San Angelo Nature Center San Angelo Nature Center - Closed!

snowleopard

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San Angelo Nature Center, a small Texas 'zoo', closed down in July for a variety of reasons:

San Angelo Nature Center closed permanently | myfoxzone.com

I am the only zoo nerd to have uploaded photos of the place (34 of them) into the gallery and here's my review from my Snowleopard's 2015 Road Trip thread when I spent a lot of time visiting zoos in Texas that summer.

This is from my visit on July 17th, 2015:

San Angelo Nature Center is located in San Angelo, Texas, right next to a public beach and swimming area. This very small facility acts as a rescue place for abandoned pets but there is also a choice selection of local species that makes the establishment a must-see for zoo enthusiasts. There is a haphazard approach to the quality of the exhibits in the single building, but most of the terrariums are arranged under headings such as “Cocha Valley Venomous Snakes” or “International Exotics”. The building is like a tiny natural history museum and while the facility is barely known outside of its local community, many zoo nerds would enjoy puttering around inside and seeing a surprisingly high number of species on display.

Species List: 97 in total

Mammals (14): Bobcat, North American Porcupine, Raccoon, Gray Squirrel (albino), Gray Fox, Eastern Cottontail Rabbit, Black-Tailed Prairie Dog, Mexican Ground Squirrel, Spotted Ground Squirrel, Merriam’s Kangaroo Rat, Domestic Ferret, Chinchilla, Syrian Hamster and Western Spotted Skunk.

Birds (3): Goffin’s Cockatoo, Double-Headed Yellow Amazon Parrot and African Grey Parrot.

Reptiles & Amphibians (62): Texas Nightsnake, Texas Coralsnake, Western Cottonmouth, Bullsnake, Broad-Banded Copperhead, Rough Green Snake, Chihuahuan Desert Lyre Snake, Corn Snake, Mexican Milksnake, Long-Nosed Snake, Tamaulipan Ratsnake, Black Ratsnake, Great Plains Ratsnake, Texas Ratsnake, Trans-Pecos Ratsnake, Desert Kingsnake, Western Black Kingsnake, Gray-Banded Kingsnake, Desert Massasauga, Black-Tailed Rattlesnake, Mohave Rattlesnake, Mottled Rock Rattlesnake, Rock Rattlesnake, Timber Rattlesnake, Prairie Rattlesnake, Western Diamond-Backed Rattlesnake, Mexican Coachwhip, Blotched Watersnake, Diamond-Backed Watersnake, Plains Hog-nosed Snake, Marcy’s Checkered Gartersnake, Rosy Boa, Emerald Tree Boa, Colombian Red-Tailed Boa, Burmese Python, Veiled Chameleon, Chinese Water Dragon, Bearded Dragon, Knight Anole, Eastern Collared Lizard, Texas Horned Lizard, Texas Spiny Lizard, Banded Gila Monster, Northern Desert Iguana, Green Iguana, Great Plains Skink, Short-Lined Skink, Texas Banded Gecko, Leopard Gecko, Barred Tiger Salamander, Texas Black-Spotted Newt, Canyon Treefrog, Green Treefrog, White’s Treefrog, Rio Grande Leopard Frog, Gulf Coast Toad, Great Plains Toad, Fire-Bellied Toad, Texas River Cooter, Common Snapping Turtle, Three Toed Box Turtle and Ornate Box Turtle.

Invertebrates (16): Texas Brown Tarantula, Chaco Golden Knee Tarantula, Green Velvet Tarantula, Tiger Rump Tarantula, Antilles Pinktoe Tarantula, Curly-Hair Tarantula, Rose-Hair Tarantula, Wolf Spider, Black Widow, Vinegaroon, Western Hercules Beetle, Arizona Bark Scorpion, Madagascar Hissing Cockroach, Cave Cockroach, Desert Centipede and Texas Striped Millipede.

Fish (2): Rio Grande Cichlid and Largemouth Bass.
 
Wow, this is a much greater number of species than I thought the place had! Had I known the collection was that large and filled with interesting species, I would of posted a thread about the closure earlier.

A surprisingly high number of US zoo facilities have shuttered in the last year. I counted 14 places.

  • Juneau Raptor Center (Alaska, Sep 2022)
  • Waccatee Zoo (South Carolina, Sep 2022)
  • Wagon Trails Safari (Ohio, Sep 2022)
  • Tri-state Zoo (Maryland, Oct 2022)
  • Siegfried & Roy’s Secret Garden (Nevada, Nov 2022)
  • EFBC Feline Conservation Center (California, Feb 2023)
  • Wildlife Discovery Center (Illinois, Mar 2023)
  • Harmony Park Safari (Alabama, May 2023)
  • Philadelphia Insectarium (Pennsylvania, Jun 2023)
  • SeaQuest Stonecrest (Georgia, Jun 2023)
  • San Angelo Nature Center (Texas, Jul 2023)
  • Cicchelli Second Chance Rescue (Michigan, Aug 2023)
  • Even Keel Exotics (Michigan, Aug 2023)
  • SeaQuest Trumbull (Connecticut, Aug 2023)

Many of these were among the worst zoos in the country so no great loss, but San Angelo looked like it was one of the better ones if not for the simple fact that it educated visitors with a high variety of local fauna and could be visited for little to no cost. Seems like a tough loss for the locals, not really anything else resembling a zoo in the area with Abilene around a 2 hour drive away.
 
Thanks for the list of closed zoos in the USA and some of those I didn't know about. Of course, there are many that are not a loss at all, but I really enjoyed seeing 97 species at the San Angelo Nature Center and that is surely a loss with no other zoos close by. I see that two of those pop-up SeaQuest aquariums closed down, which means that there are still a number of them to go! :p
 
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