July 2024 Texas Zoo Mini-Road Trip Mini-Review

[biggest_dreamer]

From June 29 through July 5 of this year, I visited one or two different zoological facilities in the state of Texas (or Oklahoma!) every day - a total of 11 different facilities of wildly differing scale and quality. It was the first time I'd done a trip quite so in depth, so it felt like there was a lot that could've very easily gone very wrong and yet nothing major did.

Some quick establishing info: my wife attends an annual conference each July in a different part of the country, and this year placed us in San Antonio. The last time I accompanied her was to Denver in 2019, during which I only visited Denver Zoo. I really regret not renting a car that time and pushing to also visit Cheyenne Mountain, and Pueblo, and...! Anyway, I wanted to make the most of it this time, so I spent months coming up with a list of facilities to hit, rented a car with unlimited mileage, and set out to visit a different zoo or two each day before returning back to San Antonio to sleep. I realize that this isn't the most efficient way to tackle a trip like this, but it was nice being able to return to the same place and see my wife each night.

I'm calling this a mini-review because while I don't imagine I actually have much insightful to say, I also know I can be overly wordy and will probably wind up touching on more than I anticipate going in. I did take lists of every tetrapod species I saw (so no fish or invertebrates, and also no snakes because I'm horribly phobic, and also nothing that was signed/unseen), but they were mostly intended to be for my personal reference so I won't be posting them outright unless requested.

Anyway.

Friday, June 28
Woke up at home in South Carolina and proceeded to drive to Atlanta for our flight. Amusingly, the first animals of the trip came before the zoo leg even started - we found ourselves behind a trailer taking at least 3 zebras somewhere in the direction of Atlanta. I wonder where they were coming from, and where they were going? I rode alongside this trailer for quite some time because I was terribly amused by the zebras and thought they might be a sort of good luck omen (okay, not really. but maybe.)

After saying goodbye to the zebras as we reached Atlanta proper, the rest of getting into Texas was a fairly seamless affair. Flight, pick up the rental car from Enterprise at the airport. I was actually incredibly nervous about the rental car as it was my first time getting one (I've ubered everywhere in previous flight-based trips), but aside from the cost being a bit more than I would've liked every part of the rental car experience was refreshingly simple and stress free. Off to a good start.

Oh, and I should note, despite San Antonio being "home base" for the trip, we actually started off in Dallas. The original plan was to hit Dallas World Aquarium and maybe one of either Fort Worth or Dallas Zoo with my wife before her conference started in full, and perhaps spend a day exploring Austin as we made our way down to San Antonio, but those plans got shaken up as I started tacking more and more zoos onto the whole thing. But still, we had two nights in Dallas and I think we made the most of them.

My next post will start things off with day 1 of the trip proper, our first day in (and immediately out of) Dallas.

 

[biggest_dreamer]

Saturday, June 29
Now that we were in Texas, the first thing to do was leave Texas.

In the week leading up to the trip, I'd more or less settled on doing Fort Worth Zoo on the 29th and Dallas World Aquarium on the 30th (then returning for Dallas Zoo later in the week). However, 2 days before we left, it somehow only just then dawned on me that Oklahoma City was oddly close to Dallas. I hadn't considered leaving Texas for this trip, but as soon as I made this realization, I knew we had to make the trip - as some of you are no doubt aware, Oklahoma City is the only zoo in the country that keeps raccoon dogs, a species my wife and I had absolutely fallen in love with during their time at Zoo Atlanta. It took no convincing whatsoever to get her agree to go to Oklahoma City on Saturday and then cramming both DWA and DZ in on Sunday.

Also, I'd like to point out this post that I unknowingly made just two weeks before visiting Oklahoma City Zoo (specifically it was with regard to their raccoon dogs):

This is literally the only reason I keep up with this zoo on the other side of the country that I am otherwise unlikely to ever visit.

I appreciate irony when it works out in my favor.

The drive to and through Oklahoma was very peaceful, as was the vast majority of this trip. This was my first time in either of these states and I'd heard horror stories about driving in Texas in particular, which I now feel that I can confidently say were vastly over-exaggerated. I'd take driving in Texas a hundred times over before I'd want to drive in Georgia.

Oklahoma City Zoo

I tried to grab a photo of the entrance or entry sign of each facility I visited, but probably forgot about half the time.

Oklahoma City Zoo, which I cannot help myself from calling Oklahoma Zoo and no doubt will at some point in this post, immediately impressed, right out of the gate. Once you're inside the zoo, you're immediately led to an enticingly vertical lemur enclosure - and I'm only just now as I'm writing this realizing that this and so many of the other areas near the entrance were only just opened a few months ago, in March. This explains why so much of the Africa section - from the mixed species savannah, to the aforementioned lemurs, the new honey badger (unfortunately a no-show for me), and perhaps best of all the pachyderm house-turned-small animal house, looked so new and refined. But really, for as nice as they looked, I was at this zoo for a very specific reason, and I needed to take care of that before I could truly appreciate anything else.

There they are! The joy I got from being able to see what is probably my favorite species again after so many years was indescribable. A pair of raccoon dogs, who I would later find out were named Toshi and Yuna, were trotting around, being dopey, hopping in and out of their water, just showcasing all of that unique charisma that made me fall for Atlanta's brother duo so many years ago. Their exhibit and those connected to it (which housed African crested porcupine, white stork, and a combination of southern screamer and Patagonian mara) all seemed more or less sufficient for their inhabitants, but I imagine most of you can probably recognize instantly that they used to be bear grottos. Glad the zoo was able to put them to good use.

Back to the small animal house - I cannot wrap my head around how this place could have ever been a pachyderm house, and that's probably for the best. It's not a world class showcase by any means, but it was cozy, at least. Another example of putting aged architecture to good use.

The honey badger was my biggest individual miss (would've bene a lifer, I walked past that exhibit no less than 7 times over the course of the day), but it's perhaps worth noting that the half dozen or so species of felines found in the Cat Forest were also all MIA on my visit. Walking through an entire exhibit complex like this without a single animal visible suddenly made me very worried about the rest of the week - had I really misjudged how many animals would be out? I know it's hot, but like... it's not that hot, right? It kind of is. Oh no.

