Spotlight on Texas
Ever wonder what animals you can find right here in Texas? Well, look no further! Most of the animals in the John P. McGovern Children’s Zoo can be found right here in the great state of Texas. Some are here naturally and some you can find on farms across the state. Texas has a great diversity of habitat with lots of animals!
As you first walk into the Children’s Zoo, imagine yourself in the city. You will see a stream of Koi fish that are very colorful additions to many ponds and water gardens. This is also where you can swap your nature items in our Swap Shop. Of course where you find a great city, you will find a great forest. Winding through the boardwalk you will see Deer, Turkey, Owls, Porcupines, Coati, Bald Eagle, and Otters! As the Otters are enticing you to stop and play you will notice the nice coastal smell wafting your way. The sounds of the
Coati
shore pull you along the stream to the coast to watch our Pelicans and sea gulls get their afternoon lunch. Fish are flying through the air and our Pelican, Walter, is trying to woo the female, Mable, by giving her special treats. Next door, the fresh water Alligator Snapping turtles take you back to prehistoric times when reptiles ruled the earth. You will watch and wonder, “Just how long can they stay under water?” If you sit and wait, you might want to bring a book because they can hold their breath up to 50 minutes! As you wait, you see something pop up out of the corner of your eye. When you go to look, nothing is there! Everyone knows that patience is a virtue, so you sit for just a couple minutes and a prairie dog pops his head out to look for predators. These rodents spend a lot of time burrowing in the ground. Ever want to just burrow underground yourself? Well, you can get a fresh perspective by popping your own head in one of the viewing windows. By this time, it is pretty sunny and you see a nice cool cave. Through our cave system, you will see some of the reptiles and amphibians that make Texas their home. As you turn a corner to the second cave, you see a nice starry sky. As you walk through you notice some fluttering behind glass. At first you think it’s birds, but it is bats! These fruit and nectar-feeding bats are our neighbors from Central America but are representing the insect eating bats you can find flying our night sky
prairie dog
right in our backyard. There is a colony of around 20 million Mexican free-tailed bats in Bracken Cave, near San Antonia, that eat 250 tons of insects every night! Talk about pest control! As you wander out of the bat cave, you see a Swift fox. Don’t let it’s size
white tailed deer and Rio Grande turkey
fool you into thinking it’s a baby. These are actually fully grown adults. Next, you see the farm animals. These are all domesticated animals that many people raise. These are animals that you can touch! You may not be able to choose between the silly antics of the goats or reaching over to give our Zebu cattle a nice back rub. Either way, they have a way of warming your heart. By this time, you may be tired but the kids are still wild. Go ahead and relax on a bench while watching your kids have a grand time on the play ground or in the water play area.
WOW! Texas is big but you can see it all in just a short time right here in your home town. So next time you talk a walk through the Children’s Zoo imagine yourself taking your own personal road trip through Texas.
