Texas Zoo Trip

nczoofan

nczoofan

Well-Known Member
5+ year member
I am going on a last-minute trip to the Austin & San Antonio area (not zoo focused). I will have time to visit the San Antonio Zoo, yet may have time to visit an additional major collection. My three options are Dallas Zoo, Fort Worth Zoo, or Houston Zoo.

I understand the weather will not be optimal this time of year. :rolleyes: Yet I still want to visit another collection. I am mostly interested in birds and ungulates, so which collection do y'all think would be best?
 
nczoofan said:
I am going on a last-minute trip to the Austin & San Antonio area (not zoo focused). I will have time to visit the San Antonio Zoo, yet may have time to visit an additional major collection. My three options are Dallas Zoo, Fort Worth Zoo, or Houston Zoo.

I understand the weather will not be optimal this time of year. :rolleyes: Yet I still want to visit another collection. I am mostly interested in birds and ungulates, so which collection do y'all think would be best?
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Dallas World Aquarium is really good for birds
 
Dallas (Dallas Zoo | Welcome to the Largest Zoological Experience in Texas!
)

Fort Worth (Animals and Exhibits)
Birds: Andean condor, Australian brush turkey, blue-bellied roller, blue-throated and red-fronted macaws, cotton pygmy goose, eclectus parrot, great argus pheasant, greater roadrunner, harpy eagle, hooded merganser, lesser bird of paradise, plush-crested jay, saddle-billed stork, Sunda wrinkled hornbill, violet touraco, wattled crane
Ungulates: Lesser kudu, Nubian ibex
Others: Mexican long-nosed bat, swift fox, red wolf, African pancake tortoise, Annam leaf, Southeastern narrow-nosed soft-shelled and Fly river turtles, giant leaf-tailed gecko, Grand Cayman blue iguana, San Estabal Island chuckwalla, Texan horned lizard, Louisiana pine snake, McGregor's pit viper, Mexican lance-headed rattlesnake, bushmaster, gharial, Panamanian golden frog, Puerto Rican crested toad, Bala shark, bannerfish, clown knifefish, convict tang. epaulette shark, giant Panasias catfish, needlefish, Pecos pupfish, spotted wobbegong, long-spined sea urchin, flat rock scorpion, velvet ant

Houston (Our Animals, The Houston Zoo):
Birds: Wattled curassow, whooping crane, blue-winged kookaburra, Micronesian kingfisher, blue-throated macaw, St Vincent amazon parrot, Mariana fruit dove
Ungulates: Eastern bongo
Others: Coquerel's sifaka, fossa, swift fox, Baird's tapir, Malaysian painted river terrapin, sea turtle, San Estaban Island chuckwalla, Amazon milk frog, Panamanian golden frog, Houston toad, cownose ray, batfish, long-horned cowfish, lined sea horse, giant Pacific octopus

Other collections are listed at: texas zoos - Bing

It looks that you'll have a better chance of seeing unusual birds rather than unusual ungulates/
 
Having been to all the zoos you mention at least twice while working on my book Zoos of the Southwest, I hope that I can give a helpful answer. I will focus on the three potential big-name zoos you mention.

Houston Zoo has an outstanding bird collection, but then again so does San Antonio. Houston had shoebill stork, not sure if they still do. Both of those are likely in the top five, and maybe even top three, bird collections for generalized zoos in the USA. Houston also has expanded their Africa section since my last visit with a new gorilla habitat that is reportedly one of the best.

Fort Worth Zoo is a good all around zoo with a little bit of everything. They have a nicely themed native Texas section, though some of the exhibits there are a bit small (the puma exhibit borders on the inhumane). They have also expanded their giraffe/savanna area since my last visit, though I doubt it matches Dallas. They are most well known for MOLA, which may be the best reptile complex in America.

In my book I state that Dallas Zoo is the best zoo in the Southwest. The African elephant habitat Giants of the Savanna is worth the price of admission in and of itself. For bird lovers, they even did (unscheduled) free flights of crowned crane and hornbill over the savanna. Unfortunately the monorail has just closed for good, so you just missed out on one of the defining experiences (covering a section where a lot of the ungulates were found).

Of course there are other gems along the way (Fossil Rim, Cameron Park Zoo, Caldwell Zoo) and I fear other people will reply with a long list of other zoos you should see. But I will honor your suggestion that you have to pick one. I think ease of travel might be a good deciding factor. Houston is easier to get to from San Antonio, but Dallas is easier to get to from Austin. You really can't go wrong with either Dallas Zoo or Houston Zoo (skip Fort Worth unless you can add an extra zoo day). If you are based in Austin and flying in or out of there then do Dallas. If you are based in San Antonio and flying in and out of there then do Houston.
 
@Dassie rat Thank you for the lists. Gives me a better way to weigh things.

@Arizona Docent Thank you for laying that all out. I might be moving to the area soon, so I expect to go to all 3 at some point in the next year (as well as some of the smaller collections you mentioned). :D I am gonna be based out of Austin for this trip, so it sounds like I should leave the Houston Zoo for future travels. From your advice, Dallas seems like the logical choice. That's probably what I will go with.
 
They were there as of my visit in November 2019, so I would assume they’re still on-show. The exhibit seemed to be built specifically for them so I doubt they’re rotated in and out.
 
TZDugong said:
They were there as of my visit in November 2019, so I would assume they’re still on-show. The exhibit seemed to be built specifically for them so I doubt they’re rotated in and out.
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I think that seals the deal then. :D

Not a giant reptile fan, but I have my exceptions. :D
 
nczoofan said:
I think that seals the deal then. :D

Not a giant reptile fan, but I have my exceptions. :D
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It’s certainly a great exception! I’m also not a huge reptile person, but Tuataras are just amazing. The rest of the Reptile house is great as well; it’s deceptively huge with a great collection in mostly decent exhibits. The snake collection in particular is really, really good.

Dallas Zoo in general is really nice, the older zoo isn’t very substantial excluding the reptile house, although there’s still a great Tiger exhibit, Harpy Eagles and a few other things. The Africa zone is all-around excellent, although it’s a shame that the monorail is now closed as that was a highlight. Overall though, imo Dallas is pretty easily the best zoo in the Dallas-Fort Worth area; Fort Worth has some really great exhibits (MOLA!), but quite a few very poor exhibits.

An interesting idea would be to combine Dallas Zoo and Dallas World Aquarium into a single day. I think if you went open to close you could probably just about do it, as they aren’t very far from each other (about 30 minutes on public transit iirc, so driving could be even quicker); DWA is certainly worth a visit due to the mouth-watering species list, even if quite a few exhibits leave a lot to be desired. That wouldn’t leave a lot of time for lingering though, so a more relaxed and lengthier visit to Dallas would probably make more sense.
 
@TZDugong I am honestly very slow at zoos. I like to hang at certain animals for long periods of time and return to certain exhibits a second time. Hence I generally stick to 1 institution a day. Dallas World Aquarium sounds great, especially its bird collection. If I relocate to Texas in the coming months, as I expect I will definitely give it a visit.

@Dassie rat That is a great species. Again I hope to visit Houston before the end of the year, but sadly right now it seems like much of the bird collection is off display due to covid restrictions (which makes sense given how bad Houston got) and construction.
 
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