people in Germany and now has captivated the world. This link will take you to the zoo where Heidi the cross eyed opossum lives at Zoo Leipzig. The cam is not active yet, but you can see the Kiwara Savannah exhibit. I suspect they will surely put up a webcam for everyone to watch Heidi though.
View Live Webcam: Heidi the Cross Eyed Possum Webcam