I wouldn't want to miss one of the nation's best reptile houses at Saint Louis, either.
Driving from MA to TX, seeking advice on zoos en route
- Thread starter enantiornithines
- Start date
enantiornithines
Member
Thanks everybody. I'm already on the road I'm in Cincinnati right now. Haven't decided if I will make it to the Newport Aquarium, will depend on how long I spend at the zoo, since I'm getting a later start than I meant to and I've decided that I would really like to do as little nighttime driving as possible. When I get the chance I will update on how everything was.
But the short version for now is that I went to everything in Scranton because it was right next to each other and the electric city aquarium and reptile den, had some interesting animals and clever exhibits but several animals had enclosure that were obviously too small. The National Aviary does not really live up to its name but it has a few interesting animals, passionate and knowledgeable staff, and the enclosures are all really good.
But the short version for now is that I went to everything in Scranton because it was right next to each other and the electric city aquarium and reptile den, had some interesting animals and clever exhibits but several animals had enclosure that were obviously too small. The National Aviary does not really live up to its name but it has a few interesting animals, passionate and knowledgeable staff, and the enclosures are all really good.
enantiornithines
Member
So I am back home. I thought I would do brief reviews of each zoo or aquarium ultimately visited. I'm gonna break them up so that there are not super long posts. And also so I can publish them as I write them. I will start with a two in Pennsylvania that I saw:
Electric City Aquarium and Reptile Den
For a small facility in a mall the collections here were actually pretty impressive. In particular they had two Fly River turtles, which are an animal I would have made a special trip just to see. They also had several animals presented in a way that I was actually able to see their behavior.
This is not the first zoo I have seen mudskippers, but it is the first time I have actually seen mudskippers out of water. The nocturnal exhibit also presented several animals that I have usually seen in zooms not even nocturnal exhibits and therefore not active. It was great to see the bush baby, prehensile tailed porcupine, and kinkajou active and moving around. I do wish they had had benches in the nocturnal area so I could just sit and watch these animals, but this was in the new rainforest expansion, where it seems like space was at a premium.
My main issue is that a lot of the enclosures seemed or definitely were too small and that the staff didn't seem especially knowledgeable or invested which made me wonder how good the care was in general. At first they were enclosures where I was like I think this is too small but I'm not certain, but once I got to the alligator, crocodile, and alligator snapping turtle I was like "yeah these are all definitely too small, but I have definitely seen worse." Then in the first enclosure where I saw a Fly River turtle, the turtle kept bumping into the fish because of how overcrowded it was. It's certainly not the worst place I have seen for enclosure size, but it did ruin my enjoyment of what was otherwise a pretty great small zoo.
Also, I have been to facilities of similar size where the staff are passionate and knowledgeable, and while the staff here we're perfectly friendly, it kind of felt like they were just teenagers taking a job because it's a job. I would not have wondered about this except for the enclosures but with the enclosure size issue I wondered if all the animals were getting proper care. It also looked like they might have clipped the toucan's wings, which is not something you should ever do with toucans, however given how short toucan primary feathers are, I couldn't quite tell.
National Aviary
My initial reaction to the national aviary, after intense parking frustrations on account of the fact that they closed the parking lot on the day I was visiting (between finding parking I was sure it was legal confirming with the city parking that my transaction had actually gone through, and walking to and from the aviary, it probably cost me an extra hour and a half), was disappointment, because the National Aviary does not live up to its name. It is smaller than the Wings of Asia aviary alone at the Miami zoo. They also did not have any particularly unusual birds. I was pleasantly surprised by the scissor tailed flycatcher's which were the highlight of my visit mostly because they were the only thing I have not seen in other twos.
However, the exhibits are well designed, at least for spending time. (The signage was not impressive, but honestly the signage at most zoos I visit is not very good, and at least every bird I saw was properly signed with the species name and locality.) Despite the small size I spent over four hours, a lot of it just sitting in the rain forest and grasslands exhibit watching the birds.
