Atlanta Botanical Gardens Atlanta Botanical Gardens trip report (July 26 2023)

[SwampDonkey]

On my trip to Atlanta recently I stopped here for the better part of the day. These are a fairly large botanical gardens, relatively standard as far as the gardens go. However, the tropical house holds interest to zoo fans as they have a pretty decent collection of frogs. Most are in a few tanks at the entry and exit to the Dortothy Chapman Fuqua Conservatory (largely the tropical house).

This is a large building housing the tropical plants in a a impressive rainforest environment, I imagine it must be fantastic in the winter when it is cold out....but being as the outside weather was topping 95F and humid there was not a huge difference. The frogs not only occupy the tanks, but there are coqui and phantasmal poison frogs in the rainforest, but I did not see any. There is also a fair sized pond for an alligator snapping turtle.

Unfortunately it seems they have less frogs displayed than in the past, based on the pictures from 2019.

Species listed:
"Free" roaming in the rainforest:
Coqui
Phantasmal Poison Frog
Alligator snapping turtle

In Tanks:
Harlequin Poison Frog
Crowned tree frog
Fringed leaf frog
Evergreen toad
Golden mantellas
Plated leaf chameleon
Evergreen toad
Crowned Tree frog

Broadly I would say the ABG is worth stopping in if you are very interested in plants and/or frogs. The gardens themselves were OK, the Conservatory is by far the best part of the grounds. Due to circumstances I was able to enter for free, but normally the weekday cost is $26 with weekends being $29.

If I am honest I think that is a bit high for what they have, both in regards to the gardens and frogs. However, similar to the AZA Reciprocal Program, if you are a member at another botanical garden that is part of the American Horticultural Society reciprocal program you can get in for free. My local botanical gardens has a two person membership for $60, so it would be worth it to become a member just for the entrance to here as well and then at home going forward.

 

[Aardwolf]

I feel like I saw radiated tortoises when I was there in February in one of the greenhouses, one with lots of Malagasy plants. Is that no longer the case?

 

[SwampDonkey]

I feel like I saw radiated tortoises when I was there in February in one of the greenhouses, one with lots of Malagasy plants. Is that no longer the case?

Huh, I did not see a Malagasy plants area (unless I was daft and just did not "get" it, which is highly possible), so it is possible. To be honest we skipped the High Elevation House at the read or the Conservatory, so there may be more that I missed in there. After we did the orchid houses we were kind of ready to get back outside.

 

[snowleopard]

Thanks for the review. I suppose that this place could technically be counted as a 'zoo'.

I remember that there used to be some real frog rarities in the past, and @Antimony96 mentioned this on another recent thread: Ecnomiohyla rabborum -the last known specimen worldwide, wild or captive, died at the Atlanta Botanical Garden in 2016.

 

[SwampDonkey]

Thanks for the review. I suppose that this place could technically be counted as a 'zoo'.

Yea.....IMO it is a bit of a stretch to classify it with zoos as the collection is not really large, and many botanical gardens have some sort of small reptile and amphibian collection. For example, Sunken Gardens in St. Petersburg FL is a botanical garden, but they also have a few herps and birds, but I would not call it a zoo. I think when the rarities were on display it would have a better standing to be on a zoo list, but maybe not right now.

That said, I knew the photos were a bit old and there was a tag for it.