I've visited about 100 zoos and aquariums within the United States and Canada, and I've been spending time creating a few top 10 lists simply because I enjoy ranking and analyzing all sorts of items. For this particular list I looked at all of the American zoos that I've visited over the years and I struggled to come up with a final, ordered list. However, after pondering over my choices I eventually chose what I perceive as the 10 best zoos for this specific category.
I looked at the quality of the exhibits, signage and interpretative graphics, the number of species displayed, the rarity of the animals and other intangibles. San Diego's reptile house is an open-air beauty, but Reptile Mesa is even better and thus that zoo went straight to the top of my list. I visited Fort Worth in 2008 and I thought that the previous reptile house was impressive, but photos of MOLA reveal that building to be fantastic so it was easy enough to put that zoo in the second slot. Detroit has the outstanding Amphibiville and a very good reptile house, while all of the zoos on this list have top-notch collections.
Top 10 American Zoos For Reptiles + Amphibians:
#1 - San Diego Zoo
#2 - Fort Worth Zoo
#3 - Detroit Zoo
#4 - Saint Louis Zoo
#5 - Audubon Zoo
#6 - Nashville Zoo
#7 - Dallas Zoo
#8 - Riverbanks Zoo
#9 - Houston Zoo
#10-Knoxville Zoo
I looked at the quality of the exhibits, signage and interpretative graphics, the number of species displayed, the rarity of the animals and other intangibles. San Diego's reptile house is an open-air beauty, but Reptile Mesa is even better and thus that zoo went straight to the top of my list. I visited Fort Worth in 2008 and I thought that the previous reptile house was impressive, but photos of MOLA reveal that building to be fantastic so it was easy enough to put that zoo in the second slot. Detroit has the outstanding Amphibiville and a very good reptile house, while all of the zoos on this list have top-notch collections.
Top 10 American Zoos For Reptiles + Amphibians:
#1 - San Diego Zoo
#2 - Fort Worth Zoo
#3 - Detroit Zoo
#4 - Saint Louis Zoo
#5 - Audubon Zoo
#6 - Nashville Zoo
#7 - Dallas Zoo
#8 - Riverbanks Zoo
#9 - Houston Zoo
#10-Knoxville Zoo
