The Dallas World Aquarium plans to reintroduce Orinoco Crocodiles. The following is from the US Federal Register:
Sounds good, this aquarium has a very interesting collection. I heared that one of their elderly pair of giant river otters recently passed away, does anyone know if that's correct? And if so, are there any plans to introduce the remaining animal to one of the Philly Zoo youngsters?
@ jwer: Im pretty sure Dallas still has both of their giant otters who arent all that old? (10 and 9 yrs of age). But Miami lost one of their males last year. I hope Philly's otter pups get a chance to go out in the zoo world in breed. Three of their males are now at Jacksonville Zoo. @Kiang: I dont think they ever had shoebill storks. They focus on Neotropical species, but they do have an area with african penguins, hyrax, porcupine, and hornbill.
My apologizes Kiang...but it appears that you and ISIS are right! Dallas World Aquarium has a poor website, but after some time on it...I found something! They built a second floor addition to their african area with a shoebill stork and turacos. Other new additions include tree kangaroos and two-toed sloths (they currently have the 3 toed variety). Here is another newsletter article from mid-2007:
The latest newsletter is posted on the aquarium's website. The Predators exhibit will become a new Leafy SeaDragon exhibit and several species have been added to various exhibits. DWA is also working with facilites in Peru to rehab Amazonian Manatees. http://www.dwazoo.com/newsletter/index.php?n=newsletters/200809/ Also, does anyone know anything about DWA's Shoebill Stork. I received this year's guidebook and there is no mention of it.
I believe it passed away earlier this year. Does anyone know if the "upper level addition" to South Africa was the old fairy penguin exhibit?
Yes, the shoebill was killed by an accident. I friend of me has seen it two years ago, the bird was not on exhibit, it was living in an exhibit right on the roof of the building. I think, it was never on exhibit. I like the collection of the DWA also, but on the other side, they have a lot of very bad exhibits, so for the tree kangaroo, the giant otters or the little penguins. The temple of the jaguar is the most worst new exhibits for big cats I've ever seen until now. But they hav also a few good exhibits, so for the manatees. Do they have got now the water opposums from south america ? @okapikpr. What is on the cover of the 2008 guidebook, is it one of the throw-it-away guidebooks, which the visitors get it for free, or do you mean the real, big guidebook, which is on sale in the giftshops ? It shows the building on the cover.I have three diffrent versions of the free guidebook, with a toucan, a giant otter and a bullshark on the cover.
THROW-IT-AWAY??!!?? What a horrible way to describe a map. I believe I have the 2008 free guidebook. It is much larger than previous (11x8 in.) and the cover is of the underwater viewing tunnel of the cenote tank, looking up (a really cool picture). I didnt know they also had a real guidebook too! I havent heard much more about the Yapok...
I've heard conflicting reports on the Dallas World Aquarium, with some people slamming the small size of the overall area and the poor exhibits that are found throughout the area, while others tend to focus on the spectacular collection and the numerous above average habitats. I should go one day and judge for myself, as this aquarium seems to be a notch below the big guns like Monterey Bay, Shedd, Georgia, Baltimore and Vancouver...which I'm pretty sure are the 5 biggest and possibly 5 best in North America.
Snowleopard, I visited in June 2007, and my main impression was that it isn't REALLY an aquarium in the traditional sense (it is so named because the first exhibits were the series of fish tanks in the basement, I believe). The main exhibits are large "rainforests", but I did find them somewhat lacking in rainforest vibe ... too many pathways and not enough dense vegetation for my liking. I can see both sides of the highlights/criticisms, but my main point it that I doubt it can be compared to an aquarium proper, as there is a strong focus on callitrichids (marmosets) and ramphastids (toucans and the like).
The shoebill was on exhibit, I found this information on the webside. @Okapikpr. I know, throw-it-away isn't a nice name for a guidebook, but as you could see, there is a basket at the exit for the books and most vistors put it in for recycling. I have a picture of this basket, full of hundreds of free guidebooks.... Yes, there is a really good guidebook, its a little bit larger than the free guidebooks and has 64 pages with a lot pictures in it and a loose field guide, but no map. It descirpes most of the animals. I've heared,they have published it, because the free guide should be to complicated to the vistors, so I thought, they have replaced it, but it seems, the big guidebook is sold out. I wonder about that, because it was not cheap. Maybe you can get it, if you ask somebody at the DWA.
Does anybody knows, when the manatees arrived at the Dallas World Aquarium ? I ask, because I've got today two older editions of the Guidebook and I try to find out when they were published, there is one with a orinoco crocodile on the cover, this guide ist without the manatees, and the other one shows a manatee on the cover, so I think, this guide came out in the year the manatees has arrived.
Also, the Orinoco Crocodiles were added to the aquarium in 1998 along with the three toed sloths and many other additional animals for the Orinoco rainforest.
I have to admit that the collection appears to be fantastic but the photos being uploaded don't showcase any exhibits that are even remotely spectacular. Mock-rock and tiny tanks are what are coming across in the photos.
But this is what you see at the DallasWorld Aquarium, a phantastic collection, in small, strange exhibits sorrounded by tropical plants. Are the three trhree toed slothes the original animals imported in 1998, or do they got more of the three ? I've heared, they lost some of the three toed slothes and got new ones. Today a friend of me, he has visted the DWA last year, told me that the shoebill never was on exhibit. They have planned an exhibit for the bird, but this year, the shoebill died during a storm through an accident.
