jbnbsn99's Texas Zoos

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MOLA Time!

Finally, after 3 years of waiting I have visited the MOLA (Museum of Living Art) at the Fort Worth Zoo. This may be the most pretentious name ever given an exhibit. It is a play on MOMA the Museum of Modern Art. So let's begin our review.

I got to the zoo a little before it opened at 10:00. Why the FWZ opens so late is beyond me. There were at least 100 people waiting to get in the zoo. The gates opened and I made a v-line (or is a b-line, I never get those two right) to the MOLA. I get there and finally get to see the new Saltwater Crocodile. Another tick on my all time crocodilian list (13 out of 23). He is massive. I'm used to our large Nile Crocs at Dallas and the Orinoco Crocs at the DWA. This guy takes the cake. 15.5 feet long probably 1,400 pounds. Exhibit is on the small side for such a huge croc and the pool may not be quite deep enough, but it is ok. Next to this is the new exhibit for Gharials. Excellent exhibit. Deep pools, sandy bank, lots of fish and turtles in the water, and great panoramic viewing from outside the MOLA, inside the MOLA, and inside the Cafe.

I finally try and enter the MOLA. LOCKED. No one was smart enough to open the damn doors. I wait. I wait some more. I ask the security guard to open the door. Why was the door even locked to begin with?

Anyway, you could care less about locked doors. I get in and first this is a Crocodile Monitor. There are indoor and outdoor exhibits for them. Not too bad. Now I am not going to do a full on species list, that would take too long. I've got photos of nearly every single exhibit so they will take care of that.

There is a mixture of traditional glassed in terrariums and floor to ceiling (or near ceiling) exhibits. The large exhibits are by far the best. The traditional exhibits are really no different than the ones in the old building. The large exhibits are usually excellent.

Here is a break down of the large exhibits.
Burmese Python - Tall, 3-sided glass exhibit
Fly River Turtles - Smallish, wraps around the corner of a wall (turtles also with Gharials
King Cobra - same design as Python
Flooded Forest - 2 huge herp exhibits. 1 is Amazonian with arowanas, caimen lizards, frogs, stingrays, etc. The other is African with Dwarf Crocs and a few fish and turtles.
Tropical Trails - 2 large exhibits for southeast Asian animals. Fish, and turtles, and Quince Monitors, and others.
Indigo Snake - same as Python and Cobra

Other highlights -
Chinese Giant Salamander - in the very center of the MOLA in an open interpretation center. Staffed with a keeper present talking about the various herps. Behind here is the nursery which can be seen behind glass.

Komodo Dragons - Only one seen in the inside exhibit. Inside exhibit is too small. Ooutside exhibit is a dry scrub type exhibit. No lizard seen today.

Outdoor exhibits (non-herp)
Ring-Tailed Lemur - Awful exhibit. Way, way too small. Keeper on guard to make sure the lemurs didn't escape.

Macaw - simple perch, nothing exciting

Golden Lion Tamarin and Sloth - Looks like this was thrown together out of some left over lumber and some chicken wire.

Aldabra Tortoise - Nice yard for the tortoises

Waterfowl - Ducks

Overall the big exhibits at MOLA are excellent, some of the best I've seen. The Gharial exhibit is the best crocodilian exhibit I've ever seen. The smaller exhibits are so-so, nothing you can't see at any other reptile house. The non-cold blooded exhibits are awful. The interpretation elements are again excellent. So MOLA is not what I was hoping it to be, but it is probably still one of the best reptile houses out there. Maybe a 7 out of 10.
 
THANK YOU as always. Too bad about the lemur etc exhibits, makes me wonder why they even have those at this building. But gharials are almost certainly the most interesting looking crocs around and very glad to hear about their nice exhibit. Eating lunch at the new cafe with underwater viewing of them would be a real treat. (Of course not as much of a treat as eating lunch while overlooking my beloved cats - lions and cheetahs - at the soon-to-open Dallas Zoo cafe, but a treat nonetheless).
 
jbnbsn99 said:
So MOLA is not what I was hoping it to be, but it is probably still one of the best reptile houses out there. Maybe a 7 out of 10.
Click to expand...

Whoa, whoa, whoa! As the only other person her who has seen it, i think you are low balling the score here. I'm going with 8.5/10. The style of the large exhibits (I'm looking at the King Cobra one) with how it can be viewed from 3 sides really excited me. The education stuff in the middle was good as well. I do think the Komodo inside exhibit was weak but I would not call their exterior portion a "scrub." It was a good size, decent ground work, with a nice pool. I loved the large wall to wall tanks for the flooded forests. Heck, giving any snake a floor to ceiling tank is impressive to me.

That and the lighting + digital projectors for exhibits did a lot for me, it felt modern, it felt like it was going to hold up well through the years. I'm knocking points off for the exterior not fitting with anything else in the exhibit though.
 
I agree, but when you bill yourself as the premier reptile exhibit in the country/world I would expect everything to be outstanding.

The digital stuff is ok, but not what I judge an exhibit on. I look at the actual exhibitry. The digital projections can enhance that, but it is not an essential. You can do without it and nothing would change.

Yes, the big exhibits are great, but everything else is mediocre. It looks like the outside stuff was completely skimped on and not at all done to the original design.

With the Komodo I was referring to "scrub" as a habitat type not a knock on the exhibit.

With the exception of the large crocodilian exhibits, I've seen everything else done at other zoos. Nothing truly innovative here.

By no means do I think MOLA is bad, but it does not live up to it's hype.
 
THANK YOU for the review, and this thread continues to illustrate excellence on ZooChat. Did you tour the entire Fort Worth Zoo, or primarily focus on MOLA? The zoo has a fairly impressive collection of animals, including being the only zoo in North America with all 4 species of great apes, but on my visit in 2008 I found most of the exhibits to be average at best and thus MOLA is probably the #1 aspect of the zoo.
 
Of course I visited the whole zoo, but mainly spent my time in MOLA. The collection is not lacking. Everyone always makes a big deal of the apes (BTW, it's 4 of 6 species), but if they can't display them decently who cares. MOLA is now the best aspect of the zoo. I'm curious to find out what will take the place of the old Herpetarium,
 
I was hoping the Fort Worth Zoo would get more primates, but where and how they are housed is totally inappropriate...Maybe these exhibits will be only temporary?
I'm sure the FWZ could at least make decent exhibits for those animals in the meantime...I haven't seen it yet, but it seems to be an average reptile house with a large collection, many decent and some excellent exhibits, and a few poor ones.
 
I doubt for more primates. I also doubt these are temporary. Just uploaded pics of those exhibits. Worst Lemur exhibit ever!
 
Blackduiker

I must say first of all, thank you jbnbsn99 for the unbiased review. I have followed your posts, and know how excited you were in anticipation of the opening of MOLA. But quite frankly, I'm a bit disappointed for both you and myself, and I'm sure many others on this site. I was hoping to hear nothing but great things concerning this new exhibit, but still hope to visit one day. I haven't even checked out the photos yet, so my own observation may see things a bit differently. Well, at least the long wait is finally over, and I'm sure many species will benefit from their stay there. I'm hoping for something decent when L.A.'s new reptile, amphibian and insect center opens early next year as well.
 
I am always too harsh I think. The anticipation is always better than the pay off. I still love the new reptile house, get rid of the outdoor stuff and it will be fine. Maybe a 2nd visit is in order.


{Edit - this thread continued here - Sim'}
 
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