DAY 34: Saturday, August 14th
Zoo/Aquarium Review # 31: Dallas World Aquarium
Dallas World Aquarium’s website:
www.dwazoo.com
Dallas World Aquarium is arguably not really an aquarium at all, as since I’ve recently strolled through at least 10 huge rainforest buildings at various zoos I felt as if I was in yet another jungle atmosphere. At the end of the visit my wife and I turned to each other and asked this question: “where is the rest of the zoo”? Our visit was about 2.5 hours in length, but it felt not as if we had just toured an aquarium but rather invested some time in a zoo’s rainforest canopy.
One of the major flaws of the establishment is that it is 7-storeys high, meaning that many of the larger birds escape to the upper regions of the building and are impossible to locate. Another disappointment is the size of many of the exhibits, as the major species such as the giant river otter, jaguar, pygmy marmoset, Orinoco crocodile, giant anteater, little penguin, Morelet’s crocodile, etc; all are in enclosures that are too small in relation to the dimensions of the inhabitants. Those 6 species that I named all have the smallest ever exhibits that I’ve seen for them, as the aquarium attempts to pack thousands of animals into a rainforest environment that should be limited to fewer creatures in larger exhibits.
I’ll attempt to list most of the animals that are at DWA, as the expansive 16-page field guide is one of the best that I’ve ever seen and I’ve had requests for an extensive list of the species at the aquarium. I’m not going to list everything, as there are loads of birds, fish, reptiles and amphibians and thus if one were to type out a comprehensive list it would become never-ending. The aquarium is famous for its extremely rare animals (yapok, red howler monkey, three-toed sloth, cock-of-the-rock, etc) so I’ll mention all of those and the more elusive creatures.
THE BEST:
Orinoco Rainforest: Canopy Level Three – This area is the first that visitors encounter as they walk into the main section of the building, and it is the best part of the entire aquarium. A crashing waterfall seems to come out of nowhere; lush foliage abounds, I saw a father, mother and baby white-faced saki monkey jumping around in the treetops, and while there are birds flying above visitors’ heads there is also the opportunity to look down upon the Antillean manatees and other species far below.
There are birds listed in the 16-page field guide such as red-breasted toucan, Swainson’s toucan, keel-billed toucan, channel-bill toucan, mountain toucan, mot-mot, scarlet ibis, sunbittern, curl-crested jay, curl-crested aracari, troupial, bare-faced curassow, southern yellow grosbeak, crested oropendola, green oropendola, Andean cock-of-the-rock, pompadour cotinga, capuchin bird, wattled jacana, golden-collared manakin, blue-crowned manakin, golden-headed manakin, red-capped manakin, lance-tailed manakin, golden-browed chlorophonia and Chiriqui quail-dove.
Other animals include red-footed tortoise, white-faced saki monkey, emperor tamarin, cotton-top tamarin, red-handed tamarin, red howler monkey and giant anteater. Seeing a three-toed sloth was a highlight (I’m assuming it was three-toed as it was labeled thus and yet was curled up into tight ball) but I was told that the red howler monkeys were off-exhibit.
Orinoco Rainforest: Understory – Level Two – This area is simply a continuation of Level Three, as the upper trail winds down to a lower elevation. Birds here include: helmeted curassow, rosy-billed pochard, white-faced whistling duck, ringed teal, Orinoco goose, double-yellow headed Amazon parrot, black-necked swan, hawk-headed parrot, gray-winged trumpeter, fiery-billed aracari, green aracari, various other aracaris and toucanets, swallow-tale tanager, paradise tanager and other tanagers.
Other animals include: green anaconda, goliath bird-eating spider, vampire bat, striped basilisk, piranha, Orinoco crocodile, a baby Orinoco crocodile (the only establishment outside of Venezuela and Colombia to successfully breed the species), silver arowana, pacu, polka-dot stingray, mata mata turtle, caecilian, electric eel, various tarantulas and scorpions, giant river otter, caiman lizard, golden lion tamarin, golden-headed lion tamarin, douroucouli, two-toed sloth, yellow-spotted Amazon turtle and a variety of poison dart frogs.