Thankfully those fears were very short-lived as we headed into the Oklahoma Trails complex, which is now hands down my favorite example of a native species section (although several other zoos would go on to take their own respectable shots at that title later in the week). It felt so comprehensive, so immaculately structured, such a wide range of species including several that were new to me - most notably the swift fox and ringtail. The swift fox was kind enough to emerge from its burrow so that we could get a proper look, and the pair of ringtails were so amazingly active - lucky too, because although I'd go on to see ringtail exhibits at three more zoos this week, there'd be not a hint of movement in any of them. Also for what it's worth, while I've seen countless nine-banded armadillos in the wild, this was my first time actually seeing one in a zoo, and I got to see it burrowing in its hay to boot. Go figure.

Honestly I don't have too much specific to say about most of the rest of the zoo, just that it was all very well done and I enjoyed every moment here. The Asia section and what I assume are the older parts of the Africa section were very good but maybe not quite as outstanding as some of the newer stuff... but even then, the elephant and Indian rhinoceros exhibits in particular seemed very extensive.

Regrettably, I wasn't able to make it to the herpetarium. They often wind up being the bottom priority during packed days due to my snake phobia but more than anything just the fact that I generally prefer mammals over all else. If I ever find myself back here, I'd make it a priority though, because the outdoor wetlands area leading up to it seemed very nice. Also I think Raptor Ridge was closed off during my visit, or else I just somehow missed it entirely? Also disappointing.

I think I initially thought I'd include more pictures as I went along in this post, but as I'm typing this out and looking back at my pictures they just really aren't speaking to me. I don't think they're very good lol. Maybe I'll feel better about the coming days, after I got my footing a bit better with regard to this whole trip format.

I will share this one, though - as a kid I visited Chicago, and memorably brought home a set of 4 dinosaur "Mold-A-Rama" molded figures from the Field Museum. There's these quaint little old machines that presses the figure right in front of you. A few years ago on a return trip to Chicago, I was delighted to discover that both the museum as well as Brookfield Zoo still had them all over the place, so I returned with a handful for a new collection. Turns out OKC Zoo has something that's... honestly I'm not sure what the difference is, but these were called Mold-A-Matic and it was the same concept and basically the same machine so I'm not sure if it's a rival company or just a different line under the same company but I got a few more here (and another Mold-A-Rama proper later in the week at San Antonio Zoo)

The flamingos were for me to keep, and the giraffe was for my niece - we'd just visited Brights Zoo's spotless giraffe together the week before this trip. Its neck snapped in two before we even got it home though, so I guess I'll have to pull out some super glue. I also grabbed a purple red panda for myself on the way out of the zoo as well.

I guess that's it for Oklahoma City. In retrospect maybe I didn't have as much to say about it as I did for some of the later zoos in the trip, but overall it was an incredible experience and I would go back in a heartbeat. Easily would've cracked my top 5 zoos if I hadn't immediately followed it up with a bunch of other incredible places that make that ranking that much more contentious (and mind you, I haven't been to most of what are generally considered to be the top zoos in the country so I've got a rather limited pool here).

 

[snowleopard]

I love the "Mold-A-Rama" photo and thanks for taking the time to type up reviews. Keep 'em coming!

 

[robbare]

So glad you got to see the raccoon dogs! And don't feel bad about missing the honey badgers - they were a no-show for me just one week prior to your visit, and I circled their exhibit several times during my 6 hour visit.

 

[biggest_dreamer]

Sunday, June 30
In order to make Oklahoma City Zoo work without sacrificing any of my other plans, we opted to hit both Dallas World Aquarium and Dallas Zoo in one day, before driving 4 hours to our final home base in San Antonio. When I'd asked about doing this some months prior here on ZooChat, the consensus seemed to be "feasible, but not ideal" and yeah that pretty much tracks. Of the two facilities, DWA was the much more important one (it was the original reason for this whole Dallas leg), and the majority of what I wanted to see at Dallas Zoo fell in the "Zoo North" section, so it seemed like going to DWA first and leading into a potentially truncated DZ visit was the right move. This is what we ended up doing, but in retrospect I have mixed feelings.

Right off the bat, Dallas World Aquarium was outstanding, almost overwhelmingly so. I want to again thank @BerdNerd for their incredibly useful species lists covering several of the facilities on this trip. I would've been so much more overwhelmed here in particular without such a thorough recent guide to follow along with. From the moment you walk under that awning, before you even purchase tickets, you're absolutely inundated with plants and animals - I logged 15 species, most new to me, before I'd even spent a dime.

The "Aquarium" title, of course, feels like a bit of a misnomer, considering the aquatic exhibits were what felt like the part closest to being underwhelming for me. I went in thinking of it as more of a zoo or perhaps aviary, and that's much more accurate to what I got. This place goes to truly great lengths to make sure that no square inch of building is wasted - there's little penguins in the gift shop! Macaws you'd never notice if you didn't turn around backwards after ascending a staircase! The zoo-rare Colombian red howler monkeys on top of a concession stand! Black-and-white hawk-eagle that you almost need binoculars to spot! A pudu so shrouded in foliage that the average visitor would miss it entirely (and unfortunately, I missed it despite returning to the exhibit as many times as was feasible). It is difficult to imagine how this collection could be expanded without buying out even more buildings to assimilate into the mix.

The nonstop barrage of species truly can't be understated, and the foliage surrounding them every step of the way secured DWA's standing as a one of a kind experience. My wife likened it to the sort of "Disney magic" that patrons of those parks are no doubt familiar with. Just eyeballing my life list, this place alone gave me 5 cotingas, 3 manakins, 4 tanagers, 4 parrots, 4 columbiformes, 5 hornbills, 7 toucans, and my first 2 tinamous, all first time entrants, to say nothing of the countless repeat species and less well represented clades as well. Of those repeat species, perhaps the most amusing was the shoebill, which now lets me say I've seen every individual shoebill on exhibit in the US.

If I had to designate a star of the show, as the raccoon dogs had been the day prior, though, there's no contender besides the three-toed sloth. Dallas World Aquarium infamously keeps the only ones found outside of their native range, and the opportunity to see such an iconic yet elusive species was what made this place the first must-visit facility I settled on when trip planning. Its location within the aquarium, in front of a large window on a climbing frame with no leaves, ensures that it's impossible to miss, but the bright window also made it impossible to get a satisfactory photo. Regardless, what made it so memorable wasn't seeing it climbing around (and it was honestly as active as any of the most active two-toed sloths I've ever seen), but instead catching a keeper carrying by hand, coming up the stairs right behind us as I assume she was rushing it to its post. This allowed me such a good look at it, I couldn't have asked for better timing. I almost instinctively snapped a picture, but thought better of it for the keeper's sake. Instead I'm left with this silhouette from its usual spot.