I went to two shows: the African experience which I paid for and a free wetlands show that was making up for the fact that the wetlands area was closed. They were both about what I expect from bird shows at zoos, although having an amazon deposit donations was a clever trick at the end. They also had some interesting bird art displayed and for sale by a local artist.
The thing that ultimately makes this a good zoo in my mind is the staff. All of the staff were extremely knowledgeable about both the species and the individual birds. This is an area where the relatively small collection probably helps. This was also where I realized that a problem with a lot of walking aviaries is that even if there is signage saying not to chase the birds, you always have parents who just don't have the energy to stop their children from chasing the birds. Here there are many staff who proactively and gently stop children from chasing the birds, which meant that the birds were much tamer and got much closer than I am used to in walk-in aviaries.
Electric City Aquarium and Reptile Den
For a small facility in a mall the collections here were actually pretty impressive. In particular they had two Fly River turtles, which are an animal I would have made a special trip just to see. They also had several animals presented in a way that I was actually able to see their behavior.
This is not the first zoo I have seen mudskippers, but it is the first time I have actually seen mudskippers out of water. The nocturnal exhibit also presented several animals that I have usually seen in zooms not even nocturnal exhibits and therefore not active. It was great to see the bush baby, prehensile tailed porcupine, and kinkajou active and moving around. I do wish they had had benches in the nocturnal area so I could just sit and watch these animals, but this was in the new rainforest expansion, where it seems like space was at a premium.
My main issue is that a lot of the enclosures seemed or definitely were too small and that the staff didn't seem especially knowledgeable or invested which made me wonder how good the care was in general. At first they were enclosures where I was like I think this is too small but I'm not certain, but once I got to the alligator, crocodile, and alligator snapping turtle I was like "yeah these are all definitely too small, but I have definitely seen worse." Then in the first enclosure where I saw a Fly River turtle, the turtle kept bumping into the fish because of how overcrowded it was. It's certainly not the worst place I have seen for enclosure size, but it did ruin my enjoyment of what was otherwise a pretty great small zoo.
Also, I have been to facilities of similar size where the staff are passionate and knowledgeable, and while the staff here we're perfectly friendly, it kind of felt like they were just teenagers taking a job because it's a job. I would not have wondered about this except for the enclosures but with the enclosure size issue I wondered if all the animals were getting proper care. It also looked like they might have clipped the toucan's wings, which is not something you should ever do with toucans, however given how short toucan primary feathers are, I couldn't quite tell.
National Aviary
My initial reaction to the national aviary, after intense parking frustrations on account of the fact that they closed the parking lot on the day I was visiting (between finding parking I was sure it was legal confirming with the city parking that my transaction had actually gone through, and walking to and from the aviary, it probably cost me an extra hour and a half), was disappointment, because the National Aviary does not live up to its name. It is smaller than the Wings of Asia aviary alone at the Miami zoo. They also did not have any particularly unusual birds. I was pleasantly surprised by the scissor tailed flycatcher's which were the highlight of my visit mostly because they were the only thing I have not seen in other twos.
However, the exhibits are well designed, at least for spending time. (The signage was not impressive, but honestly the signage at most zoos I visit is not very good, and at least every bird I saw was properly signed with the species name and locality.) Despite the small size I spent over four hours, a lot of it just sitting in the rain forest and grasslands exhibit watching the birds.
I went to two shows: the African experience which I paid for and a free wetlands show that was making up for the fact that the wetlands area was closed. They were both about what I expect from bird shows at zoos, although having an amazon deposit donations was a clever trick at the end. They also had some interesting bird art displayed and for sale by a local artist.
