With its 112 exhibits does this building at Dallas Zoo have more terrariums than any other Reptile House in America? Fort Worth must be close, and Omaha has around 110 exhibits spread over 5 different buildings. There are many other U.S. zoos with great reptile/amphibian collections (San Diego, Detroit, Saint Louis, Los Angeles, Audubon, Houston, Nashville, etc) but is there any zoo in the country that can top Dallas for sheer quantity? My guess is that perhaps San Diego is the only zoo with more exhibits, but Dallas does have quite a few terrariums that are of an average size and not many exhibits that are as spectacular as MOLA just 30 minutes away.
This must be one of the most boring (at least I hope it is) reptile houses I have ever seen! Barren concrete walls and floors - who could be inspired by that? Especially three halls like this, of what is (to most visitors) extremely repetitive glass tanks. I think this is a very poor way to display reptiles, although it may be conducive to keeping a large collection. And I'd hate to imagine what its like in there on a busy day!
I'm not saying there is necessarily anything wrong with any individual exhibit, just that displays en masse like this lose the potential to excite, educate or inspire. Large reptile collections can be displayed effectively in houses, but it is rarely attempted unfortunately (perhaps LAIR and MOLA are good examples of when it does work though?)
This must be one of the most boring (at least I hope it is) reptile houses I have ever seen! Barren concrete walls and floors - who could be inspired by that? Especially three halls like this, of what is (to most visitors) extremely repetitive glass tanks. I think this is a very poor way to display reptiles, although it may be conducive to keeping a large collection. And I'd hate to imagine what its like in there on a busy day!
I'm not saying there is necessarily anything wrong with any individual exhibit, just that displays en masse like this lose the potential to excite, educate or inspire. Large reptile collections can be displayed effectively in houses, but it is rarely attempted unfortunately (perhaps LAIR and MOLA are good examples of when it does work though?)
I find your response to be rather interesting and I'm torn as to whether I agree with all of it or only half of it. Dallas Zoo's Reptile House is definitely old-fashioned in terms of the presentation of its inhabitants but there is still something quite wonderful about meandering past a whopping 112 terrariums and being excited about what is in the next one. For the most part the exhibits are very well furnished and a lot of the enclosures are of an average size (there are even some very large ones) but I understand your point about how one could consider such a presentation "boring". Many folks were bored to death strolling past endless hoofstock paddocks at Horn & Hoof Mesa at San Diego Zoo but Elephant Odyssey has just as many detractors!
I think part of it might be that as soon as you enter you can see everything (at least in that Hall), so there is no "exploration" type excitement either. Most old-fashioned reptile houses at least have more than an open room, often there are exhibits on both sides of an open wide corridor for example, so you don't see all exhibits at once.
Wroclaw Zoo's Reptile House is the best I have ever seen and still traditional and with probably a very similar number of exhibits to Dallas (photo links below), Berlin Zoo Aquarium does a good job too. Personally, I think the best way to display reptiles is among other animals form the same place, e.g. biogeographic displays such as Australia, Madagascar, Indonesia, Sahara, etc.
I think repetitive hoofstock paddocks could get boring to the general public, but that's slightly different in that you don't see everything at once like you do in the hall above.
