jbnbsn99's Texas Zoos

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I did work for the Rangers, but Bush was POTUS by that time. He sold the team in '94 or '95 to run for governor. I worked there in ticket sales, for 6 seasons.

Your probably right on the whole naming thing. You are what you call yourself.

With the restaurant, the one you went to is still there with a similar menu, although looking at it your exotic Nordic rice dish is no longer served. They do have a lot of other interesting menu items. Another restaurant has opened up in the Mundo Maya area which may be more upscale than the one you remember. High class gourmet Mexican food (and not the kind you get at Taco Bell!)

I can't really comment on the status between the Dallas Zoo/Aquarium and the DWA because I just don't know. Every one I work with loves the DWA. I don't think it detracts from the zoo - the Aquarium might be a different story though. The Dallas Aquarium is located in Fair Park near several museums and is usually included as a side trip when people (i.e. school field trips) visit the museums. The DWA and the Dallas Aquarium are really two totally different places. The zoo, BTW sort of inherited the aquarium after it lost its accreditation. I wish I knew more about the remake of the aquarium, but alas you probably know as much as I do.
 
Frank Buck Zoo review

Once again I have traveled far and wide to bring you another review of a Texan Zoo. This time I traveled north to the place of my birth to visit the Frank Buck Zoo in Gainesville, TX (oh and also to visit my parents and have a home cooked meal which turned out to be at the local Mexican restaurant).

On to the zoo. I first must make a caveat. Up until now all of the zoos that I've visited have been AZA accredited facilities. The Frank Buck Zoo is not unfortunately, although I think they are trying for accreditation. The zoo is obviously named after Frank Buck the famous animal trapper who supplied so many zoos with their animals. Gainesville was his home town and there is a display in the gift shop with some artifacts from his life.

On to the zoo itself. It is very small. I was able to walk around the whole thing twice and see everything in great detail in about 1.5 hours. So we enter the zoo and head down into the main valley of the zoo (which is an old creek bed that occasionally floods - more on the most famous flood later). There is a big statue near the stairs/ramp that is quite nice. Down in the valley I head left. First exhibit I see is for Chilean Flamingos. Not terrible, only 4 birds here. The only comment is the hot wire. The visitors can touch it - I nearly did. It is on top of the fence to the exhibit which is only about 5.5 feet tall. Why you need hot wire with flamingos I don't know. Heading to the left I pass by the old empty lot where there used to be a single solitary Asian elephant. This may have been the smallest elephant "cage" in North America. The elephant has been gone since the mid-nineties after she killed a keeper. She is now living out her days at the Elephant Sanctuary. Next up is an animal that I have not seen displayed in any Texan Zoo so far - a Gray Wolf. Just one, in a medium sized cage that used to hold monkeys. The few carnivore exhibits here are pitifully small, but they are working on trying to make them better. Next to the wolf is the bear cage. Now I knew what I was getting into when I came having grown up at this zoo. The bear cage is tiny, but if you remember the Ellen Trout Zoo review I am going to compare the two. Gainesville wins on being the better exhibit for a few reasons. One, the bears actually have climbing structures (in the form of a terraced ground). Two, more importantly, Gainesville acknowledges how bad their exhibit is, unlike ETZ. There are signs up saying "please help us give our bears a better home" and then there is a donation box. The bears BTW are a single Black Bear and a Syrian Brown Bear. A few feet away from the bear is a similar cage for raccoons, not too bad for them, but next to the raccoons is a sign displaying the designs for the new bear habitat. It looks like it will be nice, smallish, but nice. Across from the bears are the coyotes (actually should be singular I think). This used to be an aviary back when it was built in the late 90's, but has held coyotes for several years now. Around the coyotes are small cages for birds (owl, vulture, roadrunner), a fox, and a skunk. Coyotes were fine, actually the biggest coyote exhibit I've seen so far. The other cages were quite small.

