Texas Petting Zoo

Note: I'm going to make some generalizations about Texas that are in the name of comedy. If you are a native son of Texas and are easily offended when people are silly when talking about Texas, let this be your warning. Also, the pictures I've included aren't the best wildlife pictures that we took, but they are the pictures that best show how unique your interaction with the wildlife can be.

Good morning, welcome to Fossil Rim.

Early morning traffic.

When you live outside of Texas, you hear stories about Texas. Everyone in Texas drives a pickup. Everyone wears cowboy hats. There are more cows than people (and they're smarter). Everything is bigger in Texas. The stars at night are big and bright. The legends abound, and some of them are true. Sort of.

Hey guys, got any treats?

If a Texan were to design a Texas-style petting zoo, it would be Fossil Rim Wildlife Center outside Glen Rose, Texas. For starters, it would be 1700 acres. That's big. Then it would have over 50 kinds of native and exotic species, including giraffes, cheetahs, zebras and rhinos. Next, you'd build a nine mile road throughout the facility so that you would visit and see the animals without ever getting out of your car, no walking or other physical exertion here. Finally, you'd build a snack bar/restaurant at the midway point of your drive so you didn't have to risk going three whole hours without food. Compare that to your regular petting zoo with 5 goats and a pot bellied pig and a llama. The Texas-style petting zoo wins in every metric. Except actually petting of course, because zebras bite and cheetahs will eat your children and rhinos will crush your car.
Fossil Rim is awesome. This is the second time we have visited. Both times have gone on Thanksgiving weekend and both times have been early in the morning so I can only tell you about our experience during that brief window. From what I read, the only two complaints that anyone has about Fossil Rim are that when it's hot, the animals all go hide in the shade, and when it's busy, you experience a very, very slow motion wildlife-induced traffic jam. We solve both of those problems by going when it's cool and by making sure that we're there right when it opens at 8:30. Both are highly recommended.

Glad to have a fence for these.

I know you have more, GIVE ME MORE!

We had a really good time. We saw almost every species of animal listed on the visitor's guide sheet:  zebras, oryx, scmitar-horned oryx, giraffes, red deer, blackbuck, aoudad, ostrich, wild turkeys, cheetahs, rhinos, white tailed bucks that would make any hunter fall out of his tree stand, and a bunch of others. There were animals from the first 50 feet of our drive right up to the gate at the end with very few places in the middle where we simply had to enjoy the incredible scenery. The kids enjoyed interacting with the wildlife in a way that simply isn't possible in the actual wild. The hoofed mammals are well conditioned to coming up to the cars to ask for treats. The animals that are dangerous, the rhinos and the cheetas, are fenced in but very visible. We had a better view of the cheetahs in a multi acre enclosure than you do when you see them in a tiny pen at the zoo. Most importantly, you get to see the animals out in an environment that closely approximates the wild. Yes, they are fed, and yes, they are conditioned to people, but when you see the giraffes walking in a herd among the trees and out onto the grassy plains of the park, with no fence in sight, you realize that this is probably how we should be going to the zoo. The enclosures at even the best zoos can't approximate the freedom that these animals have. It's wonderful.

Hey guys, any giraffe treats?

I wanted to take him home.  And eat him.

If you're wondering, they actually do have a petting zoo with goats and a pot bellied pig and a llama at the midway point of the drive along with the cafe and gift shop. The petting zoo wasn't open yet because we were there too early, but really, who wants to pet a goat when you can hop back in the car and have a red deer stick his head in the window.