15 Zoos from My Virtual Vacation of Zoos
I want to go out and play but as the Coronavirus is also out and about, I am staying home. Therefore, I am doing a virtual vacation of animal watching on Zoo Cams. I am sure that zoo keepers are exempt from lock downs as they have so many to care for besides themselves.
But if you have a few extra dollars, donate to them! If they bring you joy or get something from the gift shop or many have wish list. Because they will be hurting with ticket sales, food sales, gift shop sales, and other programs closed.
As I am reviewing, the sites. I realize that they must have a lack of people available to operate some of the camera angles at some of the zoos. I am guessing that they have a few people home.
Keep an eye out for the time of day that you are watching. Some animals are less likely to be up during some hours but if you can find the feeding schedule then you will have a better time to see them active. Most animals sleep more the eight hours a day, i.e. cats sleep between 12 and 16 hours per day. Therefore, you have to get to them when they are up and about. Or they might be off cam, so check back another time.
Also, I have added zoo in different time zones. Therefore, some of the cams are dark during the evenings. Check the zoo web sites for more educational information on the animals. Some have amazing workbooks and other tools to keep the children happy during these times.
Some of the Zoos are also doing live web informational classes and talks about the animals. Great time to learn and have the children learn about animals, animal care, and think about something more then being home.
Due to all the Zoos being closed and the fact that they don’t have visitors, I noticed that a lot of the habitats are having a big cleaning projects, i.e. the Washington DC Zoo had drain the water and where cleaning it. You can tell from all the trash bags.
The San Diego Zoo Cameras are a great way to spend a bit of time. The website is also wonderful with blogs about the animals and links to learn about the different animals.
I have gotten lucky. I am watching the African Penguins. As I started it up, they where all looking at the door with their butts to me. But all became clear and a human enters the pen with treats and is sitting with them. Talk about wild animals not being afraid of humans. But as soon as they get their food they are off.
It seems like they all know the pecking order and wait for each other to get feed as the zookeeper has a clipboard and it taking notes between feeding them.
The Baboon Cam is cool but they all are hiding. I am guessing that they are waiting to be feed at the door…lol I went back 20 minute later, they are eating. The Baboon is being very picking about which pieces of hay he wants. It like watching someone pick a piece of chocolate out of a heart shaped box and then put it back and pick another piece.
The Panda Cam is prerecorded as the two pandas, Bai Yun and Xiao Liwu, have been returned to the People’s Republic of China. The People’s Republic of China owns all Panda Bears and only allows zoos out side the country to rent or lease them for a period of time under strict guidelines on treatment.
The Polar Bear Cam is very cool. They must have just gotten feed because all three are chowing down and of course, several big birds shows up to see if they can get a bite. The bears don’t seem to care and I am amazed at how close they get to the bears.
After a big meal…they are swimming and sunning themselves. One is laying like a sack of potatoes and eating a carrot. Totally cool. He looks like he is enjoying it. But more importantly, I am enjoy it.
The zoo has a Ape Cam as well with Orangutans. He is using a stick to get something out of a hole and eat it with. And then back up into the sky to play.
Koalas Cam. She is sleep but out pops the baby. I did not even see it at first. You have to look very hard for the baby arm. But she looks like she just wants a nap but the baby is like, “Come on Mommy! I want to play!” I think that mommy won. No one is moving any more.
The Elephant Cam. This one is very cool. It is presented by Planet Zoo and has a brief history of the eleven elephants (some are babies) which including their nick names and positions in the group, i.e. “The Fearful Leader”, the “Babysitter”, “The Diva”, “Little Gymnast”, etc.
I love that I can watch them and see if I can match them up with their names. I can only see three at the moment but I think with a little time and them in the background, over the next few days, I will be able to find out who is who.
The Tiger Cam. Ok, I am not liking this one at all. All I see is a tiger pacing back and forth and back and forth. I think that the timing is wrong. If I want to watch pacing. I would do it myself. Any other time, and I would enjoy it but at the moment. He is just reminding me that I can’t go out. lol.
The Burrowing Owl Cam. It is interesting to see how they can turn their head around. They are always on the look out. They have two cams with one being in the actually burrow as well as the one that is outside.