The thing that ultimately makes this a good zoo in my mind is the staff. All of the staff were extremely knowledgeable about both the species and the individual birds. This is an area where the relatively small collection probably helps. This was also where I realized that a problem with a lot of walking aviaries is that even if there is signage saying not to chase the birds, you always have parents who just don't have the energy to stop their children from chasing the birds. Here there are many staff who proactively and gently stop children from chasing the birds, which meant that the birds were much tamer and got much closer than I am used to in walk-in aviaries.
enantiornithines
Member
I should mention that I am using voice to text because of hand issues and then copy editing because I realized I missed a lot of things in the last post. And while some of them are just things like it makes it look like I don't know how apostrophes are used, some of them actually could potentially make my meeting confusing. Plus when I do voice to text I don't always remember to say “comma” or “quote” when I speak. So I will try to copy edit this one better but if anything confusing or means feel free to ask. Cincinnati is long so I'm gonna have it in its own thing.
Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Gardens
This is another place that I came in already in a slightly negative mood because they charge a four dollar "convenience fee" for online ticket purchases, which is a business practice I hate no matter what excuses used, and I knew that there would be no keas on exhibit, and then I got there half an hour after open and the parking lot was already full.
However I found a streetside place that was free and I checked with somebody who lived there and it was a legitimate place to park only 10 minutes away, which felt too easy to me after Pittsburgh. Then I discovered that it was less bad than I had expected given it was a Saturday in the summer. And then once I started getting a look at the plants, my mood took a rapid turn for the better.
While I know it is not the point of the forum, I was genuinely impressed with the botanical garden aspects of this zoo. They had quite a few interesting species and as I got tired from walking I stopped inspecting the plants closely, so I'm sure I missed quite a few others. Obviously it's not a first class botanical garden and a lot of the landscaping was more to make attractive landscaping than to present interesting plants, but that was certainly nice too. There are several plants that I have been thinking about getting from my yard and seeing them in the zoo helped me decide what they will look like as mature plants and where I might want to put them.
The first exhibit I actually went into was a walk-in exhibit for the Andean condors, which is the best exhibit I have seen for any condor or vulture, I think. According to the map there was supposed to be a similar exhibit for Steller’s sea eagles but I did not find the entrance to that one or even the eagles themselves. They were possibly also off exhibit.
The bird house felt a little dated and didn't have many especially unusual inhabitants, but did have thick-billed parrots, which was extremely exciting. (I am pretty sure I have also seen them in Fort Worth, but it was still cool.) The birds were also active and many of them were curious and came right up to the edge of the exhibit which was fun.
The reptile house was the only really badly crowded place in the zoo. It was also hot and, with the acoustics, extremely loud. I understand that families with children are a vital part of the zoo ecosystem by dispersing large quantities of small admissions fees, without which the zoos would not survive, and that I am the one invading their natural habitat. All the same, if I had been planning this as a trip just to see the zoo I certainly would not have come on a summer weekend. The only animal that I am pretty sure I haven't seen before was the Mozambique girdled lizard, which I still haven't seen because it was hiding. However I have seen members of the same genus elsewhere including in the "dragons" exhibit at the same zoo so it was a minor disappointment not to see but not a major one.
The actual highlights for me though were the nocturnal houses. The actual nocturnal house didn't have any animal I am not certain I've seen except for the aardwolves, however there were many animals that I am definitely sure I have not seen active before including an aardvark and a three banded armadillo. But the real excitement came in the African primate house which was mostly a nocturnal house. They had a pair of aye ayes and they had a bench in front of it. I spent at least half an hour they are just watching them. I am pretty sure that aye-ayes are my favorite mammal (the only possible contenders are numbats, which aren't in any American zoos), so it was a treat. My only previous experience with aye ayes in the Denver zoo was far too short because that was another visit with extended family.
I do wish they had signed the exhibits better and especially that they had illuminated the signs in the nocturnal houses. While I was at the aye ayes many people came by, about half of them asked what it was (which I answered), and the remaining half guessed either cat, monkey (most common guess), or a bush baby, with only one visitor correctly identifying it as an aye-aye. The sign was completely unreadable and a small amount of low-intensity LED around the sign or backlighting would have helped with that. They could even have put a rim around the sign so that the light did not go back into the exhibit.