Down the path we come to much bigger enclosures for hoofstock. The first is a large area for Elk (although they looked more like Red Deer). There was a feeding station here so you could buy food for the Elk. Just a quarter for a handful of food which you put into a PVC tube that leads to a small trough for the Elk. Kind of a neat idea and not an animal that you get to feed too often at zoos. Across from the Elk were 2 Auodads. Big area, but not too much in the way of rocks to climb on. The steep, graded slope of the enclosure seemed to alleviate this problem though. Next to the Auodads were Axis Deer. Same song different verse as the other enclosures here. Across from the Deer were two bison. Very similar as to the other exhibits. Next up was a small petting zoo with your typical farm animals. Past here was a small amphitheater where animal demonstrations take place. A pathway leads you away from this section to the newer section of the zoo. Along the way are porcupines and tortoises.

Next is the huge African Savanna. This is the newest area of the zoo. The zoo closed down for at least a year and a half to construct this area and to revamp the whole zoo a few years ago. On the Savanna are 2 male Giraffes, a Thomson's Gazelle, an Eland, 2 Ostriches, some Guinea Fowl, some hybrid plains zebra, and what looked to be 3 young Nubian Ibex. An odd mix for sure with the Ibex. The whole paddock is 3-4 acres, maybe more. The visitors walkway is an elevated wooden deck way that loops all around the Savanna. I do have some complaints here, nothing major just nit picking. The signage is wrong on a lot of the animals. They label the zebras as being Grant's when they most clearly are not. One, I think, is a Damara/Bruchell's the other is mostly Grant's and together they have a foal. The Eland, with one very messed up horn, is labeled as Taurotragus oryx derbiensis, which isn't even a recognized scientific name for any Eland. If the zoo really wants accreditation then these easy fixes might go a long way. On the other side of the Savanna is an African farm with a single Dromedary, a donkey, and some tortoises. Further down on the loop is a Giraffe feeding station which is only open at 10:30, a time when I was just contemplating going to the zoo.

Coming out of the Savanna, down the long ramp, you come across 2 red kangaroos. Just a grassy area, nothing great. Next up are small cages for Coati, Cotton-Top Tamarins, and Parrots. Near this were two enclosures for Maras and Capybaras. Why they can't mix the two I don't know. The same would go for the large area for Llamas and Rheas. I've seen on here countless times all four of those species mixed no problem. None of these were bad exhibits, just bland. The poor capybaras had a pool, but it was just a small metal tank bought at the local tractor supply company.

And that's all folks. I told you, very small zoo. There is an interesting anecdote though to the zoo. Back in 1981 (a month after I was born, so I don't really remember it that well) a major flood hit the zoo. The zoo lost a lot of animals, including their elephant. Well the elephant was thought to be dead, but was found several days later alive and somewhat well, suck up in the top branches of a tree. She had floated away with the current of the river/creek and gotten lodged in the tree and had used her trunk as a snorkel.

The Frank Buck Zoo really is a place that I have a soft spot for as it gave me my love of zoos and animals as a little kid. Who wouldn't have such a love having a free zoo in their home town growing up. (BTW, they now charge admission, so the free days are gone). The non-AZA accreditation means that the collection is not a great one. There are no endangered species, no SSP's, no general conservation message. All of the animals are ones that are easy to get from exotic wildlife ranchers or are rescued animals. It is what it is. There is a lot of room for improvement and maybe with accreditation great things could happen, but for now it is just a bland animal menagerie.

So on a scale of 1-10 the Frank Buck Zoo gets a ............ 2.5. A note to keen observers that is just above Ellen Trout. The fact that there are no dangerous exhibits here is a major plus.
 
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I had heard this was a very small zoo but hadn't been there and was unsure of their collection. Thanks for the review! Glad they're trying to work on the bear exhibits.
 
Summer recap

I'm not quite through with my summer zoo list yet, but I thought I would give a recap of the zoos visited. Here is my complete list so far.

Cameron Park (Waco)
Houston
Caldwell (Tyler)
Ellen Trout (Lufkin)
Dallas World Aquarium
Fort Worth
Frank Buck (Gainesville)
Dallas (sorry no review yet or coming)

I've got three big zoos left: San Antonio, Abilene, and Fossil Rim. Maybe a few minor ones as well. Also a second trip to Waco will be coming soon as they are opening their new Asian Forest exhibit in a few days (August 15th).
 
