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Houston needs some serious Help!!!!
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by Dadee on May 16, 2005
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I just came back from Houston last night and made a side trip to their zoo. Holy Cow!!! What a BAAAAD excuse for a reptile exhibit. This place had but only a few nice specimens, however, their attempt at display was horrible. Mislabled displays (a cottonmouth that was listed in a display 3 doors down) with terrible information. They did have 2 nice gabby's and a decent urocoan, but other than that, not worth the 7 dollar entrance fee. That zoo, needs more help than any zoo I've ever seen.
Now mind you, the National Zoo is not the best by any means, but at the minimum, they offered great specimens, labeled correctly, with factual information. I went there in hopes of seeing some of the great specimens I've seen in the VRWH volume. They supposedly had a Muta in there, but obviously was not on exhibit.
Anyone else care to offer up their opinions on this "zoo"?
Matt
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RE: Houston needs some serious Help!!!!
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by guttersnacks on May 16, 2005
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I had some friends that went to a zoo in Tennessee and they took a picture of a Chondropython and sent me email it to me to show me the neat "Rough Green Snake" per the cage label. I had a good chuckle.
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RE: Houston needs some serious Help!!!!
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Anonymous post on May 16, 2005
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I was once a keeper there. The zoo was under going some major changes in management when I left. AND I left for a reason. Hmmm I wonder why???...
I'm surprised you didn't like the C. unicolor, polystictus, amphibian setups. The gabby cage was painted by someone I know. Did you see the Cameleo pardalis? It is quite a specimen.
That zoo has some MAJOR leadership problems going all the way to the top. I guess they do the best they can, considering whos in charge.
AAAHHH! Old memories are starting to haunt me again.
Regards,
?
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RE: Houston needs some serious Help!!!!
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by Dadee on May 16, 2005
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Yeah the Gabby's were nice, but I tell you, there displays were by far the worst I've ever seen. I would be nice to at bare minimum post the placards at the bottom of the display to tell you what you're looking at, instead of in the middle of the partition between exhibits, not sure which of the 3, yes 3, placards go with which animal.
I do have to say they had a terrific African Bullfrog. That's about it.
Cheers,
Matt
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RE: Houston needs some serious Help!!!!
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Anonymous post on May 17, 2005
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The signs sucked when I was there too!!! The herp dept. didn't allow the graphics dept. to do any of the signs. So the the herp dept. (one guy actually) does all of them and he doen't even have a degree in design or zoology so it was difficult to watch some of the crap that went on. The worst was when people would confuse the sanzinia with the gabbys because they were side by side.
They didn't even take my advice to put arrows on the cards.... aahhhh.
The animals are nice though. I must say, the lack of management skills at the curatorial level and up is the true problem that causes good keepers and good collections at that zoo to get worse or get out.
To give you an example, the supervisor and another keeper once had a bet to see how long they could go without opening a cage (= no cleaning, feeding, nothing) They both lasted 9 MONTHS and the supervisor won by 2 days!!! This was before they went private and that hasn't happened since. But those types of keepers where in charge when I was there as well. And one of them does the signs so you can just guess why some cages aren't labeled. Yikes!
The herp curator was such a penny pincher that anything nice was out of the question. That drove me and the others nuts. It wasn't that we didn't have the money...it was we couldn't spend the money....because that would have been to damn easy.
Some people might say that I am being unprofessional. I do not agree. I feel that this zoo should have taken actions toward these keepers and such instead of turning their heads and hiding behind the "seniority" excuse. I must say that logic would assume that seniority would equal experience and experience would lead to quality.....NOT IN THE CASE OF THE HOUSTON ZOO.
At that zoo senoirity meant not working and experience meant knowing how to get away with it.
I've got to stop thinking about that zoo or my day will be ruined.
Regards,
?
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Houston ZOO needs some serious Help!!!!
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by Dadee on May 17, 2005
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Wow, makes me want to apply for a job there...yeah as if. They did need some serious work on those enclosures. I noticed one that had not one or even 2 mambas, but 3. The worst part of it...they had a branch inside the enclosure that propped up AGAINST the damn door...and wouldn't you know it, the green was laying on the branch with his head ready to go once the damn door was opened.
I tried taking a pic with my camera phone, but that turned out to be real shitty...of course my girl decided to leave her camera back in the room that day...hmmm, makes me wonder what rung of the evolutionary ladder we are all on.
Sorry that the thought of the place makes your day go down hill, but something of this nature should be exploited. I have the slightest idea of calling up KPRC in Houston and have them do a story on it. Why not? The news hounds have been all over the National Zoo, just because the director has been overlooking the rat problems, etc.. Sounds like someone should have to answer up for something like this. It makes our community look bad, when they're the forefront of this society. If they look bad...how's it gonna look for us...we've already got it bad cause people think "you're nuts...why would you need to keep a poisonous snake".
Anyhow, enough about how bad this place looked to me. I just know I wasted 21 bucks...almost made me want to go back to the front gate and ask for a damn refund.
Perhaps one day all zoos will have to stand up to more stringent AZA rules?!
cheers,
Matt
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Houston ZOO needs some serious Help!!!!
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by Dadee on May 17, 2005
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Wow, makes me want to apply for a job there...yeah as if. They did need some serious work on those enclosures. I noticed one that had not one or even 2 mambas, but 3. The worst part of it...they had a branch inside the enclosure that propped up AGAINST the damn door...and wouldn't you know it, the green was laying on the branch with his head ready to go once the damn door was opened.
I tried taking a pic with my camera phone, but that turned out to be real shitty...of course my girl decided to leave her camera back in the room that day...hmmm, makes me wonder what rung of the evolutionary ladder we are all on.
Sorry that the thought of the place makes your day go down hill, but something of this nature should be exploited. I have the slightest idea of calling up KPRC in Houston and have them do a story on it. Why not? The news hounds have been all over the National Zoo, just because the director has been overlooking the rat problems, etc.. Sounds like someone should have to answer up for something like this. It makes our community look bad, when they're the forefront of this society. If they look bad...how's it gonna look for us...we've already got it bad cause people think "you're nuts...why would you need to keep a poisonous snake".
Anyhow, enough about how bad this place looked to me. I just know I wasted 21 bucks...almost made me want to go back to the front gate and ask for a damn refund.
Perhaps one day all zoos will have to stand up to more stringent AZA rules?!
cheers,
Matt
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