They also insist on calling the binturong a "bearcat," which I have never seen anywhere else and assume it is so that they can have the sign that explains that it is neither a bear nor a cat. Which, I guess at least it's a sign with a title that catches the attention. Unfortunately it is still a pretty generic sign that is not super informative. It's actually less informative than most signs I have seen for binturongs that go beyond their name, species and locality.
The bird show was mostly comedy and it seemed like both the comedy and the information given was aimed at an audience of maybe six years old. Even though I saw plenty of families with older children and even some couples, roughly 6 years old did seem to be the modal age, so I guess that makes sense, but I wish they had still included more information at a higher level. But it was free.
There was a little walk in aviary which was closed for some reason—you would think that if it's ever open it would be open on summer weekends—and while it didn't have anything I haven't seen before based on the sign outside and I saw most of the animals from inside, it had a seriema and magpie “goose,” which are two animals I always love watching given the chance.
The passenger pigeon memorial was neat, but I was deeply disappointed that there was absolutely no mention that the Cincinnati zoo had the last Carolina parakeet either there or near the thick-billed parrots. Honestly, I think both places should have had a mention of that. (I was also kind of disappointed that I couldn't get any Martha merchandise at the gift shop. I would like to think it's because they don't want to commercialize the tragedy, but I think it's just because they don't think passenger pigeons are as photogenic as Fiona the hippo.)
The insect exhibit was actually I felt really well designed with a leaf cutter ant system that wrapped around half of it and signs that used images, charts, and relatively small amounts of text in order to convey important concepts quickly. I've noticed this a lot at zoos: the insect exhibits always seem to have better signage and design than pretty much anything else. I assume it's because they assume children will not be interested in insects otherwise, but I wish they would do this with other exhibits as well. I feel like the Cincinnati zoo did have one other exhibit where I thought that the signage was pretty well designed but I'm blanking on what it was right now.
Anyways despite the number of complaints that I have mentioned (I am someone very prone to kvetching), and the lack of keas, for which I was forewarned, I greatly enjoyed myself overall and spent over five hours. I did pre-purchase a train pass that I did not use because the lines were too long which, oh well. I do think that the aye-ayes (and the bench right in front of it) probably made a major difference in my overall enjoyment but the landscaping/botanical gardens and frequency of benches where I could just sit and take stuff in definitely helped too.
Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Gardens
This is another place that I came in already in a slightly negative mood because they charge a four dollar "convenience fee" for online ticket purchases, which is a business practice I hate no matter what excuses used, and I knew that there would be no keas on exhibit, and then I got there half an hour after open and the parking lot was already full.
However I found a streetside place that was free and I checked with somebody who lived there and it was a legitimate place to park only 10 minutes away, which felt too easy to me after Pittsburgh. Then I discovered that it was less bad than I had expected given it was a Saturday in the summer. And then once I started getting a look at the plants, my mood took a rapid turn for the better.
While I know it is not the point of the forum, I was genuinely impressed with the botanical garden aspects of this zoo. They had quite a few interesting species and as I got tired from walking I stopped inspecting the plants closely, so I'm sure I missed quite a few others. Obviously it's not a first class botanical garden and a lot of the landscaping was more to make attractive landscaping than to present interesting plants, but that was certainly nice too. There are several plants that I have been thinking about getting from my yard and seeing them in the zoo helped me decide what they will look like as mature plants and where I might want to put them.
The first exhibit I actually went into was a walk-in exhibit for the Andean condors, which is the best exhibit I have seen for any condor or vulture, I think. According to the map there was supposed to be a similar exhibit for Steller’s sea eagles but I did not find the entrance to that one or even the eagles themselves. They were possibly also off exhibit.
The bird house felt a little dated and didn't have many especially unusual inhabitants, but did have thick-billed parrots, which was extremely exciting. (I am pretty sure I have also seen them in Fort Worth, but it was still cool.) The birds were also active and many of them were curious and came right up to the edge of the exhibit which was fun.