I've gushed about this place pretty intently, but I should also note that it's certainly not perfect. My #1 complaint, which I've seen echoed ad infinitum here on ZooChat, was the absolutely dismal signage. Seriously, I would've been up a creek in IDing the vast majority of these strange, colorful birds or especially locating the most obscure enclosures if not for BerdNerd's aforementioned guide. I'd recommend that any potential visitors give it a look over even if it's bound to be incredibly outdated by the time you visit, if only for how well it helps locate all of those "secret" exhibits.

Secondly, while it didn't strike me as being as bad as some had led me to believe, some of the exhibits did seem small for their inhabitants. I think the birds and fish generally made out okay in this regard, but several of the primates, the pudu, the anteaters (who are apparently a very rare sight!), and especially the dwarf caimans seemed like they deserved better. Maybe there's more space for them backstage, but this seems to be a very unfortunate outcome of making use of every square inch of the facility. And for better or worse (thinking on it, probably worse), the exhibits were generally so lush and had so much window dressing that their actual livability seldom crossed my mind during my actual visit.

Oh, I should also note that the food here was incredible. I'm a vegetarian so I just had a Beyond burger (which honestly was very welcome compared to the "uhh I guess I'll just have a pretzel" treatment I get from so many zoos) but my wife ordered the "sate of the day", which was pork. She's been raving about it basically nonstop ever since. (for the record, I got a "Yum Yum Bowl" at Oklahoma City Zoo. It was edamame, quinoa, purple cabbage, carrots, and some other veggies drowned in yum yum sauce. It was only just decent, but major points for being something different)

Overall, this was another incredible experience (because the whole place really did feel like an experience). I'm again dying to go back. I had assumed beforehand that after this trip, I'd be unlikely to ever wind up in Texas again, but all of these zoos now have me thinking otherwise. Overall I'd maybe give DWA a slight edge over OKC, but that's bound to change from day to day, as they were both genuinely fantastic facilities.

I originally intended to write about Dallas Zoo in this same post since it was a relatively short trip on the same day, but I've run on for long enough as it is and it's lunch time. I'll probably do that one later this afternoon.

 

[turkeyfox]

Loving this! For what it's worth, those mold-a-matic giraffes and flamingos look identical to the mold-a-rama offerings at the Milwaukee County Zoo other than the letters at the bottom, so I'm sure they're from the same company (otherwise there's some copyright infringement going on).

 

[biggest_dreamer]

Sunday, June 30, continued
After leaving the aquarium, we headed straight for Dallas Zoo.

Dallas Zoo seems to be roughly split in two - just past the entrance is Zoo North, to my understanding the older portion of the zoo with a collection spanning predominately Asia and South America along with both a bug house and a herpetarium, and then by crossing through a tunnel spanning a highway, you reach the zoo's expansive African section that at a glance seems to be about the same size as the rest of the zoo. I would've loved to be able to tour the whole facility, but it was immediately apparent that it was hotter than anticipated and we were a bit tired and still had our 4 hour drive to San Antonio to go, so I figured I'd cut my losses and just check out Zoo North on this trip. I'd previously laid out a list of must-see novel species at each zoo I would visit. Dallas wound up having the shortest list, and all but one were located in Zoo North, so it seemed like a fair compromise.

I feel that since I only explored half of the zoo, I'm not fully qualified to comment on it, but based on what I saw... I guess it was alright? I didn't have any complaints with it (aside from so many animals being no-shows - not the zoo's fault, of course. It was really hot), but it also didn't wow me like I was expecting. A standard lemur island, a nice mixed-species flamingo pond, a maybe slightly above average primate row (thankfully the dusky leaf monkeys were out!). Standard fare for tiger and small-clawed otters and a couple of cranes. Again, nothing was bad but perhaps my expectations had been set a bit high?

Things decidedly picked up after entering the reptile house, at least. I had my wife scope out where I needed to avoid to avoid seeing snakes as she always does, and thanks to the gratuitously cool AC, this building was genuinely enjoyable. I saw several neat lifers including perentie and Philippine sailfin lizard, but the real showstoppers were these little guys.

Dallas is one of only a small handful of tuatara holders, and this was the main reason I never let it fall out of my plans as it was frequently at risk of doing. They're just neat, right? Not a lizard or snake or crocodilian or turtle, just entirely their own sort of reptile. I've always been fascinated by them. They're oddly cute too! They're still reptiles, so it's not like they were doing anything as I gawked at them, but I'm still so glad that I got to see them. Truly the rare (perhaps only?) reptile that would be a deciding factor in visiting a facility and not just a nice bonus.

Oh, and the herpetarium was in general just really, really nice too. Nice species variety. It felt like browsing through the wings in a museum. In many ways it felt much more museum-like than a certain other herpetarium I'll be getting to later on.

After that, the rest of Zoo North was over pretty quickly. The maned wolves weren't out, but the anteater was - sort of funny seeing this notoriously hit-or-miss species twice in one day. The raptor row was another nice touch to walk past on our way out. I am an absolute sucker for taxonomy-based zoo groupings. I know they're out of style, and I agree that geography-based layouts are probably better for general education, but there's just something about being able to see species that are so similar yet so different right next to each other that really does it for me. Give me Zoo Miami's complex with warthog, red river hog, Visayan warty pig, and babirusa over another African savannah any day.

On that note, I really do hate that I didn't get to see the African section. That's probably my one big regret about this trip. I later considered going for broke and revisiting Dallas Zoo for that reason after I visited Fort Worth Zoo, but between an incoming storm and just generally spending longer than usual at that zoo it just wasn't in the cards. I'm slightly consoled by the knowledge that the species found in that portion of the zoo were mostly standard (the only major lifer would've been klipspringer, which I have now missed at Brookfield, Lincoln Park, Brevard, and Dallas. The thing's only found in something like 10 US zoos, how many more times can I miss it?) but at the same time... elephants and giraffes in the same exhibit? A forest aviary? Really wish I could've seen it. Oh well.