The Condor Cam has about eight birds in it. And they are just moving around from perch to perch but it looks like it is on a hill overlooking a valley. But then they look like they are going to have a bit of play fighting…Talk about being keep in locked with your family for a long time.
Brief History
The California Condor is a vulture like bird and is largest bird in the Western Hemisphere. The California Condor lived both in the US and Mexico. They live for about 50 to 60 years and mate for life. But they don’t start breeding until they are at least 5 or 6 years old.
One of their biggest fault is that they may go days without eating so they will gorge themselves to the point of being unable to lift off the ground which can make them easy prey for humans and other animals.
Condor bones have been found in graves of the Native Indian populations. It has been paint and carved in Native artwork and was a large part of many different Native cultures in the Western United States and Mexico. Different Native groups have this bird as both a god that creates and a god that destroys.
But in 1987, it was believed that only 27 California Condors where left alive. The United States Government and donations from private companies and people helped fund a program that rounded them up. I remember donating my ice cream money to them when I was young in was only a dollar but that was a lot of money to a 10 year old.
They where placed in the San Diego Wild Animal Park and the Los Angeles Zoo to be breed. In 1991, the condors where reintroduced into the wild. By 2018, their was just under 500 left in the world but that is a growing number each year.
2-Edinburgh Zoo
The Edinburgh Zoo in Scotland and is four hours different from the East Coast. Therefore, if it is noon in New York, then it is 4 pm there.
The Edinburgh Zoo has a live Panda cam. But no one was home when I went to watch. I am sure that Yang Guang was just hiding but I will check back later.
The Zoo also has a youtube Channel but I found them to be fun clips but to short to really keep me interested for a long period of time.
The Smithsonian National Zoo is located in Washington DC and is free to the public when it is not closed by the COVID-19. But they have great cams.
The Lion Cam. I liked this one. The lions are just laying around listening to the traffic in the background. In the bottom of the camera, a few ducks were swimming in the pond and cleaning themselves.
The Giant Panda Cam. They have Tian Tian and Mei Xiang. I never know a bear could sleep like that. Just perched up at the top of a slide with a bit of moment here and a bit of scratching there.
The Elephant Cam. At the moment, just one elephant taking a bit of a leisurely walk around the yard. They have seven different elephants here. But only the one is out and about while I am watching.
The Naked Mole-rat Cam have two cameras. One is in the area that they have food available to the Naked Mole-rats and the other one is looking at the tubes they run through. But if you wait long enough you will have a Naked Mole-rat in view.
They are the strangest looking animals. Hairless 3 to 4 inch squinty eyed buck tooth little creatures that are so ugly that they are almost cute. They live underground in tunneled out holes.
They remind me new born puppies or kittens or the hairless cat. So, unbelievably ugly and they walk funny.
Brief Interesting Facts
The Naked Mole-rat, or sand puppy, is a burrowing rodent from East Africa. But the three most interesting things about them is that they are kinda like bees or ants socially, they are resistant to cancer, and they had an extraordinary long life for a rodent of its size.
In their underground tunnels, one female becomes dominant or the Queen. She does this by the last dominant female died, some times with help, or by founding a new colony. Until a female becomes the dominant female, she can not get pregnant. Something changes in her body that makes her change physically to be able to produce babies.
As a Queen, she will live for 13 to 18 years and will defend her rights to be Queen by fighting with any other female that acting like a Queen or starts to produce hormones to become a Queen.
Only a few males will be come dominant and they will be the only ones that can mate with the female. In a colony, there will be only one to three dominant males at any time.
All other Naked Mole-rats are sterile and become workers. Workers will defend the tunnels, forage for food, extent tunnels, and help care for babies. The colonies can be as small as 20 but as large as 300.
The fact that Naked Mole-rats are both resistant to cancer and extraordinary long life, the record is 32 years, have made them big in the science community. Scientist are doing a lot of research to find out why and if we can translate that over humans. They were name the “Vertebrate of the Year” in 2013, by the journal Science.
Reid Park Zoo is located in Tucson, Arizona. After looking at all the cams, I think that I want to visit here one day. I like how things are set up. The cameras have a wide view of the animals so unless they are close, it is like looking for Waldo for the smaller animals and looking far away at some of the bigger ones. But I loved the Grizzly cams.
The Elephant Cams are only available from 9:30 am to 1:30 pm but I was on a long time after that and they where still up. They had a few elephants out in the yard and they looked like they were enjoying life. The baby is very cute as well.
The Giraffe Cams. I love watching the giraffes. They just walk around and bend their long necks to get a drink or stretch them to get a few leaves.
The Grizzly 1 & Grizzly 2 Cams. The first cam is the habitat and the second one is over his water playing area. Unfortunately, he is pacing. Cute bear but not the behavior that I really want to watch at the moment. But he also has a few visiting birds that were neat to look at as while.
The Lemur Cam. It was like finding Waldo. They were down at the bottom. But this was a great cam view when they moved up to the top. At first, I saw nothing then a black and white tail coming out of no where. Then they moved up and it was amazing to see their little faces.
The Lion Cam. No one was home. lol. But I will have to check back at a later date.
The Houston Zoo has it cam up from 7 am to 7 pm CST.
The Giraffe Cam is really great because it has Giraffes, Ostriches, and Zebras in the same area. It also has controls on the camera for viewers to change what is being viewed but those are only one at a time.
I was in line at 22 but that changes as people come and go. But it is great because someone is always able to make sure that you are seeing something great. Like the baby Giraffe eating. Only issue is that the person controlling it might not want to watch what you want to watch. lol
The Gorilla Cam didn’t have any Gorilla in it but then it might be that they where inside when I was watching it. But they have a great space.
The Elephant Cam was a treat as well. They have at least two baby elephant and about 4 more adults running around outside. I like their habitat. I looks well thought out.
The Leafcutter Ant Cam is very interesting. You can watch the ants taking piece away from leaf and some yellow fruit, bamboo, and other items. This would be a great place to start the day and keep looking back every hours to watch how fast they have cut up and taking pieces back to the nest.
The Rhino Yard Cam had rhinos that where camera shy the day that I was looking for them. They where hiding just down the way from the camera and walked pass. But their was a lot of birds in the yard, so it was not a total waste.
The Chimp Window Cam has sound. A lot of the cameras don’t. Unfortunately, no chimps were in the camera view for 10 mins so I left. But that doesn’t mean that they will not be for you.
6-Atlanta Zoo
The Atlanta Zoo only has the Panda Cam but they have two pandas that where playing with each other so it was great fun to watch. It was to bears chasing each other around the pen and jumping on top of each other. And you know they were playing because they would take turns.
The Paignton Zoo is in Devon, England. It has all the cams on the same page. But know that England is four hours behind New York time. Therefore, it is best to do this zoo before 3 pm EST.
The Flamingo Cam which is a pond area with Flamingos and ducks. The camera moves every 30 seconds to three different camera views which is great in one way but not in others. So, it is not my favorite.
The Sulawesi Crested Macaque Cam are an army of apes that run around the yard and up the play equipment. They have a baby in this and he is cute!
The Meerkat Cam. Sitting on rocks and running round the yard. They are a sight to see.
8-Woodland Park Zoo
The Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle, Washington has Live Web Cams but they were Temporarily Offline the day that I was on the site but they have a Tiger Cam, Grizzly Bear Cam, and Bat Cam.
But if you go down to the bottom of the page, they have some very nice videos on Instagram to watch. My favorite is the Porcupine watching the Penguins. So cute. I think that they have his cage next to them with a window. It looks like both animals watch each other.
9-Beardsley Zoo
Beardsley Zoo in Connecticut has a great donation button with amazon. You get to pick what they will be sent just in case you want to do so.
The Natt Family Red Panda Habitat has two cameras one is for the outside and one is for the inside which are on from 8:30 am to 6 pm EST. The little Red Panda is so cute. He is inside looking out. It is a cold day out so I understand not wanting to go out in the weather.
They have a little white faces like a fox with red fur on the top and black on the bottom of their bodies and feet with a red and white striped tail. Reminds me of a cat as they prance around and cleaning themselves.
Also, they are having a special live talk about them on the 3/25 and will be adding more. Check them out.
10-Pittsburgh Zoo
The Pittsburgh Zoo and PPG Aquarium have two cams.
The Penguin Webcam which you can be in charge of if you wait your turn for two minutes. You can turn the cam to the water or throughout the area and can zoom out or in to check out the penguins.
It looks like a winter wonderland with little tuxedo wearing animals all over the place. I am going to have to come back to this one. I like being able to play with the camera but I want to watch them when they swim.
The Cheetah Cam. I have been to this zoo and I love the Cheetahs here. They generally have always been out and about. They love the camera in person but today, all I got was little birds with red chest. Totally cool in their own right!
11-Kansas City Zoo
The Kansas City Zoo has a great underwater cam for the Penguins plus one on the surface. They just sweep by the cam at race car speeds.
The have a Polar Bear Cam but it was unavailable the day I was looking.
And lastly, a Masai Giraffe Cam which is a baby and mommy, I think but the camera angle is not the greatest.
12-Chattanooga Zoo
The Chattanooga Zoo is in Tennessee and has four webcams.
The Meerkat Cams which thanks to Flower and her family on the Animal Channel, I just love watching. They are cute as all hell and they are just playing and having fun. The camera is a bit back so you don’t get to look at their cute little faces but watching them from afar is interesting as well.
The Snow Leopard Cam no one was home when I was watching but I will have to come again.
The Tamarin Cam has some crazy money types with white faces and manes and black bodies. Flying though the air. Just enjoying life.
The Spotted Genet Cam. No one was home to see but a tail was hanging out. He is hiding in a log. lol
13-Zoos Victoria-Melbourne Zoo and Werribee Open Range Zoo
The Zoos Victoria has several very great cams. This is great for the evening when the Zoos in the United States are closed. If it is 6 pm on Sunday evening in New York then it is Monday morning at 9 am, i.e. 15 hours difference.
They also have all their cams on the same page so you can press play and find out which one has somebody that is playing. The only draw back is that the camera views are made to take your whole computer screen.
They have two for the Snow Leopards which is inside the cubs sleeping box and outside. The cubs are very little but about the size of adult cat. They are so adorable!
The Penguin Cam. The Giraffe Cam. The Lions Cam. The Zebra Cams.
I like the lions cam the best. They have four lions. But these are great for evening viewing.
14-Your Local Zoo
Check your local zoo to see if they have a camera or a zoo that is close you. This way you can watch the cameras alone or with the family and plan to go see your favorite animals when the zoo open again. You can get to know the animal habits and then see them in person.
15-Africa’s Wild Life Cams
Check out the explore website. It has cameras around the world and out of this world with live feeds and highlight videos. I am just going to highlight a few of my favorite cams below but their are so many more.
The Hummingbird nest, Bald Eagles Nest, Owl Nest, and another Bald Eagles Nest on top of a big rock overlooking the ocean. These all have eggs which for the Eagle generally hatch in late March, i.e. in a few days. The nest will be wonderful to watch with the mom looking for food and the babies begging for it.
A few beaches to here the sounds and mediate and relax. Honolulu (I can believe that many people are still out!) and Waimea Bay.
They have cams for dogs and cats which both have puppies and kittens. But then they also have lots of big kitties: bobcats, lions, etc.
Farms animals: Sheep Barn, Turkey Barns, Horses, and more.
NASA Cams. Honey Bees. Puffins. Bats. Alligators.
Wolong Grove Panda Yard. if you have children in the house, this is great to watch because you are not alone in want to get way from them and can’t! Watch as mommy bear both keeps her club with her and gets to a high place that they can’t get to in order to have a bit of piece.
She had two. One that refuses to leave her side and another one that is to busy playing some where else to have time for her.
It has live cameras in Africa at different watering holes and other places. My favorite Tembe Elephant Park. But don’t leave the young children to watch it alone. I am watching it at the moment as I am typing this, I see an elephant getting a drink of water but I also see a large cat stocking something in the background.
I am not sure if it was a lion, jaguar, or other large cat. But it is staking something. I am guessing that the camera does not look away from violent confrontations of life and death. But the night cams have three lion playing together.