Houston Zoo

Kipp Aquarium

The Kipp Aquarium’s 23 exhibits take the visitor on a world tour from the coral reefs of the Pacific to the Amazon Basin and the Rift Valley Lakes of Africa.

McNair Asian Elephant Habitat

The Houston Zoo's Asian elephant herd includes five elephants:
One adult male, Thai
Three females: Me-Thai, Shanti, and Tess
Tess's calf, Tucker
And two baby elephants are on the way!

These highly intelligent creatures are an endangered species. Scientists estimate that there are fewer than 50,000 wild Asian elephants; they live in India, Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia. (By comparison, there are 600,000 wild African elephants.)

Natural Encounters

Tree branches stretch out over the pathways, waterfalls cascade into pools, and animals meet you at every turn. Visitors are nose to nose with some of the world's most endangered animals.

Young and old experience animals up-close through large glass viewing panels. Guests can even crawl right into the piranha exhibit via an acrylic see-through tunnel.

Keeper chats are regularly scheduled throughout the day, where keepers demonstrate and explain everything from otter enrichment to piranha feedings. In addition, keepers frequently mingle with the visitors, intimately sharing some of the zoo's most unusual creatures and intriguing stories about the animal's habitats.

Wortham World of Primates

Located in the heart of the zoo, Wortham World of Primates offers up close viewing of some of the world’s most fascinating and intelligent creatures.

Nestled in a naturalistic setting, Wortham World’s boardwalks and tree houses allow visitors to observe the behavior of a wide variety of threatened and endangered primates. In the exhibit you can see mandrills, lemurs, an agile gibbon, red capped mangabeys, siamangs, patas monkeys, cotton top and golden lion tamarins, howler monkeys, and Sumatran and Bornean orangutans.

Reptile & Amphibian Building

The Houston Zoo is fortunate in having a diverse array of reptile species in its collection.

Currently the building and its associated facilities (such as Natural Encounters and Children's Zoo) house more than 900 animals representing some 140 species of reptiles and 40 species of amphibians. Included among these are some of the world’s most venomous snake species such as the Gaboon viper, Black mamba and the Black forest cobra, some of the largest snakes such as the Reticulated python, the Burmese python, and the largest lizards (Komodo dragon and Crocodile monitor).

John P. McGovern Children's Zoo

Get eye-to-eye with a prairie dog, see an eagle’s nest and watch a river otter play underwater at our Children’s Zoo.

Forty exhibits take visitors through the six ecosystems of Texas: the city, Gulf Coast, desert, forest, prairie and the farm.

Pop-up domes allow guests to get “inside” the prairie dog habitat. Visit a realistic bat cave or stroll on a boardwalk through a Texas forest. The Discovery Center features hands-on activities for children. Three 900-square-foot pavilions host a variety of activities from educational classes to parties.

Water Playground

Visit the water playground at the McGovern Children’s Zoo. The playground includes 11 water features in a Galveston coastal fishing village setting. In-ground water features include 5 so-called pop jet fountains and 3 foaming fountains.

Three of the playground’s water features are animal-themed and include a pelican with a fish in its mouth, a frog on a rock, and two turtles on a log. The playground’s computer-controlled “brain” re-circulates 800 gallons of chlorine treated water in a random pattern so you never know which fountain will go off next!

Houston Zoo iPhone App

The Houston Zoo is opening a new dimension in guest services with the launch of a GPS-enabled Zoo iPHone application. It and Seattle’s Woodland Park Zoo are the only two zoos in the world to offer such a service.

The Houston Zoo’s new free iPhone application displays guests’ location on zoo grounds using real-time GPS coordinates and allows visitors to access photos and videos of zoo exhibits and animals and access daily Meet the Keeper Talks and presentations.

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