THE AVERAGE:
Orinoco Rainforest: Aquatic – Level One – This area is more of a traditional aquarium, and a partial species list includes: Antillean manatee, red-tailed catfish, fork-snouted catfish, shovel-nosed catfish, arrau turtle, black-banded leporinus, freshwater stingrays, arapaima, radiated tortoise, brown stingray, pipa pipa, dendrobates frog and a bewildering variety of other creatures.
There are a number of large tanks that focus on specific ecosystems of the world: Palau, Southern Australia, Lord Howe Island, Solomon Islands, Fiji, New Guinea, British Columbia, Sri Lanka, Denizens of the Deep (Japanese spider crabs are arriving soon), Indonesia, Japan and the 22,000 gallon Continental Shelf walkthrough tunnel exhibit.
A temporary and seasonal outdoor area focuses on Madagascar, and contains animals such as leaf-tailed geckos, panther chameleons, painted mantilla frogs and various other amphibians. The Cape of Good Hope outdoor area has black-footed penguins in a small exhibit, rock hyrax, white-crested turacos and Lady Ross’s turacos.
Mundo Maya: Lower Level – This are of the zoo contains two levels instead of the three in the Orinoco Rainforest zone, and overall I found this part of the aquarium average and not as impressive as many huge rainforest zones that I’ve toured in loads of different zoos. The world of the Maya is explored in this region, and the entire area has a Mayan temple theme to it.
Species include: barred owl, screech owl, burrowing owl, leaf-nosed bat, neotropical rattlesnake, beaded lizard, red-eyed tree frog, Mexican tree frog, Morelet’s crocodile, red-tailed boa, fer-de-lance, eyelash palm viper, blue spiny lizard, longsnout seahorse, conehead lizard, queen conch, clarion angelfish, horseshoe crab, marine toad, Panamanian golden frog, hourglass tree frog, blind cavefish, axolotl, yapok (water possum – which I could not see for the life of me!), helmeted basilisk, red-eared slider turtle, sailfin molly, Jack Dempsey cichlid, bonnethead shark, loggerhead sea turtle, brown shark, sawfish, eagle ray, cownose ray and giant grouper.
Mundo Maya: Upper Levels – There are plenty more rare species here, including but not limited to: black-and-white hawk eagle, ornate hawk eagle, harpy eagle, Guiana crested eagle, spectacled owl, troupial woodpecker, ocelot, jaguar, agouti, Chilean flamingo, burnished-buff tanager, blue dacnis, bay-headed tanager, silver-throated tanager, purple-throated fruitcrow, bare-naked fruitcrow, jabiru stork, hawksbill sea turtle, many species of hummingbird and innumerable other birds, reptiles, amphibians and fish.
Entrance – This area has a tiny Matshcie’s tree kangaroo exhibit, a fairly small saddle-billed stork enclosure (after I just saw them last week in an enormous, lush, outdoor exhibit at Nashville Zoo that was a thousand times better), argus pheasant, Moluccan cockatoo, rhinoceros hornbill, little/fairy penguin, bali mynah and Asian arowana.
THE WORST:
Crowds – Like most popular aquariums the sheer volume of visitors can make life borderline intolerable for those that wish to take their time and admire the animals. We left our stroller behind and had our daughter in a backpack-type carrying bag, but many strollers were at the aquarium and effectively jamming the pathways. DWA needs to ban all strollers, as Baltimore’s aquarium does, in order to ensure that there isn’t “road rage” within the confines of cramped spaces. We arrived right before the aquarium opened and by the time we left 2.5 hours later there was a massive line-up outside that snaked across the nearby alleyway!
Signage – Instead of having labels on each tank or terrarium the aquarium often has frustrating touch screens that apply to 4-5 tanks or terrariums in a row. So while looking frantically at a terrarium in a hopeless attempt to figure out whether I’m supposed to be searching for a lizard, snake, spider or scorpion I abandoned my quest on numerous occasions and went to the touch screen in the corner of the room. After battling through the crowd and waiting in line to use the screen (assuming that it worked as two of them did not) then I had to force my way through the throngs of visitors back to the original terrarium and then I still had to guess what the animal was that was inside the exhibit. I knew what 4 or 5 animals were supposed to be in the row of 4-5 enclosures, but which animal is in which terrarium? STUPID, STUPID, STUPID signage. Okay, rant over for now…haha. The least that DWA could do is post a tiny sign on each exhibit like all other zoos and aquariums.