There was also a small bug house on the way out. It was nice, I'd never seen a dedicated insect house before, but I don't have much to say about it honestly. So that concludes Sunday! We left from Dallas Zoo to our San Antonio hotel, hitting a Buc-ee's on the way for food. I've been to a handful of Buc-ee's in Florida and South Carolina so I mostly knew what to expect, but it was novel visiting a slightly smaller, I guess older one?

So yeah, somewhat mixed feelings about Dallas Zoo that are no doubt in part due to the weather and only getting to see half of it. In retrospect maybe I should've done it before the aquarium, but I also wanted to make sure that we weren't feeling rushed whatsoever at the aquarium, so I prioritized what I felt I needed to and still got a bit of both worlds. This is a top priority for visiting again if I get the chance, to do the whole thing right next time.

Next post will be San Antonio Zoo!

 

[biggest_dreamer]

Monday, July 1
You know, I titled this thread "July 2024 Texas Zoo..." but it didn't actually start in July. Or in Texas. But now we've reached both.

Since this trip was centered around San Antonio, San Antonio Zoo was the only destination that was a hard lock from the beginning. In my early planning stages, I hadn't even settled on renting a car yet (due to general anxiety and it sounding incredibly stressful, but again I want to stress that in reality both pickup and dropoff were the most smooth transactions I have ever done in proximity to an airport). So initially, I thought I would be relying on ridesharing apps and that maybe this would be the only proper zoo I visited, with the gaps in the week filled in by SeaWorld San Antonio and maybe one of the local aquariums or something. Glad I didn't wind up restricting myself.

San Antonio Zoo was actually what got me on board with going to Texas in the first place. In February of last year, I mentioned to my wife off hand that the zoo had bush dogs, another species we'd fallen in love with while Zoo Atlanta had them around the same time as their raccoon dogs, and whose US population is quickly diminishing. She reminded me that San Antonio was where her 2024 conference would be, and the ball got rolling from there. At that time, the zoo had two bush dogs, a pair of brothers. Since then, one has passed away and it seemed possible based on the zoo's most recent map revision that they were both gone. This wouldn't have been surprising, since I saw here on ZooChat that they were born in 2012, making them 12 this year against an average captive lifespan of 10 years. Thankfully this wasn't the case, and I got to enjoy seeing the dopey, stubby antics that first enamored me with this species for potentially one last time.

He's dozing in that photo, but when I first arrived, I was shocked to discover that he was eating (what appeared to be) a wild black vulture that he'd dragged into the back corner of his enclosure. Several other vultures awkwardly hopped around the exhibit, and I debated trying to find a staff member to make sure they were aware of this potentially unusual food that this elderly fella was eating, but no one was nearby and I also got the impression that this wasn't his first time doing this based on how comfortable he was with chowing down so I let it slide and enjoyed the show. I'd circle back later to find him trotting in and out of a small pond in his exhibit, and later a third time to find him passed out in his little tunnel. If I never get to see this species again, I think this was a nice sendoff.

While we're on canids, I also snapped this pic of a "pooch pile" to send my wife, because I enjoy how African wild dogs pile on top of each other and I enjoy calling this a pooch pile. She had originally planned to visit this zoo with me since it was just a 10 minute drive from our hotel, but after the previous two days she instead opted to get a start on doing her own thing. I don't blame her, as much as I love going to zoos with her it's also nice to be able to go strictly at my own pace. So I figured I may as well hit her with as many pooch piles as I could manage.

This zoo had a lot going for it, and in just about any other state it could have stood as the main attraction. I think that aside from the bush dog, the most memorable part is certainly the bird house, an initially unassuming little circular building that offered impressive little glimpses into an impressive number of birds. I saw my first Guam kingfisher and Guam rail here, and only as a result of this did I discover that the rail is no longer considered extinct in the wild as of a few years back. You love to see it.

There was another really impressive walk-in aviary in the Africa section that I didn't photograph, but it instantly joined the ranks of my favorite aviaries - you can enter from above, getting a head-on look at all of the highest-perched birds, while overlooking the hippos and Nile crocodile, side by side with some impressively vertical enclosure for Angolan colobus and Wolf's guenon (although I don't recall off hand if they shared the space or were merely side by side). Later on, you can enter the same aviary from the true ground level and see the birds that prefer to stay lower to the ground, as well as the monkeys and crocs from ground level, before entering an underground-themed herpetarium. Really cool vibes all around, but I didn't grab any good pictures of this area. The African section as a whole was really impressive, but unfortunately some ongoing construction seemed to block off one of the animals I was most eager to see, the secretarybird.

The Indo-Australia section was a pleasant surprise, focusing extensively on waterfowl and both true and false gharials. Supposedly my beloved Matschie's tree kangaroo had recently occupied a space here, but it was nowhere to be seen on my trip. I also only caught a quick glimpse of the yellow-footed rock wallaby, which would've been a huge bummer if I hadn't previously seen this species at Zoo Tampa. Amusingly, while the rock wallaby wanted to hide, its enclosure was also occupied by what I believe are rock squirrels, my one novel wild mammal sighting on this trip.

The rocky small mammal area was designed after my own heart. Fossa, fishing cat, ringtail (who was MIA), northern treeshrew (a new one for me), those are the exact sort of animals I always love to see most. The fossa was on the prowl, the fishing cat was lounged out in its pool, the treeshrews were acting out. Such a great little area, even if I am a bit dubious about the exhibit sizes. Speaking of small mammals, I also waited around a bit by the shared black howler/red-rumped agouti exhibit, hoping the agouti (another potential new one) would show itself, but I had no such luck. Oh well, I'd have two more shots later on in the trip, surely one would be willing to come out...?

A few more things I wanted to note. First, probably the best and highest effort joke I've ever seen on behalf of a zoo (spoilered due to multiple pictures):

Spoiler

Early on in my visit, I noticed this sign. I thought that the sign itself was the joke, appreciated it, and continued my trek towards the bush dog.

Much later on, on my way out, I entered a small dark room containing Seba's short-tailed bats, as well as...

I got a good chuckle. Are there any other zoos that have a full-on exhibit devoted to a cryptid? This would've made my day if it hadn't already been made multiple times over.

