@Arizona Docent (and whoever else has an opinion): how is the San Antonio Africa exhibit? Does it compare favorably with other new Africa areas like Dallas? Are hippos, okapis, and crocodiles the main animals in their new Africa exhibits?
Nothing compares to Dallas Giants Of The Savanna - that is in a league of its own. However, hippos are the one star animal missing at Dallas GOTS and the San Antonio hippo exhibit is just about as good as any hippo exhibit. As someone else pointed out on another thread, though, the land area for the hippos is very small and is all cement, a disappointing trend found throughout zoos in the U.S.
The major animals at San Antonio's new Africa Live are hippos and nile crocs in the inside viewing area, birds and monkeys in the large aviary, then outside that wild dog and okapi. There are of course various smaller exhibits throughout the area.
Africa Live 1 + 2 – This area is the newest, biggest and best part of the zoo, and even though it opened in two phases it is now one continuous, large complex that is top-notch and far superior to anything else that the zoo has to offer. My wife, daughter and I actually had a fantastic zoo-going moment here, as at 10:00 in the morning (an hour after the zoo had already opened!) the Nile hippos were finally let out and as luck would have it we were practically the only ones in attendance for a few glorious minutes. Two massive “river horses” lumbered onto their small land area before diving into a colourful array of cichlid fish in their deep pool. Underwater viewing made for an awesome experience, and this is one of the best hippo exhibits in North America. There are only a handful that have underwater viewing, but that is the only way to showcase hippos or else most visitors spend time looking at grey lumps during their visit.
Nile crocodiles and dwarf crocodiles also have spectacular underwater viewing areas, and there are various other terrariums and fish tanks inside the main building. Other species include: African palm civet, banded Egyptian cobra, gaboon viper, rhinoceros viper, African rock python and green mamba. Outside leads to a different viewing area for the Nile crocs, and then into a massive walk-through aviary with a variety of African birds. There is a netted enclosure for Wolf’s guenons and Angolan colobus monkeys, and exhibits for these species: African wild dogs in a terrific cave-like viewing area that has cool statues of grubs, termites and snakes attached to the walls and ceiling; okapi; dwarf mongoose; rock hyrax and another bird aviary. This entire African area is a massive improvement to the zoo, and I only wish that there was a masterplan for Africa Live 3 + 4 already in place.