Small exhibits - The giant river otters, jaguar, Orinoco crocodiles, giant anteaters, little penguins, Morelet’s crocodile and tree kangaroos are all amongst the largest of the inhabitants of the aquarium, and ALL of them have possibly the smallest exhibits for their species that I’ve ever seen. The jaguar rotates with an ocelot, and its fish bowl tank that is surrounded on all sides by huge panes of glass is atrocious. There was only a tiny pool for a water-loving cat, and a video screen monitor showed a pacing jaguar in the upper exhibit after the cats had rotated while I was there. There are plans to make an addition to the space for these cats, but even that will not suffice in my honest opinion. The two species of crocodiles have tiny exhibits, and a juvenile Orinoco crocodile was in a tank only about 2 feet longer than its entire body!
OVERALL:
Dallas World Aquarium is most definitely worth a visit just to see the absolutely incredible assortment of rare and endangered creatures that are often not found just about anywhere else. The list of species that I have provided is so vast that it is impossible to see them all on 5 visits, let alone a single journey to downtown Dallas. I’d love to revisit the establishment in the future and spend more time gazing around in vain hope of spotting one of the birds of prey, or improving my chances of ever seeing a yapok or red howler monkey.
There really is no comparison to the behemoths of the aquarium world such as Shedd, Georgia, Monterey Bay, Baltimore and Tennessee, and I would place Vancouver and Oregon Coast also above Dallas World Aquarium as DWA is nowhere near being a top 10 aquarium. However, it has carved out a niche for itself by exhibiting such rarely seen animals, and the rainforest environment is well designed and planted. While I had issues with some visitor amenities such as the convoluted map, poor signage and small pathways with massive crowds, overall I would recommend a visit and it is similar to being inside a zoo’s huge rainforest complex.
Zoo/Aquarium Review # 31: Dallas World Aquarium
Dallas World Aquarium’s website:
www.dwazoo.com
Dallas World Aquarium is arguably not really an aquarium at all, as since I’ve recently strolled through at least 10 huge rainforest buildings at various zoos I felt as if I was in yet another jungle atmosphere. At the end of the visit my wife and I turned to each other and asked this question: “where is the rest of the zoo”? Our visit was about 2.5 hours in length, but it felt not as if we had just toured an aquarium but rather invested some time in a zoo’s rainforest canopy.
One of the major flaws of the establishment is that it is 7-storeys high, meaning that many of the larger birds escape to the upper regions of the building and are impossible to locate. Another disappointment is the size of many of the exhibits, as the major species such as the giant river otter, jaguar, pygmy marmoset, Orinoco crocodile, giant anteater, little penguin, Morelet’s crocodile, etc; all are in enclosures that are too small in relation to the dimensions of the inhabitants. Those 6 species that I named all have the smallest ever exhibits that I’ve seen for them, as the aquarium attempts to pack thousands of animals into a rainforest environment that should be limited to fewer creatures in larger exhibits.
I’ll attempt to list most of the animals that are at DWA, as the expansive 16-page field guide is one of the best that I’ve ever seen and I’ve had requests for an extensive list of the species at the aquarium. I’m not going to list everything, as there are loads of birds, fish, reptiles and amphibians and thus if one were to type out a comprehensive list it would become never-ending. The aquarium is famous for its extremely rare animals (yapok, red howler monkey, three-toed sloth, cock-of-the-rock, etc) so I’ll mention all of those and the more elusive creatures.
THE BEST:
Orinoco Rainforest: Canopy Level Three – This area is the first that visitors encounter as they walk into the main section of the building, and it is the best part of the entire aquarium. A crashing waterfall seems to come out of nowhere; lush foliage abounds, I saw a father, mother and baby white-faced saki monkey jumping around in the treetops, and while there are birds flying above visitors’ heads there is also the opportunity to look down upon the Antillean manatees and other species far below.