Finally, I am going to tick San Antonio off my list. Tomorrow I will be making the 4.5 hour drive south to see this zoo. Of course my camera will be clicking away and expect an epic review in the next few days.
 
If you can find out anything on new plans at San Antonio or in particular on its black rhinos, I appreciate that very much!
 
15 hours later and I am now back and tired. Full review will come later, but expect the subject of birds, birds, birds to come up. Damn, they have a lot of birds. I mean really, you might think your zoos has a crap-load of birds, but it is nothing compared to San Antonio. I mean there we so many birds that I got tired of looking at the birds after just a few minutes of being there. It's one thing to have a few crane species, they're cool and all, but to have every freakin' species is a little bit of an over kill.
 
San Antonio Zoo Review

Good lord how do I start in on this one. This zoo has simultaneously some of the best exhibits I've seen and quite possibly some of the worst. There is no was I can do a full walk-through of this zoo as it is too labyrinthine. Around here it is referred to as one of the best in Texas, but I can assure you it is most assuredly not.

First off how my day went. I got up at 3:50 AM and left by 4:10 AM. I deserve an award for the great sacrifice I've made all in the name of bringing an underrepresented zoological collection to the forefront of ZooChat. Funny thing was, I didn't need an alarm to get up this early, just pure adrenaline at the excitement of driving 9 hours today. I get to the zoo just a few minutes before opening. I have great timing what can I say. It must come from all those years as a musician. I get in for a discount because I am a member of AAZK (woo-hoo).

Now when I enter a zoo I expect to be impressed. Cheerful people, an air of excitement, a great exhibit to be wowed by - nothing doing here. The opening gate is a tired old turnstile, charming in an antiquated way. The first exhibits are a series of 4 bear grottoes built in 1929. Ding, ding, ding, that little bell inside your head should be going off about now. Actually, in all honesty, they are not that bad, and considering their age, extremely impressive. Very Hagenbackian. Only two of the grottoes had bears in them, black bears and spectacled bears. The next one was under renovation (although the last time I went in 2005 I distinctly remember a polar bear here), and the 4th had a sign saying a Grizzly Bear lived here. The last one also had a sign saying that the Grizzly was extremely old an feeble and didn't come out in the heat unless it wanted to. It didn't. Something you will note about my review is that there will always been something out of place. For instance in the middle of the 4 bear grottoes was an exhibit for Black and White Ruffed Lemurs. I would say WTF, but that moment comes later with the weirdest mixed species exhibit EVER! (You have to stay tuned for part 2 for that one).

Next came two of the best exhibit at the zoo. The Komodo Dragons/ Retic. Python and the Gibbons. This was without a doubt the best Komodo exhibit I've seen, at least the outdoor part. The indoor part was your typical cube-like room. The Python was cool only from the stand point that I got there at the exact moment of its MONTHLY feeding. On the menu for August, a 25 pound pig. The Gibbon exhibit I though was one of the 3 best at the zoo. It not only hosed gibbons, but also muntjac and small clawed otters. A cool combo. There were two main areas for the terrestrial animals, but the gibbons had access to both sides from above. The muntjac was eating the food that the gibbons dropped, which was cool to watch. The otters didn't have much water and seemed like they might have been an after thought to the exhibit. Take them out and it is still cool. It is one of the few exhibit I remember from my 2005 trip (which was during my period of not paying that much attention to zoos). Next to the Gibbons was a nice area for Francois's Langurs.

Across from these exhibit are the aquarium, some monkey cages, and the reptile house. First the Aquarium. It is an old, historic building. There are a few tanks here, but with the exception of a couple of small bonnet-head sharks, nothing that I cannot see better exhibited at my local aquarium store. The monkey cages are pitiful, really aweful, and tiny. Wolf's Guenons and Black Mangabeys here. 4 cages for the Mangabeys and 1 for the Guenons. I hate using the term cage here, but I have to call an apple an apple if there is no better choice. Good news, I think they might be moving to the new exhibit in the spring. We can only hope. The reptile house is nothing special, lots of terrariums. Mostly species I've seen before, but there were a few new ones.

