PikaZOO Event Brings Record Numbers to Birmingham Zoo

There are new species at the Zoo. The Zoo staff didn’t expect them, and we don’t know much about them yet, but people are flocking over by the thousands to see them. You guessed it – there are Pokémon everywhere at the Zoo, and on Thursday, August 25, more than 3,000 guests visited the Birmingham Zoo for PikaZOO, a special nighttime Pokémon Go event. Attendees were noted to have filled up their Pokédex with a variety of Pokémon during the event, including rare and highly evolved Pokémon. Gyarados, Primeape and Dragonair were the catch of the day for several excited fans.

The entire Zoo was open to the public, and special Pokélures were set within the game to bring more creatures to the Zoo for guests to catch. Guests were able to hatch Pokémon eggs while riding the Zoo’s train. A variety of contests took place during the evening, including a Level Up Contest to see who advanced the most in the game during the event, a Best Screen Shot Contest to see who took the best photo of a Pokémon at the Zoo, and a hunt in the Zoo to find free video games placed by GameStop. In addition, GameStop also provided music by DJ Jibbles, charging stations for guests to charge their playing devices, giveaways, Wii U contests and more.

While the Birmingham Zoo’s focus is on real, live, wild animals, if these digital visitors are here to stay, we’re saying “game on” and will be hosting another PikaZOO event in September. Details will be made available at birminghamzoo.com.

For the press release, click here.