The reptile house was the only really badly crowded place in the zoo. It was also hot and, with the acoustics, extremely loud. I understand that families with children are a vital part of the zoo ecosystem by dispersing large quantities of small admissions fees, without which the zoos would not survive, and that I am the one invading their natural habitat. All the same, if I had been planning this as a trip just to see the zoo I certainly would not have come on a summer weekend. The only animal that I am pretty sure I haven't seen before was the Mozambique girdled lizard, which I still haven't seen because it was hiding. However I have seen members of the same genus elsewhere including in the "dragons" exhibit at the same zoo so it was a minor disappointment not to see but not a major one.
The actual highlights for me though were the nocturnal houses. The actual nocturnal house didn't have any animal I am not certain I've seen except for the aardwolves, however there were many animals that I am definitely sure I have not seen active before including an aardvark and a three banded armadillo. But the real excitement came in the African primate house which was mostly a nocturnal house. They had a pair of aye ayes and they had a bench in front of it. I spent at least half an hour they are just watching them. I am pretty sure that aye-ayes are my favorite mammal (the only possible contenders are numbats, which aren't in any American zoos), so it was a treat. My only previous experience with aye ayes in the Denver zoo was far too short because that was another visit with extended family.
I do wish they had signed the exhibits better and especially that they had illuminated the signs in the nocturnal houses. While I was at the aye ayes many people came by, about half of them asked what it was (which I answered), and the remaining half guessed either cat, monkey (most common guess), or a bush baby, with only one visitor correctly identifying it as an aye-aye. The sign was completely unreadable and a small amount of low-intensity LED around the sign or backlighting would have helped with that. They could even have put a rim around the sign so that the light did not go back into the exhibit.
They also insist on calling the binturong a "bearcat," which I have never seen anywhere else and assume it is so that they can have the sign that explains that it is neither a bear nor a cat. Which, I guess at least it's a sign with a title that catches the attention. Unfortunately it is still a pretty generic sign that is not super informative. It's actually less informative than most signs I have seen for binturongs that go beyond their name, species and locality.
The bird show was mostly comedy and it seemed like both the comedy and the information given was aimed at an audience of maybe six years old. Even though I saw plenty of families with older children and even some couples, roughly 6 years old did seem to be the modal age, so I guess that makes sense, but I wish they had still included more information at a higher level. But it was free.
There was a little walk in aviary which was closed for some reason—you would think that if it's ever open it would be open on summer weekends—and while it didn't have anything I haven't seen before based on the sign outside and I saw most of the animals from inside, it had a seriema and magpie “goose,” which are two animals I always love watching given the chance.
The passenger pigeon memorial was neat, but I was deeply disappointed that there was absolutely no mention that the Cincinnati zoo had the last Carolina parakeet either there or near the thick-billed parrots. Honestly, I think both places should have had a mention of that. (I was also kind of disappointed that I couldn't get any Martha merchandise at the gift shop. I would like to think it's because they don't want to commercialize the tragedy, but I think it's just because they don't think passenger pigeons are as photogenic as Fiona the hippo.)
The insect exhibit was actually I felt really well designed with a leaf cutter ant system that wrapped around half of it and signs that used images, charts, and relatively small amounts of text in order to convey important concepts quickly. I've noticed this a lot at zoos: the insect exhibits always seem to have better signage and design than pretty much anything else. I assume it's because they assume children will not be interested in insects otherwise, but I wish they would do this with other exhibits as well. I feel like the Cincinnati zoo did have one other exhibit where I thought that the signage was pretty well designed but I'm blanking on what it was right now.