Next up is the Cat Grotto. Weird exhibit. I liked it, but only from the design aspect. It is like they put in here just what ever they had left over, figured out which they had the most species of (cats) and named it after them. Here were Black-Footed Cats (not seen), Fishing Cats (not seen), Clouded Leopards, Fossa, Red Ruffed Lemurs, Tree Shrews, Prevost's Squirrel, and Macaws. Not the best themed area, but then again nearly nothing is themed at this zoo.

So ends part one. Part 2 will cover Amazonia, the TotSpot, Birds, birds, and more birds, and the wetlands.
 
San Antonio Part 2

I'm back for more San Antonio goodness, or more appropriately, weirdness.

I hadn't mentioned in my last post that this part of Texas is enduring a harsh drought. In fact, the worst in recorded history. Because of that most of the non-essential water features had to be turned off. The only water features were the natural ones likes lakes and the stream running through the wetlands exhibits and those for semi-aquatic animals. This caused the zoo to smell quite a bit like stagnant water. I however cannot blame the zoo on this.

Next up is Amazonia. This is a very complete collection of Tropical South American animals. In fact SAZ has quite possibly on of the biggest collections of South American animals out there. Only missing a Llama and a Rhea, and maybe a giant otter. The exhibits for Amazonia don't seem to have much planning. Again, just a meandering series of cages and aviaries. Lots of monkey cages (including some species I hadn't seen before), a big aviary with lots of colorful birds and a sign saying they had a Giant Anteater, a decent jaguar exhibit, a night house with bats, armadillo, and sloth, a good anaconda/sting ray exhibit, a small pool for dwarf caimans, a bush dog, and a partridge in a pear tree. If it were laid out better, it would get my seal of approval, but with me clinging to my map trying desperately not to get lost I still ended up having to back track through exhibits I'd seen before to get to exhibits I hadn't yet seen only to find an exhibit I already saw.

Now I want everyone to pull up a map of the San Antonio Zoo. Draw a line right down the middle. To the right of that line is 95% birds. Holy crap they have a lot of birds. There are some cool ones like the Whooping Crane, and nearly every other crane species you can think of (I counted about 10 or 11 at the zoo and there are only 15 species total in the world). I skipped a lot of the rows of bird cages. If you can't take the time to exhibit an animal that to the general public has no attraction power (i.e. the whole are was empty where as I had to stand in line to look at most of the other animals) then I have no particular interest in looking at it. There were just rows and rows of nothing but boring black wire mesh cages with exotic birds. I have nothing against birds, not at all, but if you bill yourself as having the largest collection of birds in the world, please take the time and care to make that collection interesting. Something interactive perhaps, or at least put the birds with other animals, or maybe organize the birds into geographic region, or maybe when you do mix species I don't nearly spit out my Coke because I've just seen the weirdest, most acid trippy mixed species exhibits I've ever seen.

Ok the Wetlands. Odd, odd exhibit. All the cages, pens, grottoes, erm - I don't really know what to call them - have a water stream in the front and land in the back. There are about 40 of these pen/grotto/cage thingys. All of the water seems to be from a stream that flows through the exhibits, and each pen/grotto/cage has a dozen or 2 tilipia - hey it saves on filtration. I will not bore you with most of the species here as they were usually ducks and if they weren't ducks they were geese. But, there were a few standout exhibits here, not for their exhibitry but for the species. Next door to each other were American Alligators and 2 mid-sized Orinoco Crocodiles (offspring from the DWA pair). Now here is the two WTF exhibits of the whole zoo.

1st. Bald Eagles and Alligator Snapping Turtle - At first I thought the turtle was a clump of moss, but alas no. I'm sure the eagle is injured, but it is soooo sad to see the national birds not even have a small perch or tree.

