@jbnbsn99: Do Fort Worth and Dallas compete for "market share" of zoo visitors at all? In looking at the photos in the gallery it looks like Dallas focuses on the African megafauna and ecosystems, while Fort Worth focuses on Asian megafauna. Do they consciously design exhibits that complement each other rather than directly compete? How far apart are these zoos?
@jbnbsn99: Do Fort Worth and Dallas compete for "market share" of zoo visitors at all? In looking at the photos in the gallery it looks like Dallas focuses on the African megafauna and ecosystems, while Fort Worth focuses on Asian megafauna. Do they consciously design exhibits that complement each other rather than directly compete? How far apart are these zoos?
Google Maps places them at 39.2 miles, or 45 minutes from each other. Quite close for two major zoos!
Then throw in the Dallas World Aquarium with is only 35.5 miles or 39 minutes from Fort Worth Zoo and 5.5 miles or 9 minutes from Dallas Zoo, you have a trio of collections in very close proximety to one another.
Dallas does focus on the African animals. Fort Worth probably has the best balance of major species of any zoo, but very few "special" animals. The 2 zoos definitely compete with each other for the market share. A lot of the visitors have strong opinions about one or the other.
As far as designing to be different, I don't think there is a conscious decision on that regard. Both are older zoos with a lot of infrastructure in place that dictates what can and cannot be done.