There are birds listed in the 16-page field guide such as red-breasted toucan, Swainson’s toucan, keel-billed toucan, channel-bill toucan, mountain toucan, mot-mot, scarlet ibis, sunbittern, curl-crested jay, curl-crested aracari, troupial, bare-faced curassow, southern yellow grosbeak, crested oropendola, green oropendola, Andean cock-of-the-rock, pompadour cotinga, capuchin bird, wattled jacana, golden-collared manakin, blue-crowned manakin, golden-headed manakin, red-capped manakin, lance-tailed manakin, golden-browed chlorophonia and Chiriqui quail-dove.
Other animals include red-footed tortoise, white-faced saki monkey, emperor tamarin, cotton-top tamarin, red-handed tamarin, red howler monkey and giant anteater. Seeing a three-toed sloth was a highlight (I’m assuming it was three-toed as it was labeled thus and yet was curled up into tight ball) but I was told that the red howler monkeys were off-exhibit.
Orinoco Rainforest: Understory – Level Two – This area is simply a continuation of Level Three, as the upper trail winds down to a lower elevation. Birds here include: helmeted curassow, rosy-billed pochard, white-faced whistling duck, ringed teal, Orinoco goose, double-yellow headed Amazon parrot, black-necked swan, hawk-headed parrot, gray-winged trumpeter, fiery-billed aracari, green aracari, various other aracaris and toucanets, swallow-tale tanager, paradise tanager and other tanagers.
Other animals include: green anaconda, goliath bird-eating spider, vampire bat, striped basilisk, piranha, Orinoco crocodile, a baby Orinoco crocodile (the only establishment outside of Venezuela and Colombia to successfully breed the species), silver arowana, pacu, polka-dot stingray, mata mata turtle, caecilian, electric eel, various tarantulas and scorpions, giant river otter, caiman lizard, golden lion tamarin, golden-headed lion tamarin, douroucouli, two-toed sloth, yellow-spotted Amazon turtle and a variety of poison dart frogs.
THE AVERAGE:
Orinoco Rainforest: Aquatic – Level One – This area is more of a traditional aquarium, and a partial species list includes: Antillean manatee, red-tailed catfish, fork-snouted catfish, shovel-nosed catfish, arrau turtle, black-banded leporinus, freshwater stingrays, arapaima, radiated tortoise, brown stingray, pipa pipa, dendrobates frog and a bewildering variety of other creatures.
There are a number of large tanks that focus on specific ecosystems of the world: Palau, Southern Australia, Lord Howe Island, Solomon Islands, Fiji, New Guinea, British Columbia, Sri Lanka, Denizens of the Deep (Japanese spider crabs are arriving soon), Indonesia, Japan and the 22,000 gallon Continental Shelf walkthrough tunnel exhibit.
A temporary and seasonal outdoor area focuses on Madagascar, and contains animals such as leaf-tailed geckos, panther chameleons, painted mantilla frogs and various other amphibians. The Cape of Good Hope outdoor area has black-footed penguins in a small exhibit, rock hyrax, white-crested turacos and Lady Ross’s turacos.
Mundo Maya: Lower Level – This are of the zoo contains two levels instead of the three in the Orinoco Rainforest zone, and overall I found this part of the aquarium average and not as impressive as many huge rainforest zones that I’ve toured in loads of different zoos. The world of the Maya is explored in this region, and the entire area has a Mayan temple theme to it.
Species include: barred owl, screech owl, burrowing owl, leaf-nosed bat, neotropical rattlesnake, beaded lizard, red-eyed tree frog, Mexican tree frog, Morelet’s crocodile, red-tailed boa, fer-de-lance, eyelash palm viper, blue spiny lizard, longsnout seahorse, conehead lizard, queen conch, clarion angelfish, horseshoe crab, marine toad, Panamanian golden frog, hourglass tree frog, blind cavefish, axolotl, yapok (water possum – which I could not see for the life of me!), helmeted basilisk, red-eared slider turtle, sailfin molly, Jack Dempsey cichlid, bonnethead shark, loggerhead sea turtle, brown shark, sawfish, eagle ray, cownose ray and giant grouper.