2nd. Wattled Crane and GHARIAL - You heard me right cranes and crocodilians. I know gharials won't eat anything but fish, but wow!!! Who the hell thought up this one. There is nothing remotely right about this. I think this may take the cake for oddest most drug induced exhibit out there. They don't even live on the same continent.

Across from the wetlands is the Hixon Bird House. More birds, this time indoors. I get the point already.

Next to here was an odd attempt at an Australian section, and it almost works. 3 Wallaby exhibits for 2 species, Lorikeet aviary and Australian Bird aviaries (some of the better bird exhibits, see what thematic ideas can do!), kangaroos, emus, cassowary, and Nubian Ibex. Fail! Ibex, oh so close, but you get a cookie for trying, I just didn't put chocolate chips in that cookie for you.

That sums it up for part 2. Part 3 will be most of the African section, the infamous antelope stadium, big cats, the and Rift Valley Exhibit. Part 4 will be the African Savanna, the Asian Elephant, and I'm saving the best for last Africa Live!
 
This is very similar to my "Snowleopard's Epic Road Trip" thread from last summer, and I really appreciate the levity in the reviews. I've been laughing out loud while reading about all of the bird comments in the San Antonio Zoo review. Keep up the great work!:) I always read ALL of the reviews on this Texas thread.
 
Thanks! I honestly have never seen so many damned birds in my life. I thought Houston was bad, but this takes the cake.
 
In re-reading my part 2 I realized I left out a few big exhibits in that area. Main ones are for Lowland and Malayan Tapirs. It is cool to see these two animals next to each other for comparison. They are in the old Hippo enclosure. Both are very old animals. Man the Malayan is a lot bigger than the Lowland.

Next was one of my favorites. In particular because it was one of the animals I went down there to see in particular. Tomistomas! Great exhibit. I got some cool close ups of them swimming. It was a real treat to see Tomistomas and Gharials in the same zoo. On a special note they are the subject of the current episode of my new podcast at zoologicapodcast.com. (Thought I would get a shameless plug in somehow. Oh wait, plug indicates I'm selling something, this is just given out of the kindness of my heart. Also I'm bored.)
 
Really enjoying your reviews, especially the San Antonio zoo, as you have said this is a majorly under represented zoo on here.
 
San Antonio III - the grottoes of dispair!

When we last left off, we had met the Australian exhibit with that one animal just slightly out of place. Now we continue on to the big carnivores. All are housed in the most barren grottoes imaginable. First up is the Spotted Hyenas. Cool seeing them, but terrible exhibit. One Hyena was pacing constantly which made me look closer to at the exhibit. There was not a single element of enrichment in there. I cannot imagine the boredom of these animals. Just a single shade structure. Next up was the Sumatran Tiger. Here we have a winner for WORST TIGER EXHIBIT EVER. How to describe this. Just a grotto carves out of the side of a limestone embankment (the whole zoo is this was, an abandoned quarry I believe). There are no trees, plants, shade, natural substrate, or enrichment. There is a 20 feet deep moat that has a completely sheer drop off. The tigers have access to this moat via means of a small stairway. When I went by the tiger was in the moat huddled in the one spot of shade to be had. The exhibit was very spacious though. At least they didn't have Siberians like the last time I went. Next up were the lions. Same song, different verse. There were a few plants here, but they looked like the kind of thing that grows through solid rock and laugh in the face of the most powerful weed killer. If anything it was bigger than the tiger "exhibit." Across from these was a decent exhibit for Speke's Gazelle. I always love seeing an antelope I've never seen before. Antelope and Giraffes are without a doubt my favorite animals, and I saw 3 species of new antelope yesterday, oh joy.

