The Best Zoos To Visit This Summer

 

You know that stuffed tiger your daughter keeps dragging around with her? What about that rubber snake your son put in his sister's bed last week? Let's not forget the set of porcelain panda-bear salt shakers you got at for a wedding present. Your family clearly loves animals, so how would you like to see the real thing? Lucky for you, there are quite a few great zoos out there that would be more than happy to make that happen. Here are just a few of them.

Zoo Atlanta-Atlanta, GA. If you'd like to see a bigger version of those salt shakers, this is the place to go. I don't think they will let you pet the pandas (darn it!:)), but there is an online 'Panda-Cam' where you can watch Lun Lun and her friends go about their daily activities. After this, you can visit the 39 other species of mammals, 50 species of birds, 100 species of reptiles and 20 species of amphibians. Zoo Atlanta also runs a summer day camp for the kids and hosts all kinds of family-friendly events throughout the year. For more information, visit the website at www.zooatlanta.org.

Columbus Zoo and Aquarium-Columbus, OH. This 580-acre attraction is one of the largest and most popular zoos in the country. With 6,300 animals from 793 species, it's no wonder more than 2,000,000 people visit the zoo every year. Jack Hanna of Into The Wild is one of the directors, so you know it's got to be good! The park's conservation efforts have raised over $3.3 million dollars to date.

If that's not enough, the zoo also hosts an amusement park, a golf resort and a water park! For more information, check out www.columbuszoo.org.

San Diego Zoo-San Diego, CA. No article about zoos would be complete without mentioning the San Diego Zoo. At this time the zoo is helping make a beautiful new home for its Sumatran tigers, a species whose numbers have dwindled to only 3,200 left in the wild. This is only its most recent preservation project; San Diego Zoo Global runs 100 endangered-species conservation efforts in 35 different countries. In addition to these efforts, the park has been ahead of the curve when it comes to modern zoo keeping. It's 4,000 animals from 880 different species have the privilege of living in a 'cage-less' environment, which more and more zoos are adopting. There are several events for the whole family going at all times of the year. Oh, and, your salt shakers are here too. For more information, check out www.sandiegozoo.org.

It would take me all day to list the amazing zoos and animal habitats our country has to offer. If you'd like to locate a park near you and do more research online, check out zoo.findthebest.com.