Reid Park Zoo — Attraction in Tucson

We really enjoyed the day out here, I love that there's so much history behind this zoo. It's run by a non-profit through the city, and it is expanding because of a 2017 voter initiative.

You can feel that the exhibits have changed over time, and there's something very interesting about that in a place. My partner grew up with this zoo, and she told me what all the exhibits used to be. Feeling their echoes was really something. The polar bear exhibit is now the grizzly exhibit, and you could feel that in the design choices by the fact you can go under the ground to look through the water at the grizzly (once a polar bear). I think it would be cool if the zoo made more of this kind of information available to the public, so they can feel the history as well.

Seeing the one month old baby elephant Meru was definitely a highlight, and now that African elephants have been reclassified as endangered, it's really great to see an accredited zoo with a baby, since they are a part of the organization that maintains genetic diversity (So we can continue to have healthy elephants in the future). A reviewer mentioned that the people of Tucson asked for the elephants to stay in the renovations, so the zoo accommodated the request.

I also found it interesting that the zoo brought a Jaguar to Arizona in order for it to benefit from the desert weather since it had a longstanding issue with allergies. They also participated in conservation research regarding jaguar disease simultaneously. I didn't "spot" the Jaguar today however. People in the past noted it had had issues, but I didn't see it for myself.

I'm grateful to see an exhibit dedicated to African wild dogs, as they are also endangered. However, I think they would benefit from a tunnel system with altering signs and gate systems throughout the zoo. This is a more modern take on predator layout design in zoos, as they'd greatly benefit from being able to choose between different sites that require a long jog to get to: nesting, hunting, water hole, puzzles. When I saw them today, they seemed to have a lot more energy than the exhibit could let them express easily.

I'm not sure why they have an exhibit that's so big, which I believe was formerly the smaller of two elephant enclosures, containing domestic goats... That seems like a waste of the space. If it's a money issue, surely there is some other animal out there with higher conservation needs that could be maintained here instead..?

I have concern about the lack of security guards, since a few of the exhibits can be reached into, and pea fowl and ducks are free roaming. If they are allowed to be around guests without monitoring, they can be injured or fed. I also didn't see enough signs telling people to not feed animals, or touch them. I saw three instances of people misbehaving and had to confront them myself. One person was letting their stroller baby hand food to peafowl, which is super dangerous for the baby and not healthy for the pea fowl. another person was reaching into an exhibit to touch a pea fowl, which is also awful for setting an example to other children another person was trying to grab a pea fowl.

Overall, the zoo could greatly benefit from sharing more of their history, conservation techniques that are unique from the zoo instead of just about the animal itself, and sharing local efforts, as this zoo is a local citizen-led project for the advancement of conservation and protection of endangered wildlife, with so very many years of history... instead of a corporate overlord situation with animal abuse (which many roadside shows are..) I don't feel the zoo is leaning on its best selling points or educating the public properly, as many people in the reviews complain about not being able to see the animals without understanding that this is actually a really good sign. Animals are not meant to be here just for a person's viewing pleasure, having hideaways is very important for their mental health. Also complaints of "isolation" - bears are solitary! (contrary to depictions like...

So it’s the beginning of May and we haven’t exactly breached summer-time 110 degree temperatures but instead have had to endure clouds that tease us with rain and high speed winds that not only ruin your backyard layout but bring all sorts of allergies that force me to explain to my employers that i’m not high, it’s just my hypersensitivity to Palo Verde pollen and that’s why my eyes are bloodshot and the incessant giggling is just me being me. 80% of the time, they buy it but the other 20% of the time, they’re eyeballing me and seeing if i’m eating funions and ignoring customers. Which, again, I do anyway. It’s 2025, get off my back, your economy is going to collapse any day now and Palo Verde pollen will be the least of our worries.

