Growing up in the eastern seaboard, I had zero familiarity with the diminutive rattlesnake known as the massasagua when I was growing up. Then, I began to spend some time in the Great Lakes region, and it seemed like the little snake had skyrocketed to being one of the most common snakes I saw in zoos. Every zoo reptile house, no matter how small, seemed to have massasagua, and they all had signage telling you about their rarity and uniqueness. Stray a bit further west, and they were nowhere to be seen.
The shoe was on the other foot when I was hosting a colleague from the west coast to my facility in the northeast, and they were so excited to see hellbenders. Hellbenders may have been something of a novelty in zoos when I was younger, but now they are a staple of every major zoo and aquarium. They've become so common that, if I'm in a hurry when going through a new zoo's reptile house, I might not even bother to take more than a second looking for them in their exhibit before moving on.
I think one of the most enjoyable things about visiting zoos outside of your own area, such as when you're on vacation, is seeing species that you might not see otherwise. It's not just that most zoos have native species areas, and in a country as large and biologically diverse as ours, two ends of the country can have wildly different species. It's that you also can learn about efforts to conserve those rare native species, the ones that have declined so much that you won't see them if you're out taking a nature hike or going birdwatching, for example.
Shining a light on such species - and zoos' efforts to conserve them - can help educate local visitors (which are generally the majority of visitors) about the impact that they can make on endangered species on the local level. It also has the added advantage of showing visitors from outside the immediate area another example of what makes the zoo's home region unique and special.
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