Anyways despite the number of complaints that I have mentioned (I am someone very prone to kvetching), and the lack of keas, for which I was forewarned, I greatly enjoyed myself overall and spent over five hours. I did pre-purchase a train pass that I did not use because the lines were too long which, oh well. I do think that the aye-ayes (and the bench right in front of it) probably made a major difference in my overall enjoyment but the landscaping/botanical gardens and frequency of benches where I could just sit and take stuff in definitely helped too.
enantiornithines
Member
I remembered the other well designed exhibit in Cincinnati: it was the manatee house. Anyways the other two places that I visited were the St. Louis Zoo and the Shreveport Aquarium. Obviously spending over five hours in Cincinnati I did not make it to the Newport Aquarium. I did not make it to the World Bird Center because it was raining heavily. I was in Memphis, but decided not to visit the Memphis Zoo on this trip for various reasons.
St. Louis Zoo
It was raining in St. Louis all day, but gradually got worse, so I decided to call it quits on the botanical garden (which, I know it's not a zoo, but I think the Missouri Botanical Garden is the best thing I saw on my trip) after I saw most of it. But I figured that everything that people were telling me I should most see at the St. Louis Zoo would be indoors and that even though it was a summer weekend, the rain would mean that they would be fewer people. I made a beeline for Historic Hill and didn't really look at any other part of the zoo except very briefly in passing. It does seem to be a pretty nice zoo and I'm sure that Historic Hill is not representative but I have limited time to get out of the city in time to limit my night driving, plus it was raining.
The first place I went was the free flight aviary which turned out not to be covered so I spent about 15 minutes just waiting for the rain to abate enough in the area in front of it that I could go through without getting soaked. For 100 year old exhibit I was honestly amazed because this is better than pretty much any free flight aviary I have seen, with the possible exceptions of the Wings of Asia aviary in Miami and the Rainforest Pyramid at Moody Gardens. It was smaller than both of those, and pretty much everything are birds that I have already seen in the wild many times, but I just adored the design. If I haven't seen it in between heavy downpours I probably would've sat around and spent a lot of time there.
The next place I went was the bird house. It's weird that it feels both older and somehow less dated than the bird house at the Cincinnati zoo. I am pretty sure I have not seen horned guans before, but like Cincinnati, the main thing about this bird house was just how curious a lot of the birds were and came right up to the edge of the enclosure. This included the aforementioned guans, a rhinoceros hornbill, a crested tinamou, a spectacled owl, and the spotted thick knees although thick knees pretty much always come right up to the enclosure edge everywhere I have been.
I then went to the primate house which was between the birdhouse and the reptile house. The birdhouse, the primate house, and the reptile house were all built along similar plans although the private house had nothing in the open central space aside from plants it looks like, presumably because you can't have primates with just fencing between them and humans on account of disease risk. The only species I had not seen before was the mongoose lemur, and like with the Mozambique girdled lizard at Cincinnati, I still haven't seen it. I spent the most time watching the sifakas, just because that was where a bench was in front of a species I wanted to watch.
I then did the canopy trail, which is extremely cool in conception and the signage is much better signage than I am used to from zoos. Again, they used images with relatively short concise descriptions that can be quickly read which I feel is the proper way to design zoo signage. The only animals that were out were François langurs. The play area next to the canopy trail also looks like a lot of fun for children. I have a close friend with three small children who is passing through St. Louis next week and I told her she hast to take them to the St. Louis Zoo on account of this exhibit.
The reptile house I saw a lot of animals that are available in the pet trade so there is a reasonable chance I will see them at one of the many small zoos around Texas eventually, but it was still cool to see them now. There were two highlights that are not available in the pet trade: one is Gray’s monitor, which belongs to the clade of Philippine fruit eating monitors. When I learned they existed, I googled to see if any American zoos have these and had thought they hadn't, so this was very cool to discover although it was sadly inactive. The other extremely cool thing they had was a pair of shingleback skinks one of which was very active in a nice large enclosure.