Knowing that this beautiful weather window is closing, I harbor deep guilt for not taking advantage of the multitudes of outdoor activities that Tucson has to offer. Like golf or pickleball or picnics or hiking. If you see me doing any of the first three, you’ll need to ask me if everything is okay. But hiking, now hiking is something I actually enjoy. The only thing that ruins that blissful, transcendent journey surrounded by nature’s graceful, timeless beauty is typically a guy that looks like prime era Fred Durst carrying a JBL speaker on his belt loop and drinking a white claw while blasting G Eazy. Now listen, I have nothing bad to say about G Eazy but when i’m trying to find solitude and quiet while gazing out at the high altitude vistas, the last thing I wanna hear is a song from a guy in a leather jacket and slicked back hair telling me how he’s going to steal my girl. I’m single and it would still make me mad and insecure.

So basically I love the outdoors and wildlife but I don’t want to risk getting bit by rattlesnakes or javelinas in heat while hearing G Eazy. So I thought why not just skip the intense risk and settle for something easier on the knees that also allows me to enjoy the weather and look at wildlife. Then I thought, well duh—-Reid Park Zoo is right down the street. Now I haven’t been to a zoo since I was a kid and aside from the morality and ethics that everyone loves to pontificate about, I missed the feeling. Seeing the majesty of exotic wildlife in real time as a kid. The feeling second only to being hopped up on Capri Sun and watching the Chuck E Cheese band (also known as Munch’s Make Believe Band) and not believing that a giant rat, a giant chicken and a giant hound dog could be as good as Mars Volta. Good times. So as a full grown adult, I figured, what the heck, why not recapture some of that childhood wonder, innocence and awe by visiting the zoo for a couple hours.

When I pulled into the parking lot and paid for my admission, I was immediately transformed into a fat, stupid kid again. I stared down a capybara, I fed a friggin giraffe, watched a baby elephant happily run around, sang the Lion King opening song to the lion and rhino and the only one who minded that was the Karen wearing a visor next to me. Then off course I ran to the Flamingo Grill to grab a corndog and then it suddenly hit me while I was scrolling through my phone seeing all the memes. You know the ones about 100 men vs a gorilla? I suddenly felt the songs of my ancestors rattle through my soul, my bones shaking with excitement. Maybe this was my one and only chance to be somebody. Prove myself as a warrior in this age of weak men. Inspire a whole generation with primal...

I finally came here after a few years actually more than a few years more like over 10 years of having been here. So I was really curious and I thought it would be fun so me and my dad came one day and the weather was perfect it was overcast and it was a little drizzly. I was quite surprised to see how dead the zoo was there was hardly anybody else there visiting so we basically have the whole place to ourselves. It's a lot smaller than what I remember probably because I'm an adult and I have a better sense of time but you can actually do this place in 2 hours if you don't waste a lot of time eating or at the gift shop. The coolest thing that I hadn't seen before was the new elephant exhibit it's huge but the elephants were all on the other side where you can get to so even though there's a nice big elephant exhibit they were all hanging out in the back corner anyway so it really didn't matter you could barely see them anyway. The other cool thing was the rhinoceros he was just chilling in the dirt sleeping. They have Capybaras they have a aviary they have bears they have the bears where the polar bear used to be. oh and parking was so easy because it was so dead we parked right in the front right by the door and there was no line to get in so we were in within like 5 minutes of parking. The staff was pretty helpful the gift shop is pretty cool they just have a lot of needless things so I didn't buy anything because I don't need a stuffed animal of a monkey. But I can see if you brought kids in there they would probably throw a fit for you to buy them something cuz there is a lot of cute things. We wanted to go check out the food court but when we walked in there was nobody in there the chairs were kind of on top of the tables and it looked like they were closed even though there were some workers behind the counter but because it was so dead it was a little off-putting so we ended up not eating there we ate somewhere outside of the zoo on the way home. I would definitely recommend going early due to how hot it could get I can see it becoming miserable if we didn't go on a day that had such nice weather. They also have hyenas that I don't remember seeing before they have like I don't know like 10 hyenas that were just running in circles and playing a lot so it was really cool to see them. They have three giraffes on the day I went and unfortunately I saw on the news the very next day one of the giraffes did die so now I think they only have two of the younger giraffes which is sad. I gave it four stars out of five because I felt like they could have more activities going on there really wasn't anything else going on besides for you to just walk and find animals like that's literally all you can do there. There's no tour guides there's no activities for kids there's no educational things going on it's just walk around read some signs and if the animal feels like being out they'll be out...