Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I'm looking for good zoos for herps in about 400 miles of Amarillo. The wife and I like to take a short trip (3-5 days) once a year or so to any place within about a 4-5 hour drive. I can't turn these into full fledged herping trips (so says SWMBO) but I can certainly insist on a trip to whatever zoo is nearby. So far we've done Roswell and Albuqurque (which is a pretty neat zoo). I'm thinking Ft. Worth/Dallas has a good zoo too, but are there any I'm missing? I'm thinking like OK, NM, central TX, maybe southern Colorado, maybe southern Kansas...
-----
We wouldn't have 6 and a half billion people if you had to be beautiful to get laid.
6.6 African House snakes
3.2 reticulated pythons
.1 corn snake
4.2 Florida Kings
1.2 speckled kings
1.2 ball pythons
0.0.1 Argentine boa

>>I'm looking for good zoos for herps in about 400 miles of Amarillo. The wife and I like to take a short trip (3-5 days) once a year or so to any place within about a 4-5 hour drive. I can't turn these into full fledged herping trips (so says SWMBO) but I can certainly insist on a trip to whatever zoo is nearby. So far we've done Roswell and Albuqurque (which is a pretty neat zoo). I'm thinking Ft. Worth/Dallas has a good zoo too, but are there any I'm missing? I'm thinking like OK, NM, central TX, maybe southern Colorado, maybe southern Kansas...

I think Fort Worth has the best zoo in Texas....
And...I haven't checked out Albuquerque, NM yet....Sounds like we'll have to check it out....

San Antonio Zoo has a great snake room, but it isn't as good as it used to be....Plus it is best to go to San Antonio in the fall or spring, because it is brutally hot in the summer....

The main reason we enjoyed the Fort Worth zoo was the fact they had lots of shade.....LOL
-----
John Lassiter
Poor planning and procrastination on your part does not constitute an emergency on my part...
www.coastalbendcaptivebreeding.com

a little further down and Gladys Porter Zoo in Brownsville has a pretty nice group of herps, probably one of the only places to see the Speckled racer now with the wall up. I liked the cantil they had there, great group of crocs too.
-----
Todd Hughes

Albq. herp room is actually not the strongest part of the zoo (it's fairly old fashioned and outdated) but it does still have some standouts and man the rest of the zoo is 9 types of awesome.
-----
We wouldn't have 6 and a half billion people if you had to be beautiful to get laid.
6.6 African House snakes
3.2 reticulated pythons
.1 corn snake
4.2 Florida Kings
1.2 speckled kings
1.2 ball pythons
0.0.1 Argentine boa

I grew up in Southern Calif. within walking distance of Balboa Park, the home of the San Diego Zoo. As impressive as that Zoo (and its Wild Animal Park)is/are, bigger is definately not better!!! I think the collections that I have seen here in Texas are some of the best in the country if not the world. I like them all!!! Ft. Worth and Dallas are very good, as is San Antonio ( I agree with John--Ft. Worth is more comfortable in the heat of summer).
Gladys Porter in Brownsville and Cameron Park in Waco are both worth the time although much smaller Zoos. I've never been to Houston Zoo so I have no opinion there. Really you can't go wrong any of them! And that's my $.02!!!!

Pat GC

...and houses one of the largest collections of vipers in the world. The rest of the herp collection is pretty impressive as is the rest of the zoo. There's a new african river exhibit that gets you up close the hyenas, rhinoceros, hippos, elephants, cheetahs, etc. There's also a new penguin house the gets you w/in inches of them, no glass to look through either.

There's also lots of other free fun stuff in the immediate vicinity like the science center, history museum, art museum, the botanical garden is just a few miles away and is cheap to get into also. Just a thought.
-----
Josh Loehr

Too far to drive from here. We just don't get that much vacation time, and we can't afford to fly rent a car at the destination. So we gotta keep it fairly close.
FWIW we did drive by on the honeymoon and went to St Louis Zoo and yeah, it was freaking awesome. But it isn't something we can do again
-----
We wouldn't have 6 and a half billion people if you had to be beautiful to get laid.
6.6 African House snakes
3.2 reticulated pythons
.1 corn snake
4.2 Florida Kings
1.2 speckled kings
1.2 ball pythons
0.0.1 Argentine boa

If your going to the NARBC show in Arlington this weekend I wouldn't pass up a chance to check out the Fort Worth Zoo......I just checked to see what weekend they opened and it was last weekend....So.....After a day at the show Saturday the family and I will be at the Ft. Worth Zoo Sunday.......
-----
John Lassiter
Poor planning and procrastination on your part does not constitute an emergency on my part...
www.coastalbendcaptivebreeding.com

Noty going this weekend. I'm dealing with sort of sinus infection/stomach bug combo and the last thing I want to do is drive. This is my first day at work this week and I'm not 100% sure I'll make it through :-/
-----
We wouldn't have 6 and a half billion people if you had to be beautiful to get laid.
6.6 African House snakes
3.2 reticulated pythons
.1 corn snake
4.2 Florida Kings
1.2 speckled kings
1.2 ball pythons
0.0.1 Argentine boa

Abilene just built a new herp room that is quite nice as well
-----
Archie Bottoms