Speaking of antelope, next up are the antelope stadium seating section. There are 3 terraced exhibits for hoofstock. If you've seen the pics from @zebraduiker then you know how bad they are. Currently here are Addax, Dama Gazelle, and Okapi. Yes indeed, we have a winner for the worst okapi exhibit ever. Well almost. The terraces are fenced off so the okapi can't climb the stairs. Good news here though Africa Live 2 will have a brand new okapi exhibit so this is only temporary. I think that there are a lot of antelopes off exhibit (Greater and Lesser Kudu, Arabian Goitered Gazelles, Jackson's Hartebeest, etc). Shame I couldn't see them. oh well, 2 of the 4 I can see at work in great exhibits and a 3rd I can just go to Fort Worth and see them in a great exhibit. As for those Hartebeest, damn it, so close, but no cigar.

Next up is the Rift Valley exhibit. This is a great set of exhibits. One of the top 3 at the zoo. You start out climbing a steep ramp that cannot be ADA approved into an aviary with crowned cranes, sacred ibis, and a whole lot of other birds. There is themeing this time, yeah. Past here is another aviary with more birds (duh). You actually are walking through the habitat here, just some stones mark out the pathway. One complaint this whole set of exhibits is off limits for anyone disabled or anyone with a stroller. Next up was a treetop lookout with nothing to look out on. Under the lookout were crested porcupines and Kirk's Dik-Dik (another new species for me, all I have ever seen were Günther's). Next up was the cheetah exhibit. Again I quite liked it. Varied terrain, lots of shade, good viewing opportunities, not complaints here. So ends a great set of exhibits. Probably one of the least visited areas of the zoo too due to its inaccessibility.

Next up the rhinos. Not as bad as I was expecting from the photos on here, but still bad. 2 Eastern Blacks and 2 Southern Whites. Man I could really see the size difference here. I am used to the Blacks at my zoo, but the Whites are huge compared to them, they made the Blacks seem small and insignificant. These rhino pens are just stupid and ugly and lord do they hold the smell in just right. Again they are planning on getting a new home in Africa Live 3, but that is several years down the road. How to accurately describe these...random comes to mind. The rhinos are in pits basically, like your old style bear pit, except out of necessity much bigger. If all of the barriers were taken out and reconfigured, it might be ok for one species, but not two. It seems that at one time there were more areas accessible to the rhinos. Under the bridges were gates leading into the cheetah area and the savanna.

The Savanna: nice, but one little quibble. Here are a single Grevy's Zebra, lots of Crowned Cranes, Marabou Storks, 2 Jimela (yeah another new antelope), a single ostrich, and seemingly in the same exhibit a single giraffe. It is the giraffe that I have my quibble about. At least from my vantage point, it have virtually no room. Just a narrow corridor to walk back and forth away from the rest of the animals. Maybe it was bigger, and maybe it actually had access to the rest of the exhibit that I didn't see, but I don't think so.

Next up is the elephant. A single old Asian. I know IDA has labeled this one of the worst elephant exhibits in the country. I can't really blame them, but I know there are some reasons why SAZ has kept their elephant. First off, the exhibit. Not the worst, but still fairly small, but then again ok for a single elephant, but then again elephants are social animals so they need more room for more animals, but then again they are planning a new elephant exhibit in Africa Live 3, but then again that is supposed to be for African Elephants and not the Asian that they have, but then again..oh wait I think that's all. Lucky the lone Elephant is 49, old by elephant standards. From everything I've read, moving an elephant at her age is a leading contributor to death, and last I heard you can't recover from that. So Lucky is staying due to old age, no plans to bring in a new companion, and Africans will be coming in a few years. What a mess SAZ has gotten themselves into.

One more section of the zoo before I close out the third installment. This is what I could call Pig and Duiker Row because that was it was a row of nothing but pigs and duikers. Warthogs (good exhibit), Blue Duiker (boring exhibit need to be mixed with something else to be exciting), Yellow-Backed Duiker (boring exhibit and not out to be seen), Red River Hogs (decent exhibit, but could be a lot bigger), and 2 areas for Babirousa. One Babirousa exhibit was a simple holding yards like all of the others on the row (boring exhibit), but the other exhibit was a nice, lush, grassy yard (good exhibit).

I leave you for now good readers, but there is one area left at the zoo. It is the much anticipated Africa Live 1. Here I will talk about the current exhibit (river animals) and the two upcoming phases (2 and 5. I mean 3 sir).
 
