Volume 1, No. 10. June 15, 2001
It's
a Texas exhibit!
Fort Worth Zoo in Texas announces the arrival of
Texas Wild!, June 14, 2001. Measurements: Eight acres, 300 animals, two rides,
two theaters, two eateries (one a food court with three outlets), one gift shop,
one retail cart, and various street entertainers. Delivered by Komatsu/Rangel,
Jack Rouse Associates, Scenery West, Fowlkes, Norman & Associates, Technifex,
CLR Design, Linbeck Construction, Bouyea & Associates and Edwards Technology.
The logo for the Fort Worth Zoo's industry-shaking
new $40 million exhibit features an animal paw in a human hand. How apt: in
this exhibit, man is one of the featured attractions. Starting with the entrance
through a full-scale, turn-of-the century frontier town street called Texas
Town, the six exhibits illustrate man's imprint on the state. The viewing shelter
for the High Plains and Prairies is themed to resemble a farmhouse long-ago
damaged by a tornado. In the Texas Gulf Coast exhibit, interactive displays
abound in a replica bait shop, while the adjoining aviary has roseate spoonbills
perched atop a partially sunken shrimp boat.
"This is a combination of a themed attraction, animal exhibit and museum," said
the zoo's new executive director and CEO Michael Fouraker, who had been director
of animal programs here since 1993. "I don't think you will find that kind of
combination in any zoo. We like to push the envelope."
They push many envelopes. A 4D theater show combines cartoons with animatronics
and weather effects. In the Farm Play Barn, children try out a cow-milking simulator
and shovel cow dung (actually plastic balls) into a garden bed to make vegetables
grow, which the cow eats and repeats the cycle. In the river otter exhibit's
underwater viewing area, children can climb into a glass bubble and interact
with the otters themselves, and next door children climb into one end of a hollow
log while a black bear enters the other end with only a pair of grates separating
the two beings. Revenue producing activities include a themed carousel and train,
as well as photos in a jail cell and video arcade.
Texas Wild's grand opening in Texas Town's central plaza before the city hall-like
Hall of Wonders was typically Texas. Cowboy hats and boots abounded, as did
red, white and blue, even down to the napkins at the complimentary breakfast
buffet. The weather barely cooperated, turning blustery just as the ceremony
started and spitting rain, but benefactor Ramona Bass hinted that this was just
another special effect of the exhibit. "Rain is good for all the wildlife and
land of Texas," she told the crowd of media members, donors and local officials.
She, Fouraker and Fort Worth Mayor Kenneth Barr cut a barbed wire to officially
open the exhibit.
Barr, whom Bass named mayor of Texas Town to illustrate the public-private partnership
integral to the exhibit's creation, said Texas Wild! establishes the zoo as
a regional tourist destination. Fouraker said the expanded and expensive theming
and showmanship will take the zoo industry in a new, more viable direction.
But equally revolutionary is the exhibit's message, one which starts with the
zoo's choice of setting: around 1900 "When Texas' wildlife was in trouble,"
Fouraker said. Since then, the state has reclaimed much of its natural habitats
and wildlife viability, and Texas Wild! celebrates those efforts, not only in
its interpretive displays, but in its collection which focuses on endangered
species, rescued animals and species which have successfully recovered their
populations in Texas.
"We have chosen to be optimistic and empower our visitors," Fouraker said. "Shame
doesn't get the message across anymore."
©2001, Minton Enterprises LLC
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