This is a new thing that I will be doing where I will review the different zoos and aquariums I have been to. This first review will be about the Turtleback Zoo, my local zoo. Turtleback Zoo The Turtleback Zoo is a medium-sized zoo located in West Orange, New Jersey. Generally considered to be the premiere zoo of the NY Metro Area (Not the actual city of course), the zoo is quite the gem and features a wide variety of species from around the world. There are two entrances to the zoo, one to the northwest and one to the south. The northwest entrance is by the black bear enclosure, so I will start off this virtual journey in the south entrance. This is the main entrance, visitors walk through to see a small garden with a water feature and a statue of a Komodo dragon, one of the prized species of this zoo. Visitor amenities are located here such as a sprawling gift shop which has a lot of things to be bought, including a massive collection of stuffed animals. