Best 100 Animals We Have Seen In Zoos (20-11)

Recap Time...

100-91
90-81
80-71
70-61
60-51
50-41
40-31
30-21

And now the top 20...

20. Goliath Grouper

This Goliath Grouper can be found at the Florida Aquarium in Tampa. Do not act like this is not the coolest fish you have ever seen. They are huge and they look almost like moving rocks with fins and eyes. They are remarkable and unlike any other fish I have ever seen. So incredibly neat to look at.

19. Kangaroo

These Kangaroo were really hanging out at Busch Gardens Tampa. They are cooler to look at when they are jumping, but these kangaroos lounging around were still impressive. They are an animal that can be seen many different places. Disney's Animal Kingdom also has a great kangaroo exhibit with pretty active kangaroos. People love this animal. If we polled people on their favorite animals, kangaroos would probably make Top 10.

18. Shoebill Stork

I know we have a good picture of a shoebill stork somewhere, but I could not find it. However, I did get this picture from Wildlife Extra for you so you could see its brilliance. These guys have crazy eyes. Everytime we go to Tampa's Lowry Park Zoo, we have to see these guys. In fact, out of the zoos we have been to, these can only be found at that one zoo in Tampa. The zoo also happens to be rated as the #1 zoo for kids and is one we highly recommended here. P.S. we have been back since and it definitely deserves that extra .5 star to become a full 5 star zoo.

17. Killer Whale

Ok, you know the drill, you see Shamu at Sea World. The show is cool, but not as cool as it used to be. Since the trainer was killed by a killer whale at Sea World, they don't have the whale do as much anymore or interact with audience members. However, these not so gentle giants are still so impressive to look at. They will always be one of the coolest sea creatures around. These guys are the biggest draw at Sea World and for good reason. They are rather impressive.

16. Masai Giraffe

Here is a Masai Giraffe as pictured on the Pittsburgh Zoo website. Based on my experience and my lack of personal pictures, these giraffes are slightly less common in captivity. That may be incorrect though. You can tell it is Masai because of the more irregular pattern of spots on  its body. We have seen Masai at Disney's Animal Kingdom and at Tampa's Lowry Park Zoo.

15. Reticulated Giraffe

This is the reticulated giraffe as you can see the more regular polygon pattern in its spots. This one is from the giraffe feeding station at Tampa's Lowry Park Zoo. These are slightly cooler looking in my opinion because of their pattern. The pattern is neat to me. However, I like the types of giraffes about the same. They are ranked in different spots simply to distinguish between the two types. Really, giraffes are just awesome in general.

14. African Elephant

This African Elephant can be seen at Tampa's Lowry Park Zoo. That is my favorite place to view elephants because they have two young babies currently. However, I cannot locate the pictures of these babies. There are several other places to view African Elephants well including the safari at Disney's Animal Kingdom, I just prefer to see the babies. These elephants are neater than the Asian Elephant for some reasons I pointed out during our last installment. However, if you want a full list of differences between African and Asian Elephants, go here. These are an awesome creature. It is a Top 10 animal for many people including my wife. The African Elephant is actually my wife's favorite animal of all. However, some of the animals we have seen knocked it out of the Top 10. Still, they are really awesome to look at.

13. Orangutan

These orangutans are the coolest monkeys on the block. This picture was taken at Tampa's Lowry Park Zoo. That zoo has my favorite orangutan exhibit of all. It is an exhibit I have seen more than 10 times. It is one of my favorite exhibits of any animal and usually either our first or last stop when visiting the zoo. Sometimes it is both our first and our last stop. King Louie from the Jungle Book was based off of these animals and he is one of my 5 favorite characters. So it is no surprise that I love these fantastic animals.

12. Thomson's Gazelle

These photographs of Thomson's Gazelles were taken from the National Geographic website. While these are not my photographs, the illustrate the awesomeness of the Thomson's Gazelles/ I have not seen these brilliant animals in quite some time, because they took them off exhibit at Kilimanjaro Safaris at Disney's Animal Kingdom. If you have ever seen these animals glide through the air, you would see why they are so high on this countdown. I hope we get to see them again soon!

11. Cheetah

This cheetah was stalking the zebra in the exhibit next to him at the National Zoo. They are separated by a fence, but it is neat to watch them interact with one another. It is a very unique cheetah exhibit. While it is unique, it is also probably my favorite exhibit not just of cheetah's, but of the whole National Zoo. Growing up around DC, this exhibit is one of the reasons that the cheetah has always been one of my favorite animals. It was my very favorite until high school when I switched to the rhino. I still love cheetahs though, in large part because of this exact exhibit. The best time to view this exhibit was when they had the cheetah cubs. Unfortunately though, the cubs are no longer there.

-Noland