Dallas Zoo

---

I had not been to the Dallas Zoo in at least 25 years because we normally went to the Fort Worth Zoo. I always heard the Fort Worth Zoo was better so decided to visit the Dallas Zoo and see if it was true.
When I arrived the main parking lot was blocked off because the lot was already full. I found the over-flow lot and it was almost full too. I started to not go in because I thought it would be too crowded but I was pleasantly surprised. It was not crowded at all. I am guessing they must have small parking lots. I do know the over-flow lot wasn’t very big.
It cost $7.00 to park then $15.00 per person to get into the zoo which I thought was expensive if you were taking a family. The zoo is divided into 2 sections, the African Safari section and the North Zoo section. The North Zoo section is what is left of the old Dallas Zoo before it was remodel.
I went to the African Safari section first. It was set up so the animals were in an enclosure resembling their natural habitat and I was looking down on the animals. On the plus side, I had a good view of the animals because there wasn’t a wire fence between us. The negative side is I wasn’t able to see all of the animals in the section because some of them were hiding in the trees and brush. Since the temperature was only about 72 and some of the animals were in the brush to stay cool, I imagine if you go in the summer time it would be hard to see very many of the animals. You can get up close to the Giraffes to feed and pet them.
They have a monorail which goes around the African Safari section of the zoo and cost $3.00 to ride. If you ride it, you will see some animals which are not visible on the walking paths. The monorail moves real slow and takes about 20 minutes to circle the safari section. They do have a camel in the safari section which kids can ride.
After riding the monorail I left the safari section and headed to the North Zoo section. Most of the animals in this section are in cages except for the tigers. The tigers are also in a natural habitat setting and were hard to see. They also have a kid’s section in the North Zoo section. They have pony rides, a petting zoo section, a play ground and a learning center for the kids.
Since it was almost closing time I started making my way toward the exit. As I was passing a fenced in grassy section, I noticed they had part of the walk way blocked off. The zoo keeper said they were moving the turtles from the grassy section to a walled in area with a barn for the night because the temperature was suppose to get below 60 that night. The zoo keeper would lead the turtles to the barn by feeding them bananas. One of the turtles was stubborn and did not want to go into the barn. They would try to prod him to go in that directions and he would sit down. I didn’t know turtles could be stubborn!!! One man also standing there watching them move the turtles made the comment “It was about like watching grass grow. “ Actually it was interesting being able to see the turtles up close.
Now having been to both the Dallas Zoo and the Fort Worth zoo, I would say one was not better than the other. They both have their positive and negatives. When visiting the Dallas Zoo, you feel like you are closer to the animals, you can feed the giraffes, and they have more rides for kids. They have the camel, ponies, monorail and carrousel. The Fort Worth Zoo has a lot more animals and most of them are not hidden in the brush. The Fort Worth Zoo does have a few animals in a natural setting but not as many as the Dallas Zoo.

---