For food, I ordered a falafel flatbread at the Beastro restaurant. It was aggressively just okay. They had a truly impressive selection of Yellowbird hot sauce (9 different full-sized bottles of 4 different flavors), a favorite of mine, but I only used a small amount for my fries because I just knew I'd regret it if I went overboard.

Lastly, I grabbed another Mold-A-Rama here. None of these really spoke to me - I saw an elephant, the same giraffe as OKCZ, I believe a lion, and then a blue hippo that I settled on simply because I didn't have any blue ones yet.

It came out with quite a bit of excess plastic, but it was easy enough to remove. Later on, on my way out, I noticed a really campy looking gorilla mold that I actually did like (it reminded me very much of the goofy King Kong suit from the original King Kong vs. Godzilla), but of course that machine was the only one out of order.

I really liked this zoo a lot! Again, in just about any other state, this would've been a truly top tier facility. But man, Texas is just so stacked that somehow San Antonio manages to come out looking just "above average" in the grand scheme of things. Seriously though, I'd go back in a heartbeat, and I can't cite a single thing I disliked about the zoo. Lots of great life list additions (mostly birds) that I didn't even touch on, generally great exhibits. Can't recommend it strongly enough.

After leaving and visiting everything I cared to two or three times, it was still pretty early in the day (around 1:30), so I decided to not waste time and head about half an hour up the road to Natural Bridge Wildlife Ranch, which I was previously planning on doing later in the week. But more on that later.

 

[SwampDonkey]

After leaving and visiting everything I cared to two or three times, it was still pretty early in the day (around 1:30),

Did you do the whole zoo, or just the parts that interested you? I was under the impression this was a big zoo, maybe opening to 3pm or so to see it all (and have lunch).

 

[biggest_dreamer]

Did you do the whole zoo, or just the parts that interested you? I was under the impression this was a big zoo, maybe opening to 3pm or so to see it all (and have lunch).

I was under the impression I'd done the whole zoo save for the butterfly house and children's zoo, but now that I've gone back to check it looks like I missed the Birds of the World house as well. I'd read that San Antonio had an impressive bird collection, but the African aviary and Huron Bird House and its surrounding exhibits that I did visit seemed to more than satisfy that statement so I didn't consider that there'd be yet another one. Whoops! Looks like I missed out on, among other things, two bird-of-paradise species and the collared kingfisher. Guess now I'll have to make a return trip here in addition to Dallas!

But even then, yeah, it looks like I spent about 3 hours in the zoo including lunch and a lot of doubling back trying to catch the blue duiker (which I did eventually get) and see what the bush dog was up to now. Maybe I was a bit overly gung ho but I didn't feel like I was rushing or anything, and ultimately another bird house wouldn't have added that much more time if I hadn't missed it.

 

[USZOOfan42]

Dallas is one of only a small handful of tuatara holders, and this was the main reason I never let it fall out of my plans as it was frequently at risk of doing. They're just neat, right? Not a lizard or snake or crocodilian or turtle, just entirely their own sort of reptile. I've always been fascinated by them. They're oddly cute too! They're still reptiles, so it's not like they were doing anything as I gawked at them, but I'm still so glad that I got to see them. Truly the rare (perhaps only?) reptile that would be a deciding factor in visiting a facility and not just a nice bonus.

I believe just Dallas and Toledo have them on display.

 

[biggest_dreamer]

Monday, July 1, continued
I don't have much background with safari parks. I went to dumpy little Hollywild in upstate South Carolina several times as a kid in the 90s, and while I enjoyed it at the time I don't have any particularly strong memories of the place and by the time I started seriously visiting zoos as an adult it had all but shut down after having its reputation (rightfully) put through the wringer. I remember it being very, very dusty and only distinctly remember seeing emus there, because one of them bit my sister's finger, which became a lifelong joke amongst my family. Except in recent years they've seemingly decided that it was actually an ostrich but like, I was there! I'm probably the only one of you that could pick an emu out of a lineup of ratites, and I'm definitely the only one who knows what "ratite" means! We all agreed on it at the time, and called it an emu for the last 20-something years! It was an emu!

Much more recently, a few months ago I visited Eudora Safari Park, recently opened and also in my home state of South Carolina. It was a lot nicer and fresher than the Hollywild of my memories, and also much nicer than @SusScrofa made it sound in their 2023 southeast zoo trip, but I imagine that's largely due to having a bit more time to smooth out their roads. Still unpaved, but once we were in the gates I really had zero complaints. It seemed like this was a good enough place to compare any future safari parks I visited to.

And then of course Natural Bridge Wildlife Ranch had to go and blow that standard out of the water.

I missed the entrance so here's a sign warning of the dangers of zebras.

This place started off with a small walkthrough area containing a few common primates (ring-tailed and red ruffed lemurs, squirrel monkey, De Brazza's monkey, red-tailed guenon, and lar gibbons including an adorable very young baby), an walk-in aviary at an upcharge that you could still see fully from the outside, some grey-crowned cranes, and a mixed yard containing red-necked wallaby, an unsigned Reeve's muntjac, and unsigned rheas. The rheas were much smaller than your standard adult greater rheas so I briefly entertained the possibility that they could somehow be the much rarer Darwin's rhea, but it's obviously much likelier that they were just immature greater rheas. I'll include my (not great) pictures in case anyone else wants to definitively put that to rest.

Spoiler

The walkthrough area was nothing special, really. Fine and well-upkept especially for an unaccredited facility, but still pretty much run of the mill. Once I entered the drive-through portion, though, things quickly turned around. This place was so lush, so well-landscaped. It's clear that a lot of effort went into the trees and rockwork, nothing here was haphazard. I guess the biggest draw species-wise was barasingha, but I was also able to add axis deer, red lechwe, and Arabian oryx to my life list.

The path passes by two fenced in pens containing plains zebras and giraffes that you can feed (I didn't buy any feed) (actually maybe you couldn't feed the giraffes, that doesn't sound right) and then later two non-feeding enclosures for cheetahs and white rhinos that more closely resemble what you'd see in a more standard zoo. Despite having a really steep incline that you initially drive down and then later drive back up, the ride here was as incredibly smooth as I'd read about in @snowleopard's 2015 road trip thread that I studied extensively prior to this trip.

Really, I don't have much to say about this place beyond it being nice and very easy to see the animals super close. No notes, enjoy some more pictures.