Shreveport Aquarium
This entire aquarium is small and I did it in under an hour, and that was with frequently sitting down to just watch the fish for a while. Going through at the pace most people go through zoos and aquariums, I imagine it would take half an hour. It didn't have any species I have not seen in zoos before, however it had baby paddlefish which I have never seen before and was extremely cool. It's another small place with passionate and knowledgeable staff which I of course liked. I also feel it is an extremely well designed aquarium. Not necessarily in the signage or the exhibits for educational purposes, but every exhibit is designed to be immersive.
The first major exhibit you walk into is a bayou exhibit with a large boardwalk under a glass dome. They also have a thing for children where you pan for minerals that I ignored, but I did look around the edges of the boardwalk. Like the national aviary, they featured a local artist in one display. And of course this is where the paddlefish were that I had a conversation with the woman who was working there at the time about.
They also had a really neat exhibit on how an invasive plant chokes out the light and destroys ecosystems. Of all of the exhibits I have seen on "this is how you can help preserve the ecosystem" I think this is one of if not the most clever. It was simply a tank showing how the water below looked compared to the tank across from it and that the only thing living in the water besides the plants was snails, Plus a brief sign explaining what you were seeing and how to not spread the weed.
You then have a tidal pool touch tank, which is set up so that at least half of it is off-limits at any time, that part is always open. You walk under an overhead aquarium where I sat for a while watching the fish go overhead into the stingray area where I paid to feed the stingrays which was a lot of fun. Even if you don't pay for that it's still a touch tank and you can touch the stingrays if you want.
You then have an exhibit that is set up like a submarine where you have a display with various tanks of animals talking about unusual fish breeding behaviors and on the other side you have a jellyfish touch tank which was closed because they had some new jellyfish that were acclimating. They also have a place you can touch things like shark teeth and shark skin that I didn't go into because children were using it, as well as like a wooden wall game where you can feed jellyfish.
My one major complaint is that the signage was minimal because they had QR codes you could use to do an audio tour, however I feel like it would've been nice to have a little bit more information so that you didn't have to do that whereas the zoo seemed designed around assuming that everybody would have a phone with data and want to scan the QR codes. The actual tour descriptions were fairly standard for what you would otherwise find on zoo signage.
It's a small aquarium and I'm not sure it's worth taking a trip to Shreveport for, unless you happen to like be in Texarkana or something, but if you're in the area I would say it's definitely worth checking out. Mostly because really I like how immersive the exhibit design is.
St. Louis Zoo
It was raining in St. Louis all day, but gradually got worse, so I decided to call it quits on the botanical garden (which, I know it's not a zoo, but I think the Missouri Botanical Garden is the best thing I saw on my trip) after I saw most of it. But I figured that everything that people were telling me I should most see at the St. Louis Zoo would be indoors and that even though it was a summer weekend, the rain would mean that they would be fewer people. I made a beeline for Historic Hill and didn't really look at any other part of the zoo except very briefly in passing. It does seem to be a pretty nice zoo and I'm sure that Historic Hill is not representative but I have limited time to get out of the city in time to limit my night driving, plus it was raining.
The first place I went was the free flight aviary which turned out not to be covered so I spent about 15 minutes just waiting for the rain to abate enough in the area in front of it that I could go through without getting soaked. For 100 year old exhibit I was honestly amazed because this is better than pretty much any free flight aviary I have seen, with the possible exceptions of the Wings of Asia aviary in Miami and the Rainforest Pyramid at Moody Gardens. It was smaller than both of those, and pretty much everything are birds that I have already seen in the wild many times, but I just adored the design. If I haven't seen it in between heavy downpours I probably would've sat around and spent a lot of time there.
The next place I went was the bird house. It's weird that it feels both older and somehow less dated than the bird house at the Cincinnati zoo. I am pretty sure I have not seen horned guans before, but like Cincinnati, the main thing about this bird house was just how curious a lot of the birds were and came right up to the edge of the enclosure. This included the aforementioned guans, a rhinoceros hornbill, a crested tinamou, a spectacled owl, and the spotted thick knees although thick knees pretty much always come right up to the enclosure edge everywhere I have been.