San Antonio Zoo - Africa Live!

We finally come to the end of our journey, and I leave you with the newest creation of the SAZ - Africa Live. What is here now is the 1st phase of a 3 phase remodel of a good chunk of the zoo. Phase 1 is all river animals. Phase 2 will be okapi, hunting dogs, a kopje, and yet another aviary. Phase 3 will be elephants, rhinos, and dik-dik (weird twist at the end there). Phase 2 is well under construction and will open up in the spring. Phase 3 is still in the planning stages.

So about Africa Live 1. I love, LOVE, this exhibit!!!!!!!! It is a contender for best hippo exhibit out there. So lets start with the hippos. You enter the building (oh yeah the whole exhibit is all indoors and air conditioned - for the people anyway) and immediately you see the first hippo viewing window. At apporx. 30 feet long it give you a great above water and underwater view of the 2 hippos. Lots of colorful fish are swimming about with the hippos. A bank on the edge of the water give the hippos some land area. Everything here is about being linear, so while it may not be wide it is long. There is a 2nd viewing window the same size as the 1st making at least 60 feet of total windows. Everything here seems to be done extremely well. Great filtration as the water was as clear as it could be even with defecating hippos. The rock work looked great and was very natural looking.

Everywhere around you in this exhibit are fossils. In the walls, on the floors, on benches, it makes it feel like you are with the Leakeys in Kenya. Next to the hippos is a nice aquarium for Lake Tanganyika cichlids. On the other side of the hippos is a smallish area for a single sub-adult Nile Crocodile. Nice area, might be too small for a full grown croc, but for the animal there it was fine. Next to the Nile Croc was a door that led to the unfinished phase 2 and next to that was a civet. It was the 1st civet I've seen and was taken in by the zoo from Moody Gardens after Ike. Next to here were some snakes - Gaboon Vipers and Rock Pythons. Good exhibits for all 3 animals (civets and snakes) and the python exhibit was quite big for the snakes. Next to here was a great exhibit for Dwarf Crocodiles. Good underwater viewing of the two cute crocs.

Along the back wall of the exhibit are smaller enclosures for dung beetles, scorpions, and frogs. Also is another big tank for more colorful African Fish.

Currently you exit through a side door near the gift shop, but when phase 2 opens up this area will serve as a launching site for the next area. This is a phenomenal set of exhibits. I'm glad I saved them for the last exhibit I saw at the zoo. It left a good impression in my mind about the future direction of this zoo.

Summary time. There are 3 outstanding exhibit at the SAZ. Of course Africa Live, but also the Gibbons and the Rift Valley. Some of the other exhibits a just good, while a lot are awful. Why this zoo is praised so much here in Texas as being one of the best I think has to do with my formula that I concocted in another thread http://www.zoochat.com/2/general-publics-view-zoo-100036/. San Antonio scores a solid 80 lacking only the great apes. Reasons to go to SAZ are of course if you are bid obsessed or want to see 7 species of crocodilians (Nile, Dwarf, Orinoco crocs, gharial, tomistoma, American Alligator, and Dwarf Caimen), and of course the great Africa Live. With the completion of both Phases 2 and 3 this zoo will get a lot better, but it still has a long way to go. So on my scale of 1-10 San Antonio gets a 4.5, below average.

Here is a recap of the scores.

Caldwell Zoo 8.5
Dallas World Aquarium 8
Cameron Park Zoo 7.5
Fort Worth Zoo 6.5
Houston Zoo 5
San Antonio Zoo 4.5
Frank Buck Zoo 2.5
Ellen Trout Zoo 2

Without doing a review of Dallas I will score it. Currently I would put it at 7, but with the new expansion and upcoming renovations that would move to 8 or 8.5.
 