Spoiler

Man, that nyala was stunning. I had come up with a handful of other safari parks that I wouldn't mind visiting later on in the trip if time and circumstance allowed (including Fossil Rim, Topsey Exotic Ranch, Aggieland, and Franklin Drive Trough), but ultimately none of the others worked out. And while I might have missed out on a few odd species here and there, I find it difficult to imagine any of them would've managed to be significantly better than Natural Bridge. It's going to be my new safari park gold standard.

Up next I find myself aaaaaaalmost all the way down in Mexico!

 

[biggest_dreamer]

Tuesday, July 2
Gladys Porter Zoo is a weird zoo. Prior to and even initially during this trip, I had no intention of making a thread like this, but as I walked around the bizarre, almost otherworldly Gladys Porter Zoo I decided that I really ought to document this place a bit. It was referred to as a "time capsule" in the feeler thread I made trying to settle on which zoos to visit, but that didn't even begin to prepare me for just how "off' this place felt. Not even entirely in a bad way! But if you're familiar with the concept of liminal spaces, I think Gladys Porter is basically the embodiment of this concept as a functioning zoo.

I think this picture of dromedaries says more than words could. Everything here is in this exact spectrum of beige. The dirt, the buildings, the gratuitous mock rock. Look at that mock tree! Almost every large animal here, from the ungulates to the carnivorans to the crocodilians, were in some manner of dated grotto, many (most?) of which featured no natural substrate. Gibbons and lemurs on too-small "monkey islands", crocodiles and flamingos in far too-small pools. Even the mere fact that this place is AZA accredited felt bizarre.

That's just about the entirety of what the American black bear has to work with.

Have you ever seen a pygmy hippo in a mock rock grotto?

Or how about this Matschie's tree kangaroo enclosure found in the Australia barn?

I call it a barn because that's really what it felt like. And yet, despite these bizarre conditions, Gladys Porter manages to keep an unusual number of super-rarities. Just within the Australia house alone, we find a short-beaked echidna, northern treeshrew, perentie, northern greater galago, and the aforementioned Matschie's tree kangaroo, and naturally this place isn't content to just feature your garden variety red kangaroo either, instead opting for the somewhat less common western grey kangaroo. Which... what in the world is this exhibit?

I apologize for my apparent allergy to taking horizontal photos (seriously, why did I go vertical for basically this entire trip? kicking myself.) but again: what? There was a considerably more decently sized outdoor section as well, but as best as I could tell, the kangaroos didn't actually have access to it during my visit. And yeah, I was well aware of how hot it was, but to not even give them the option to stretch their legs and get some sun? Are they just kept inside this box of hay all summer long? Someone please tell me this wasn't as insane as it looked.

Gladys Porter also has a startling number of genuine rarities, which is what kept it firmly on my radar during trip planning. Pileated gibbon, Müller's gibbon, gaur, harnessed bushbuck, plain chachalaca, mantled howler, black spider monkey (a disappointing no-show). In the not-too-distant past, this list would've also included Jentink's duiker and hirola, neither of which seem to be found in captivity anymore (maybe the duiker is somewhere?). Historically, they've also kept such head-spinning species as mountain tapir, zebra duiker, saiga, red-shanked douc, Sunda pangolin, grizzled tree kangaroo. They're even one of the few zoos that still have pangolins from that import a few years back, albeit kept behind the scenes (thankfully I saw Brookfield's a few years ago in what felt like a genuinely magical experience). All of this while largely boasting exhibtry that feels 50 years dated.

And of course, because nothing about this place seems to quite make sense, these extravagant rarities are balanced out by the zoo featuring what feels like someone's pet store haul. Domestic rabbit, domestic ferret, sugar glider, chinchilla, zebra finch, Mongolian gerbil, and axolotls all pad out the roster here. And that's not to cast judgment on what species should or shouldn't be in zoos, and it's not that it's all that uncommon to see rabbits or axolotls, but instead to highlight the intense juxtaposition here. Many zoos keep some small domestics in a children's zoo or something similar, but here they were lightly peppered throughout the collection as if the gerbils would hold equal weight to the only bushbucks in the country. Just another factor in everything about this place feeling slightly "off".

One thing that wasn't "off", thankfully, was the old reliable pooch pile, going strong on day 2. The African animals in the central section of the zoo, which included these guys, lions, yellow-backed duiker, some unseen kudu, and a mixed giraffe and dama gazelle yard, absolutely had the best habitats, by virtue of getting actual dirt and vegetation and a bit more space than the grottos that encircled them. And then there's this guy, who had unquestionably the best seat in the house - I didn't even initially realize this was a habitat, since it was a lush island completely distinct from the dusty beige that permeated the rest of this place. Seeing this sable antelope briefly walk in, look towards me from across the water, and then disappear back under the tree cover felt like spotting a unicorn.

(this specific picture isn't working, trying to figure out why - please hold)

To their credit, the American section, which I assume is newer or at least newly refurbished, was mostly pretty solid. The walk-in aviary was nice, and the bald eagle exhibit was one of the nicest I've ever seen. And then on the flip side to that, there was the aquarium, which had the exact vibe and energy of "what if someone took the lobster tank from the entrance of a Red Lobster and scaled that up to being a zoo exhibit".

Lunch was a very bland cheese pizza. My drink was served in a souvenir cup featuring artwork that I guarantee was done no more recently than the 80s, which I don't have a picture off hand but I instantly fell in love with the campiness. Another piece of highly dated borderline camp I found came in the gift shop - they had a handful of coloring books by Spirrizzi Creative which were initially published in the 70s and 80s. I had and adored their felids coloring book as a kid in the 90s which served as my first and only childhood exposure to several species that are often overlooked by pop culture, such as caracal and rusty spotted cat. I tracked it down a bought a copy for my niece a few years ago, so I grabbed her four more. When I was flipping through them later that night in my hotel, one page in particular stood out to me, these bongos:

Spoiler

I immediately recognized it as the taxidermy bongo display at Chicago's Field Museum, which I happened to have a photo I took a few years ago on my phone:

Spoiler

They're mirrored, but there's no mistaking that it's the same four bongos on the right in those exact poses. And indeed, I looked it up a bit, and found that these illustrations were originally published in an explicit "Field Museum Collection"! This is a heck of a tangent, but I was so incredibly amused that I just happened to notice that and was exactly right about it that I had to mention it.