I then went to the primate house which was between the birdhouse and the reptile house. The birdhouse, the primate house, and the reptile house were all built along similar plans although the private house had nothing in the open central space aside from plants it looks like, presumably because you can't have primates with just fencing between them and humans on account of disease risk. The only species I had not seen before was the mongoose lemur, and like with the Mozambique girdled lizard at Cincinnati, I still haven't seen it. I spent the most time watching the sifakas, just because that was where a bench was in front of a species I wanted to watch.
I then did the canopy trail, which is extremely cool in conception and the signage is much better signage than I am used to from zoos. Again, they used images with relatively short concise descriptions that can be quickly read which I feel is the proper way to design zoo signage. The only animals that were out were François langurs. The play area next to the canopy trail also looks like a lot of fun for children. I have a close friend with three small children who is passing through St. Louis next week and I told her she hast to take them to the St. Louis Zoo on account of this exhibit.
The reptile house I saw a lot of animals that are available in the pet trade so there is a reasonable chance I will see them at one of the many small zoos around Texas eventually, but it was still cool to see them now. There were two highlights that are not available in the pet trade: one is Gray’s monitor, which belongs to the clade of Philippine fruit eating monitors. When I learned they existed, I googled to see if any American zoos have these and had thought they hadn't, so this was very cool to discover although it was sadly inactive. The other extremely cool thing they had was a pair of shingleback skinks one of which was very active in a nice large enclosure.
Shreveport Aquarium
This entire aquarium is small and I did it in under an hour, and that was with frequently sitting down to just watch the fish for a while. Going through at the pace most people go through zoos and aquariums, I imagine it would take half an hour. It didn't have any species I have not seen in zoos before, however it had baby paddlefish which I have never seen before and was extremely cool. It's another small place with passionate and knowledgeable staff which I of course liked. I also feel it is an extremely well designed aquarium. Not necessarily in the signage or the exhibits for educational purposes, but every exhibit is designed to be immersive.
The first major exhibit you walk into is a bayou exhibit with a large boardwalk under a glass dome. They also have a thing for children where you pan for minerals that I ignored, but I did look around the edges of the boardwalk. Like the national aviary, they featured a local artist in one display. And of course this is where the paddlefish were that I had a conversation with the woman who was working there at the time about.
They also had a really neat exhibit on how an invasive plant chokes out the light and destroys ecosystems. Of all of the exhibits I have seen on "this is how you can help preserve the ecosystem" I think this is one of if not the most clever. It was simply a tank showing how the water below looked compared to the tank across from it and that the only thing living in the water besides the plants was snails, Plus a brief sign explaining what you were seeing and how to not spread the weed.
You then have a tidal pool touch tank, which is set up so that at least half of it is off-limits at any time, that part is always open. You walk under an overhead aquarium where I sat for a while watching the fish go overhead into the stingray area where I paid to feed the stingrays which was a lot of fun. Even if you don't pay for that it's still a touch tank and you can touch the stingrays if you want.
You then have an exhibit that is set up like a submarine where you have a display with various tanks of animals talking about unusual fish breeding behaviors and on the other side you have a jellyfish touch tank which was closed because they had some new jellyfish that were acclimating. They also have a place you can touch things like shark teeth and shark skin that I didn't go into because children were using it, as well as like a wooden wall game where you can feed jellyfish.
My one major complaint is that the signage was minimal because they had QR codes you could use to do an audio tour, however I feel like it would've been nice to have a little bit more information so that you didn't have to do that whereas the zoo seemed designed around assuming that everybody would have a phone with data and want to scan the QR codes. The actual tour descriptions were fairly standard for what you would otherwise find on zoo signage.
It's a small aquarium and I'm not sure it's worth taking a trip to Shreveport for, unless you happen to like be in Texarkana or something, but if you're in the area I would say it's definitely worth checking out. Mostly because really I like how immersive the exhibit design is.
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