Texas: Zoo List

SwampDonkey said:
Would you mind doing a quick trip review on it? Or perhaps you plan on doing a review when the road trip is complete?
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I don't normally do reviews, but I have considered putting some sort of thread together for this trip/all of mine from the past. However, that takes a lot of time and effort to do well and I currently do not have it. There also reviews from many others for most of the places I am or have visited, so I am trying to figure out a way to come up with a way that such a thread may add more than just reviews. I am currently in the process of moving to NYC (making this a terrible time for such a road trip), so any such thread would be a long way out. I take a lot of photos and jot down some notes about each one after visiting, but normally don't share them as it takes a lot of time. However, here is what I can tell you about this facility:

Houston Interactive is probably very similar to any of the other facilities owned by SeaQuest. It appears to be very similar to the one in Minnesota at least. The bare minimum is done for pretty much all of the enclosures, which are too small on just about every occasion. Seems like they just took whatever species of animal they could get their hands on and threw it into an enclosure and often have way to many of whatever species it is for an enclosure that size.

The biggest difference between Houston Interactive and the SeaQuest in Minnesota is that they have an outdoor section, which allows them to keep much larger animals such as giraffe, ostrich, emu, zebu, etc. Just like their other places, you can buy tokens to spend on interactions with just about every single animal in the place and a difference here versus Minnesota was that their were many "free interaction" opportunities to basically just wander into the enclosure and interact with the animal.

On many occasions at this place, you have no idea what you are looking at as maybe only 25% of the exhibits have a sign or QR code to scan. Very annoying when you're just searching terrariums hoping to spot whatever reptile or amphibian is in there. Showing how prevalent the interaction is here a lot of the terrariums literally have the middle section of their glass missing so you can basically stick your hand right in to touch. Signs are everywhere that say "Do not touch the animals" with the "not" crossed out.

Everything looks pretty new and it often seems hastily done, like they slapped whatever they could together as fast as possible to get open and start making money. With this, their is lots of construction still going on. Prime example was when walking into a building, the first thing you encounter is an acrylic tunnel, but the exhibits on each side of it are for prairie dogs and rabbits, if I remember correctly without checking photos. Their is a sign that says it is a "future shark tunnel" and the current enclosures are made out of basically plywood.

SeaQuest facilities always give me a bad feeling as there seems to be no real limit on what they will allow you to interact with. One aquarium was open topped and the ledge came up to maybe my belly/chest (I'm 5'8" for reference) and there was an alligator in it. Seems like a giant liability.

Nothing too noteworthy here, honestly. The only species that stood out to me, because I don't recall ever seeing them before (of course I could be wrong on that too) was what I believe were lowland pacas. Overall, I'm glad I got in free because I was a teacher.
 
NSU42 said:
I don't normally do reviews, but I have considered putting some sort of thread together for this trip/all of mine from the past. However, that takes a lot of time and effort to do well and I currently do not have it. There also reviews from many others for most of the places I am or have visited, so I am trying to figure out a way to come up with a way that such a thread may add more than just reviews. I am currently in the process of moving to NYC (making this a terrible time for such a road trip), so any such thread would be a long way out. I take a lot of photos and jot down some notes about each one after visiting, but normally don't share them as it takes a lot of time. However, here is what I can tell you about this facility:

Houston Interactive is probably very similar to any of the other facilities owned by SeaQuest. It appears to be very similar to the one in Minnesota at least. The bare minimum is done for pretty much all of the enclosures, which are too small on just about every occasion. Seems like they just took whatever species of animal they could get their hands on and threw it into an enclosure and often have way to many of whatever species it is for an enclosure that size.

The biggest difference between Houston Interactive and the SeaQuest in Minnesota is that they have an outdoor section, which allows them to keep much larger animals such as giraffe, ostrich, emu, zebu, etc. Just like their other places, you can buy tokens to spend on interactions with just about every single animal in the place and a difference here versus Minnesota was that their were many "free interaction" opportunities to basically just wander into the enclosure and interact with the animal.

On many occasions at this place, you have no idea what you are looking at as maybe only 25% of the exhibits have a sign or QR code to scan. Very annoying when you're just searching terrariums hoping to spot whatever reptile or amphibian is in there. Showing how prevalent the interaction is here a lot of the terrariums literally have the middle section of their glass missing so you can basically stick your hand right in to touch. Signs are everywhere that say "Do not touch the animals" with the "not" crossed out.

Everything looks pretty new and it often seems hastily done, like they slapped whatever they could together as fast as possible to get open and start making money. With this, their is lots of construction still going on. Prime example was when walking into a building, the first thing you encounter is an acrylic tunnel, but the exhibits on each side of it are for prairie dogs and rabbits, if I remember correctly without checking photos. Their is a sign that says it is a "future shark tunnel" and the current enclosures are made out of basically plywood.

SeaQuest facilities always give me a bad feeling as there seems to be no real limit on what they will allow you to interact with. One aquarium was open topped and the ledge came up to maybe my belly/chest (I'm 5'8" for reference) and there was an alligator in it. Seems like a giant liability.

Nothing too noteworthy here, honestly. The only species that stood out to me, because I don't recall ever seeing them before (of course I could be wrong on that too) was what I believe were lowland pacas. Overall, I'm glad I got in free because I was a teacher.
Click to expand...
Wow, thank you for all that information. That sounds about right from what I have heard in regards to SeaQuest as I have not been to one yet. The running theme for their facilities seems to be that they have potential, but miss at most opportunities.
 
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