The site, true to the name's list, provides lists of animals held in zoos, both current holdings and former. You can search by animal, to see what zoos have a certain species, or you can search by facility, in order to see what animals that zoo has. The information comes from what visitors report, so there are some issues, probably inevitable, with accuracy. I search for my zoo, for instance, and saw three species listed under current holdings that we no longer have, and two species listed under former holdings that we do, in fact, still have. So, if I were going to plan a trip with the express purpose of seeing a specific animal, I'd probably want to reach out first and confirm that they actually have it (and that it is, in fact, on display, before I committed myself.
A second neat feature is a "zoo radius search," in which you can put your town, set your distance, and get a list of all facilities within that range. (The Association of Zoos and Aquariums has something similar on their website, but it only lists AZA-accredited facilities). Now, the caveat here is that they are pretty generous with what they consider a zoo. I was surprised to see a dozen facilities with a 50 kilometer radius of my home - but the vast majority of them were tiny local nature centers with a box turtle and some frogs and fish, as well as an alpaca farm.
Still, kind of cool to know that they're all out there.
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