Mundo Maya: Upper Levels – There are plenty more rare species here, including but not limited to: black-and-white hawk eagle, ornate hawk eagle, harpy eagle, Guiana crested eagle, spectacled owl, troupial woodpecker, ocelot, jaguar, agouti, Chilean flamingo, burnished-buff tanager, blue dacnis, bay-headed tanager, silver-throated tanager, purple-throated fruitcrow, bare-naked fruitcrow, jabiru stork, hawksbill sea turtle, many species of hummingbird and innumerable other birds, reptiles, amphibians and fish.
Entrance – This area has a tiny Matshcie’s tree kangaroo exhibit, a fairly small saddle-billed stork enclosure (after I just saw them last week in an enormous, lush, outdoor exhibit at Nashville Zoo that was a thousand times better), argus pheasant, Moluccan cockatoo, rhinoceros hornbill, little/fairy penguin, bali mynah and Asian arowana.
THE WORST:
Crowds – Like most popular aquariums the sheer volume of visitors can make life borderline intolerable for those that wish to take their time and admire the animals. We left our stroller behind and had our daughter in a backpack-type carrying bag, but many strollers were at the aquarium and effectively jamming the pathways. DWA needs to ban all strollers, as Baltimore’s aquarium does, in order to ensure that there isn’t “road rage” within the confines of cramped spaces. We arrived right before the aquarium opened and by the time we left 2.5 hours later there was a massive line-up outside that snaked across the nearby alleyway!
Signage – Instead of having labels on each tank or terrarium the aquarium often has frustrating touch screens that apply to 4-5 tanks or terrariums in a row. So while looking frantically at a terrarium in a hopeless attempt to figure out whether I’m supposed to be searching for a lizard, snake, spider or scorpion I abandoned my quest on numerous occasions and went to the touch screen in the corner of the room. After battling through the crowd and waiting in line to use the screen (assuming that it worked as two of them did not) then I had to force my way through the throngs of visitors back to the original terrarium and then I still had to guess what the animal was that was inside the exhibit. I knew what 4 or 5 animals were supposed to be in the row of 4-5 enclosures, but which animal is in which terrarium? STUPID, STUPID, STUPID signage. Okay, rant over for now…haha. The least that DWA could do is post a tiny sign on each exhibit like all other zoos and aquariums.
Small exhibits - The giant river otters, jaguar, Orinoco crocodiles, giant anteaters, little penguins, Morelet’s crocodile and tree kangaroos are all amongst the largest of the inhabitants of the aquarium, and ALL of them have possibly the smallest exhibits for their species that I’ve ever seen. The jaguar rotates with an ocelot, and its fish bowl tank that is surrounded on all sides by huge panes of glass is atrocious. There was only a tiny pool for a water-loving cat, and a video screen monitor showed a pacing jaguar in the upper exhibit after the cats had rotated while I was there. There are plans to make an addition to the space for these cats, but even that will not suffice in my honest opinion. The two species of crocodiles have tiny exhibits, and a juvenile Orinoco crocodile was in a tank only about 2 feet longer than its entire body!
OVERALL:
Dallas World Aquarium is most definitely worth a visit just to see the absolutely incredible assortment of rare and endangered creatures that are often not found just about anywhere else. The list of species that I have provided is so vast that it is impossible to see them all on 5 visits, let alone a single journey to downtown Dallas. I’d love to revisit the establishment in the future and spend more time gazing around in vain hope of spotting one of the birds of prey, or improving my chances of ever seeing a yapok or red howler monkey.
There really is no comparison to the behemoths of the aquarium world such as Shedd, Georgia, Monterey Bay, Baltimore and Tennessee, and I would place Vancouver and Oregon Coast also above Dallas World Aquarium as DWA is nowhere near being a top 10 aquarium. However, it has carved out a niche for itself by exhibiting such rarely seen animals, and the rainforest environment is well designed and planted. While I had issues with some visitor amenities such as the convoluted map, poor signage and small pathways with massive crowds, overall I would recommend a visit and it is similar to being inside a zoo’s huge rainforest complex.