Speaking of total tangents, given my proximity to the Mexican border (seriously, this zoo was like three blocks away from it), I was delighted to be able to effortlessly find a particular Pokémon in Pokémon Go that is only supposed to spawn in Mexico. Gladys Porter Zoo was truly a wellspring of rare animals, even fictional ones.

Ultimately, Gladys Porter Zoo goes down as the most bizarre zoo I've ever been to. Between all these exclusive species kept alongside a selection from Petco, being situated practically on top of the US border, more grottos and faux rock and concrete than I've ever seen before in my life, and an inescapable dusty beige blanketing just about every surface, I constantly flipped back and forth between feeling like I was in a different country and a different decade. It almost felt like a fever dream. It was a truly unique experience. I think it's very safe to say that this zoo is absolutely not going to be for everyone, but I'm really thankful I was able to go. Still, unless they wind up exhibiting any further rarities in the future, I think Gladys Porter would be the first zoo in this trip I would decline to revisit. And if I were to rank the zoos visited on this trip (which I may do in the end, I really haven't decided yet), this would've easily come in last place... if not for tomorrow's little... god, I don't even know what to call it.

Tomorrow takes me to Houston Zoo, but not before a quick dive into Capital of Texas Zoo!

 

[SusScrofa]

Thanks for these reviews. Gladys Porter is a really interesting zoo, it was at one point considered one of the 10 best zoos in the nation back in the 1980s, but it seems like its faded into obscurity. Do you happen to know if the Bushbuck are breeding? I do know its been confirmed on here that the zoo is still breeding their Gaur.

Also this may just be an issue on my side but many of your photos are not showing up on your reviews, they have an 'X' by them and I also cant find them in the zoochat galleries. Are they uploaded somewhere on the site?

 

[biggest_dreamer]

Do you happen to know if the Bushbuck are breeding?

I don't know if they're doing it successfully, but I did as a matter of fact happen to observe the male and female attempting to while I was there. Fingers crossed I guess?

Also this may just be an issue on my side but many of your photos are not showing up on your reviews, they have an 'X' by them and I also cant find them in the zoochat galleries. Are they uploaded somewhere on the site?

Yeah, I'm copying them over from an unrelated site that I'd previously posted them on, and they've been super hit or miss for some reason. I've deduced that ZooChat likes .jpgs but not .pngs, and pictures that I've previously cropped don't show up either. I've been trying to fix them as I've noticed them, but I guess in that last post the awful black bear picture somehow got overlooked as I was desperately trying and failing to fix the sable antelope (which I did notate but failed to actually fix before the post edit timer ran out).

Just tried it again and the image exactly as I took it isn't working. Guess I'll start adding my pics to the gallery, that just seemed like a pain I'd rather sidestep but there doesn't seem to be any way around it.

Edit: Here's the dismal black bear grotto:

And the surprise sable antelope:

 

[biggest_dreamer]

Wednesday, July 3
The most disappointing thing about Capitol of Texas Zoo is that for as genuinely awful as it was, it's still not even the worst zoo I've been to. That "honor" would go to the now-closed Waccatee Zoo of Myrtle Beach... which does mean that Capital of Texas Zoo is the worst still-open zoo I've subjected myself to. It's bad. Everything you may have heard about it is true, except for any reports that things are turning around.

I'd read previously that once you arrive at this very remote zoo, you'll see signs instructing you to honk your car horn once you arrive. I had assumed that surely they would've come up with a better system by now (turns out I was simultaneously right and very wrong), but as soon as I pulled in I saw the sign telling you to honk, so with an awkward smirk I hit the horn and walked in.

Inside, I was greeted by these baby birds, which I later learned were Vietnamese pheasants:

And this sign on a vacant desk, phone number redacted:

So I texted whoever that was saying that I was here and would like to enter the zoo, and waited for about 10 minutes with no response. In this trailer-turned-office that I was waiting in, there were small "toys" (really the sort of cheap trinkets you'd find in a birthday part goodie bag) and a cooler with bottles of water. There was a jug with a few dollars in it saying that both of these were a dollar, and to use the honor system. Honestly? That's a great deal on bottled water, much more palatable than the $3-5 I was (constantly) paying for it at every other zoo. Too bad my insulated bottle didn't need topping off yet.

I noticed a family walking around inside the zoo. I popped my head in to ask how they managed to get in, and they said they just texted the number and waited about 10 minutes. No such luck for me, it seemed. A few minutes later, a young guy finally entered the office, I said hi, he returned the greeting, and immediately exited the other side. A few seconds later I guess he realized I was expecting something more than that, so he turned back in and said he didn't actually work there, that he was a contractor building a fence. Understandable, carry on.

Finally, after standing around watching the baby pheasants for a total of 15 minutes, a nice older lady strolled through and took my payment and finally let me in. I asked her about the zoo's Bornean bearded pig - he's the only individual of his species known to be left in the country, so I was eager to see him while I had the chance. He was my whole reason for being here. She told me where to find him, and even though I thought I followed her instructions exactly, I wound up just overshooting and finding myself walking past the exhibit.

This highlights problem number 1 with Capitol of Texas Zoo: the layout doesn't even pretend like it wants to make sense. I've been to zoos with slightly tricky maps before (in fact I felt like OKCZ's map was a bit difficult to truly follow, even though it did a fine job of showing the relative positions of everything). But this place didn't, couldn't possibly have a map. The paths were almost impossible to understand. It was difficult to even grasp where animals might be. This reference might not land for everyone, but you know the sort of late 90s video game where 3D was still a novel thing and lots of games used pre-rendered backgrounds? Think Ocarina of Time's castle town, especially the alleyways. The entire background is flat and looks the same and it can be a bit annoying to figure out where you can even walk and what you can interact with. That's the feeling I got while walking around this zoo.

Thankfully the nice lady caught up to me and asked if I found him, and then she walked me over to the exhibit and called the bearded pig out by throwing out some feed. He slowly trotted over, clearly arthritic, but otherwise in good spirits and ready to chow down. He was such a nice and handsome old boy. I'm very thankful I got to see him.

