Texas: American Zoo Capital?

Arizona Docent

Arizona Docent

Well-Known Member
15+ year member
I am in the midst of a three year (or so) project visiting the major zoos of the Southwest, which I hope to turn into a self-published book. I will be doing a chapter on each major zoo in the region. However, I will also have an appendix that simply lists the names and locations of facilities not included in the main section. (These would be aquariums and small or substandard zoos). In reviewing my Texas list, I am astonished at the number of zoological parks, which outnumbers those in Arizona and New Mexico by a HUGE margin. Here is my list, starting with the major zoos (in bold type) that I will be reviewing. This is followed by the other small zoos and aquariums (in regular type) that will be in the appendix.

MAJOR ZOOS
Caldwell Zoo (Tyler)
Cameron Park Zoo (Waco)
Dallas Zoo (Dallas)
El Paso Zoo (El Paso)
Fossil Rim Wildlife Center (Glen Rose)
Fort Worth Zoo (Fort Worth)
Gladys Porter Zoo (Brownsville)
Houston Zoo (Houston)
San Antonio Zoo (San Antonio)

MINOR ZOOS (and AQUARIUMS)
Abilene Zoo (Abilene, TX) Abilene Zoo - #1 Attraction in Abilene Texas
Amarillo Zoo (Amarillo, TX) Amarillo Zoo
Austin Zoo & Animal Sanctuary (Austin, TX) Austin Zoo & Animal Sanctuary
Bayou Wildlife Park (Alvin, TX) Home - Welcome to BayouWildlifePark.com...
Capital Of Texas Zoo (Austin, TX) Home Page
Cherokee Trace Drive-Thru Safari (Jacksonville, TX) Cherokee Trace Drive-Thru Safari
Children’s Aquarium at Fair Park (Dallas, TX) Children's Aquarium at Fair Park Dallas Texas
Dallas World Aquarium (Dallas, TX) www.dwazoo.com
Downtown Aquarium (Houston, TX) Aquarium Restaurants
Ellen Trout Zoo (Lufkin, TX) Ellen Trout Zoo
Exotic Resort Zoo (Johnson City, TX) The Exotic Resort Zoo - Johnson City, TX - Central Texas Hill Country - Bed & Breakfast - Animal Zoo
Frank Buck Zoo (Gainesville, TX) Hours of Operation and Admission
Grapeland Drive-Thru Safari (Grapeland, TX) Parallels H-Sphere
International Exotic Animal Sanctuary (Boyd, TX) International Exotic Animal Sanctuary
Maxey Park Zoo (Pecos, TX) Animal Zoo in Pecos, Texas
Moody Gardens (Galveston Island, TX) Moody Gardens Galveston Texas | Amusement Theme Parks | Houston Attractions | Family & Group Vacation Idea TX
Natural Bridge Wildlife Ranch (New Braunfels, TX) Home Page Natural Bridge Wildlife Ranch
Sea Life Grapevine (Grapevine, TX) *Official* SEA LIFE Grapevine Aquarium
Sea World (San Antonio, TX) www.seaworldsanantonio.com
Sharkarosa Wildlife Ranch (Pilot Point, TX) texas zoo, the zoo dallas, tx zoo
Snake Farm Animal World (New Braunfels, TX) Texas Snake Farm, Petting Zoo, Exotic Animal Park
Texas Alligator Ranch (Spearman, TX) Suspended Domain
Texas State Aquarium (Corpus Christi, TX) Texas State Aquarium
Texas Zoo (Victoria, TX) Welcome to The Texas Zoo
Tiger Creek Wildlife Refuge (Tyler, TX) Tiger Creek Wildlife Refuge (TCWR), tigercreek.org, Tyler, Texas, big cat rescue, save the tigers, lions, tigers, sanctuary, wildlife refuge, zoos, great cats
 
Most complete list I've seen. I've been to most of these, and many multiple times. However I would probably argue that the DWA, Moody Gardens, and Sea World could easily be put in you major category.
 
Yes, but I said the minor zoo category also includes aquariums (even major ones). Sea World and DWA are both aquariums (although the latter is not a traditional aquarium) and Moody Gardens I think is too specialized to be considered a zoo or wildlife park for the purposes of my project.
 
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Are you only including attractions in either Texas, Arizona or New Mexico? Have you had progress on your book?
 
snowleopard said:
Are you only including attractions in either Texas, Arizona or New Mexico? Have you had progress on your book?
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Focus is the Desert Southwest, which for practicality purposes I am defining as Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Southeast California. There is only one zoo in the SE California category, The Living Desert, but its Palm Desert location is basically where the desert southwest starts and it is too important I think not to include.

I am slowly making progress, visiting zoos when I can on my vacation (without getting too much in debt). I have now visited every zoo I want to include at least once, and most of them at least twice, and of course the Arizona ones many times. Ideally I would like to have visited each facility at least three full days before writing. I just returned from a third trip to San Antonio Zoo which included a second trip to Cameron Park Zoo. Goal is to produce book in fall 2013, but we will see how it goes.

Thanks for the interest. With Snowleopards zoo book collecting obsession, I know I will sell at least one! ;)
 
I too will be happy to buy your book. I have a large collection of "zoo" books and guidebooks. I am always on the lookout for a new or used book to add to my collection. I am really found of books about individual zoo history. I am so happy that I found this web site. Also I loved the book store at the Brookfield Zoo.
 
Hi Arizona Docent,

As l will be visiting texas next month, l am wondering if l could trouble you for a ranking of Texas Zoos please.

I do have a passion for Gorillas and animal experiences if you could keep this in mind l would also appreciate a list of the must see Texas Zoos that have these.

Thank-you in advance.

Also if you are around it would be interesting to catch up?
 
If you want to see interesting gorilla behavior you have to go to the el paso zoo to see their swimming gorillas. Also, They have a jentiks duiker.
 
JBZvolunteer said:
If you want to see interesting gorilla behavior you have to go to the el paso zoo to see their swimming gorillas. Also, They have a jentiks duiker.
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You are thinking of Gladys Porter Zoo (in Brownsville), NOT El Paso Zoo.

Dallas is a MUST SEE for gorillas (and for a lot of other reasons).

I will probably not be going back to Texas before the Fall, except perhaps to El Paso Zoo (which geographically is more a part of New Mexico than Texas).
 
bowie said:
I too will be happy to buy your book. I have a large collection of "zoo" books and guidebooks. I am always on the lookout for a new or used book to add to my collection. I am really found of books about individual zoo history. I am so happy that I found this web site. Also I loved the book store at the Brookfield Zoo.
Click to expand...

I agree. I have the Brookfield Zoo history book and that is where i get some of my information.
 
Thank-you guys,

Interesting google maps has a picture of the Gladys Porter Zoo Gorilla enclosure at the zoo.

Dam thats a long way down.

Snowleopard thats about as far south as l can get in Texas!!
 
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Tying together the previous two posts, there is a book called The History of Gladys Porter Zoo (and yes I did buy it when I was there).
 
I know this drastically increases the scope of the project, but I would whack in southern California, Utah and Colorado as well. The reason for this is purely anecdotal, but a lot of international visitors arrive in Los Angeles and then tour the south-western states over a holiday of a few weeks. At a guess, this would result in the two San Diego zoos, Los Angeles, Santa Barbara, Hogle, Cheyenne Mountain and Denver being added to the list. Just a thought.
 
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