Photo TR: Texas Zoos and Aquariums

[britishdebutante]

I originally started this thread as a TR of Fossil Rim Wildlife Center, a place I interned twice over the past 2 years. I have a ton of photos from a bunch of other animal-related places in Texas that I would like to share. They aren't exactly recent, but interesting to some I hope...

 

___________________

 

Although I live in Cleveland, OH, this summer I am interning in the animal care department at Fossil Rim Wildlife Center in Glen Rose, Texas. Glen Rose is located about a 70 minute drive from SFOT. In fact, I purchased my SF pass on my drive down here at SFKK to save some money.

 

Fossil Rim consists of about 1500 acres of a rolling landscape just on the outskirts of Glen Rose, a town with a population of about 2,000. An AZA-accredited institution, Fossil Rim is involved with many conservation and breeding efforts of endangered wildlife, including their most intense effort to save the Attwater's Prairie Chicken of Texas. Visitors are allowed to tour the park in their own vehicles by way of a 9-mile long scenic drive that drives through the park's pastures. The scenic drive allows them to encounter and feed giraffe, zebras, sable antelope, white rhinos, and many more species.

 

I am posting these pictures to let people know that this place exists and it is awesome! Fossil Rim is a completely non-profit organization that differs from a standard zoo. I encourage anyone who likes animals to stop by when they are in the area visiting the Texas amusement parks or plan a trip around a visit here. I doubt you would be disappointed!

 

On my way home from here, in August, I plan to post trip reports of SFFT, SFOT, SFStL, and possibly SFGA or HW. Thanks for reading! I hope I inspire people to visit here!

A cute picture of black rhinos.

Jack, a mollucan cockatoo at the Children's Animal Center.

Halfway through the drive, cars park at the Overlook where there is a restaurant, gift shop, and the Children's Animal Center. This petting farm has goats, an emu, birds, and tortoises.

A baby Arabian oryx that needs to be hand-raised because she had a lousy mother.

...baby addax. Adorable, right?

Sorry, guests aren't allowed to go out at night.

...and maned wolves.

...

Fossil Rim is also home to carnivores like the cheetah.

A Przewalski's horse. It's hard to pronounce I know. That's why most people call him the P. Horse. The last existing wild horse species. Yeah, I know. It's big.

An addax, an African desert antelope.

A bongo. Bongos are rare to see during the day, as they are forest antelope and spend most of their time in the bush during the day.

A male blackbuck. Fossil Rim is home to over 100 blackbucks!

An up-close encounter with a giraffe.

There are many type of deer at Fossil Rim: fallow deer, axis deer, sika deer, European red deer, and white-tailed deer.

An aoudad, a mountain sheep. These animals like to hang out on the rocky hillsides at Fossil Rim.

Wildebeest running in the free-roam environment.

A Grevy's Zebra.

Me, in the white rhino barn.

This is an overview of one of Fossil Rim's pastures. This photo lets one visualize how large Fossil Rim is and how much their animals have to roam.

This is the gate to the admin road of Fossil Rim.

Edited April 25, 2010 by britishdebutante

[dino]

*pens in Fossil Rim Wildlife Center on "things I have to see" list*

 

Cool pics, seems like a really cool place to be interning. I love places like this, unique experiences that alot of people might not know about. Plus animals rock.

 

Yeah, I know. It's big

lol

[britishdebutante]

I was able to visit the Fort Worth Zoo on multiple occasions during my times in Texas. I wasn't able to get a behind-the-scenes tour as I was at other zoos, but my visits were enjoyable nonetheless.

 

The zoo is situated in a nice part of town near Texas Christian University off of the I-30 University Drive exit. This zoo is probably the most impressive of those I was able to visit. Although Fort Worth is the smaller city, this zoo is much nicer than the Dallas Zoo. The exhibits at Fort Worth are much more modern and beautiful. Like most zoos, it is divided into different areas that dictate which animals will be exhibited there, whether by geographical range or species type. The Texas Wild! section of the park is probably the most impressive. It features not only animals native to Texas, but themed areas including an authentic replica of a historical Texas town. One of their newest additions is the MOLA: Museum of Living Art, which is their new, updated herpitarium (their old reptile building is pretty small and out of date.) It was under construction during my visits, but the concept art looked pretty cool.

 

Check it out if you are ever in the area. It's definitely an impressive zoo although admission is kind of on the pricey side. Keep in mind that you are usually eligible for discounted or free admission if you are a member at any of the other AZA-accredited zoos in the country.