Nearby, I could also see the zoo's other supposed super-rarity, some alleged Nubian wild asses. The story, to my understanding, is that the owner came into possession of them and seems to be under the impression that they're of the critically endangered Nubian subspecies due to their phenotypic similarity to the few remaining wild ones. I believe this is a widely contentious claim, for good reason, and that the owner was supposedly going to have them DNA tested to try and confirm their heritage. As the lady walked near me feeding various animals we chatted a bit, and I asked her about them. She was aware of the DNA test but said she hadn't heard how it came back, but she did note that they'd recently had a baby. I assume that since the DNA test seemingly was done and did yield results, yet this worker who otherwise seemed very knowledgeable about the facility wasn't aware of (or was at least unwilling to speak about) the results, they were either inconclusive or not what the owner wanted to hear - that's just speculation on my part, though.

I've actually been unsure of how to log this one in my life list - calling it Nubian feels very presumptuous, but honestly so does calling it a wild ass at all. Thoughts, anyone? Are we looking at generic wild asses, ass/donkey hybrids, just neat-looking domestic donkeys, or perhaps actually Nubian wild asses...? Worth noting is that Somali wild ass, the subspecies actually found here in there in the US, doesn't have the shoulder stripe that these do, which is found in both domestics and Nubians.

The second massive problem, and by far the bigger one, with this zoo is the exhibits themselves. I'm sure we've all been to, or at least seen, really shoddy roadside enclosures. This place has just about the worst I've ever seen, again saved from coming in dead last due to Waccatee somehow managing to be that much worse. Everything looked like it was cobbled together using whatever the builders could sneak out of the scrap yard that day, absurd Frankenstein enclosures containing random segments of rotting lumber, plywood, chicken wire, and whatever else was handy, and everything was far, far too small. Bluntly, I hated it. I hated seeing it and I hated how awful I felt for all of the inhabitants. Yet despite this, I could tell that there was a great deal of love and care for the animals, at least from the lady I stayed near for about half of my visit. It's just that regardless of how much passion there is for these animals, it does very little to help them in any material way.

There's been a bit of talk here on ZooChat, and a handful of photos posted, of new exhibits that have been under construction for several years, primarily intended for the lions and Asiatic black bears. The owner had supposedly taken criticisms to heart, and was working on what would supposedly be the largest enclosures for either of those species in the state of Texas. A year ago, these exhibits were nearly done! Except when I visited, I didn't even see these exhibits, like I literally couldn't tell you where in this forested labyrinth they were even supposed to be located. The pair of Asiatic black bears (another relative rarity) were stuck in an exhibit so cramped I'd be embarrassed to leave a small dog in it. I love bears, and I hadn't seen this species since 2018, but I couldn't bring myself to dwell by them. It was painful.

After making sure to hit the "highlights" (Bornean bearded pig, ambiguous wild ass, Asiatic black bear, dingo, and so-called vervets which I had never seen), I tried to quickly work my way through the rest. There's nothing pretty here, nothing really salvageable about this experience beyond getting a nice few quiet minutes with the bearded pig. And I guess the dingoes were kind of funny, I'd never actually seen the black coat in person before.

I'm broadly not thrilled that I went here, that much should be apparent. The only possible situation in which I could recommend stopping by is if you're eager to see a Bornean bearded pig before they're gone from the US for good, and can stomach wading through depressing exhibits. I've posted before about how after revisiting Waccatee as a young adult after not really going to zoos throughout my teens, I was so aghast that I had little interest in visiting zoos period for several years. I eventually, thankfully, walked this stance back to letting myself visit AZA facilities, and then a few years ago I opened back up to unaccredited facilities that I felt I had properly vetted in advance. I knew about this place's reputation and went anyway to see the pig, and see if maybe the few voices who insisted that its reputation was overblown or that the facility was on the mend were right. That sure wasn't the case, but I got what I wanted and I'm not sure if I intend to keep dumpster diving in the interest of species hunting like this. I know they're not all this bad, but man, you really hate to see a place like this.

Thankfully, the day massively turned around once I made it to Houston Zoo. Guess that one'll come tomorrow!

 

[biggest_dreamer]

Minor addendum: Reviewing my pictures, I noticed that the new exhibit that was being constructed for the coatis alongside the supposed lion/bear ones is in use.

I think I was too overwhelmed and eager to get out of this place by the time I hit this point, but I did appreciate the nice blond coati even if I didn't fully recognize at the time that this actually was a decently-sized and engaging enough enclosure. There was at least one other very small coati enclosure containing a few active, wiggly youngsters, but I've got to give credit where it's due - this one's solid. Maybe the lion and bear enclosures really are going to see use in the hopefully near future?

 

[turkeyfox]

Thoughts, anyone? Are we looking at generic wild asses, ass/donkey hybrids, just neat-looking domestic donkeys, or perhaps actually Nubian wild asses...? Worth noting is that Somali wild ass, the subspecies actually found here in there in the US, doesn't have the shoulder stripe that these do, which is found in both domestics and Nubians.

Legend has it that Nubian Wild Asses somehow ended up on the Caribbean island of Bonaire, and the feral donkeys on that island are actually Nubian Wild Asses. I'm sure that if these individuals aren't just domestic donkeys, they're from that population (that are probably also just domestic donkeys). I'd love for that DNA test to finally come back and prove me wrong though.

Apart from the bearded pig, did you see the fanaloka? That's the other main rarity and the fact that you didn't mention it makes me worried you didn't even realize there was another huge super-rarity at this zoo.

 

[biggest_dreamer]

Apart from the bearded pig, did you see the fanaloka? That's the other main rarity and the fact that you didn't mention it makes me worried you didn't even realize there was another huge super-rarity at this zoo.

Nope, the fanaloka's been gone for a few years now, unfortunately. I did see its former enclosure, which had a little memorial marker in front.

Most of the people here on ZooChat also seemed pretty confident that the bearded pig had been dead for a few years now too, but after I noticed that it was still showing up on recent USDA reports I messaged the zoo on Facebook earlier this year. I very quickly got a response and whoever was responding to me, again, very clearly had a lot of love for the pig, telling me that he was bottle-raised and enjoyed getting scratches behind his ears. I don't doubt that the owners genuinely do care about the animals (which is objectively more than I ever could've said about Waccatee), but I also can't ignore the state of the place and think they aren't heavily misguided.

 

[turkeyfox]

Nope, the fanaloka's been gone for a few years now, unfortunately. I did see its former enclosure, which had a little memorial marker in front.

Oh no! Sad to hear that, clearly I'm out of the loop.