Judging from the photos of the San Antonio zoo, and the many negative comments from fellow ZooChatters in the gallery, that Texas establishment is sadly disappointing. The tiger, lion and hyena enclosures all appear to be terrible, the bizarre and haphazard mixing of animals from all different continents is questionable, the hoofstock terraces are abominable, the okapi "exhibit" is a joke (thank goodness it is only temporary), keeping a single elephant is frowned upon according to the AZA and anyone with good common sense, the rhino pits are horribly small, there are the typically crap bear grottoes, etc. Half of the zoo seems to be set in a rock quarry, providing the visitor with some of the ugliest enclosures known to humankind. Then there are row upon row of birds in basic enclosures...

@jbnbsn99: I'm basically just summarizing some of the comments in the photo gallery, and my own feelings towards what appear to be many subpar enclosures at this Texas zoo. In the long review there was a statement about "a lot of awful" exhibits, and so are you saving up the good photos for later? You critized Fort Worth for not having many decent animal exhibits at all (only a good collection), and so where does that put San Antonio? Maybe Dallas and Caldwell are the only two excellent zoos in all of Texas? Would you agree with that? Maybe Cameron Park Zoo as a third possibility? After all, you are the official Texas zoo ambassador on this site.:)
 
snowleopard said:
I'm basically just summarizing some of the comments in the photo gallery, and my own feelings towards what appear to be many subpar enclosures at this Texas zoo. In the long review there was a statement about "a lot of awful" exhibits, and so are you saving up the good photos for later? You critized Fort Worth for not having many decent animal exhibits at all (only a good collection), and so where does that put San Antonio? Maybe Dallas and Caldwell are the only two excellent zoos in all of Texas? Would you agree with that? Maybe Cameron Park Zoo as a third possibility? After all, you are the official Texas zoo ambassador on this site.:)
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To me, Fort Worth is still the Lone Star State's #1 zoo. While I'm well aware that Texas Wild! has its detractors here, as our host has agreed, the animals "aren't suffering". IMHO, Texas Wild is the state's best "pull that family off the interstate" exhibit. Dallas' Wilds of Africa is nearly as good. As for San Antonio, it has a few VERY nice exhibits and some "outdated" ones, but it still has the state's best collection of animals, and since "animal collection" is one (of many) factors in rating zoos, San Antonio has to be considered "one of" the state's top zoos.
 
I really want to see Dallas Zoo, and I think if I ever went to that area, and had to choose between the Dallas Zoo or Fort Worth I would most definitely choose Dallas. The Giants of the Savanna looks like it will be one of the best exhibits in any zoo, possibly a top 10 contender. Once that opens in the spring I don't see how Fort Worth could be better.
 
@ANyhuis: what is the point of having an impressive collection of animals if they are often kept in subpar enclosures? That is the old "postage-stamp mentality" of zoo-collecting, where an incredibly diverse assemblage of creatures were once jammed into as many parts of a particular zoo as possible. London and Berlin used to be two of the biggest contributors to that notion of showcasing wildlife, which thankfully died out decades ago. I know that is not exactly what you are getting at as we email each other all the time and I understand your viewpoints, but I'm not the only one that has been a little shocked by the San Antonio photos. Declaring that the zoo has some "outdated exhibits" is certainly an extremely kind way of putting things, as I can think of a few more adjectives that spring to mind. ZooChatters from all over the world have made comments on the below average exhibits from the San Antonio Zoo, but the zoo does receive a million visitors a year, has a few nice habitats, and definitely has a wide-ranging animal collection. However, I'd take quality over quantity any day of the week. I agree that San Antonio is regarded as one of the top zoos in Texas, but that is one scary fact.

As far as Fort Worth is concerned, again there is a great collection there and having all 4 great apes in one place is terrific for visitors. But not one of those ape exhibits are above average, and in my opinion (ever so humble:)) Fort Worth is an average zoo that is probably a top 30 zoo in the United States, but with MOLA opening next year then it could rise in my estimation. Again, if this is the best that Texas has to offer then that is a scary fact.

Dallas seems as if it is the #1 zoo in the Lone Star State, and with the huge new African section opening in 2010 then I'd be shocked if more people didn't begin viewing the establishment in a new light. Toss in Caldwell and Cameron Park and the "Lone Star" suddenly shines a little brighter.
 
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