An orangutan at the World of Primates exhibit. It's one of the first exhibits/buildings near the front gate. I don't have any other pictures of the other primates, but they also have chimpanzees, gorillas, mandrills, white-cheeked gibbons, and colobus monkeys.

The World of Primates exits near the meerkat exhibit where I was able to spot this little fellow...

... and his friend.

Nearby is the African plains exhibit, featuring Grevy's zebra, gerenuk, and these lesser kudu.

This Asian elephant is pretty cool looking. She looks like an old man!

One of the coolest things at the zoo was the Indian rhinoceros, which not a lot of places have. They only have one horn and their skin looks a lot more like armor than the more common black rhinos and white rhinos.

Caught 'em taking a mud bath.

Asian Falls area has a pretty awesome tiger exhibit. They feature Malayan tigers and white Bengal tigers. The two enclosures are separated by a huge waterfall.

Another awesome exhibit. The rocky hillside is the perfect habitat for the ibex, a rather mythical looking goat.

A better look at its impressive horns!

Parrot Paradise was a pretty dull exhibit but the general public ate it up. Literally hundreds of parakeets and cockatiels flying around and eating seeds off of sticks that guests can buy. I prefer exhibits like these that have lorikeets, much prettier and more exotic-feeling birds.

Raptor Canyon has a pathway that walks below and in between flight cages containing birds of prey like this harpy eagle, a South American raptor.

They have a fairly large collection of kangaroos and wallabies just outside the Great Barrier Reed aquarium building.

This is a gharial, an odd looking crocodilian.

The Children's farm area of Texas Wild! had this huge boar that was still there a year later!

Cougar in the Texas Wild! This is one fat cougar.

They also have jaguars which, believe it or not, are originally native to Texas. Unfortunately the last U.S. jaguar was captured and euthanized last year because he was suffering from kidney failure.

A saddle-billed stork in a filler exhibit on the way to Texas Wild!

I spotted this goof-up in the reptile building. I wonder who approved this sign... Hope you can spot it!

A Malayan sun bear in the Asian Falls exhibit. Pretty neat looking animal.

A hyacinth macaw, the largest species of macaw. Endangered due to the exotic pet trade.

[jynx242]

Thanks for posting these! I remember the Fort Worth zoo from about a decade ago. Looks like they have done some great work!

[britishdebutante]

The Dallas World Aquarium is a fantastic little facility located in downtown Dallas. Though the buildings it occupies are converted warehouses, the actual organization is fairly new and modern. They pack a lot into a small space, but are still able to provide sufficient space for all their animals. As the name suggests, there is an aquatic element present but it is only one part of a larger exhibit system. The DWA has two main exhibit areas, the Mundo Maya exhibit and the Orinoco: Secrets of the River exhibit. Both exhibits feature multiple levels showcasing species from the tree canopies, the forest floors, and of course the the banks and depths of the rivers. You are able to start at one level and work your way either up or down. They must have a fantastic horticulture department because the plant life on display here is just astounding. There is detail everywhere you look. One of my favorite areas was the courtyard of one of the buildings where they exhibited multiple reptile species and penguins as part of a South Africa and Madagascar section.

 

I was lucky enough to get a behind the scenes look at the rooftop pens and other off-exhibit breeding animals. You can spend a few hours enjoying the scenery and admiring the place, so I would definitely recommend stopping here. The price is kind of steep, but it is totally worth it. Check of the website for more info. Dallas World Aquarium

A saki monkey in an off-exhibit rooftop pen.

A howler monkey in an off-exhibit pen. These guys were extremely loud!

A harpy eagle hanging out in a part of the atrium that is out of the public's view.

I'm pretty sure this is a Martial eagle, Africa's largest eagle.

A pair of spectacled owls perching in the distance in the off-exhibit area.

The awesome rooftop pens and gardens. It's really beautiful and cool how this is just in the middle of downtown.

A toucan perched in the tree canopy.

Looking down to the river from the top level of the Orinoco atrium. You can actually see a manatee swimming by.

A closer look at the manatee from above.

A look at the beautiful scenery. There are also just tons of birds flying around as well.

This sloth was so close to us!

Some pretty awesome crocodiles. The ground level of this exhibit also featured giant river otters, which I was not able to capture on film.

An ibis just hanging out like 5 feet from me, no big deal.

Water features all over the place.

They have a bunch of turtles in the big tank with the manatee in it.

Manatee swimming (upside down?)

Panther chameleon in a display case outside in the Madagascar area.

I love penguins. They have a lot of them in the courtyard, which is nice because they are able to see real daylight.

A Chilean flamingo, so brightly colored.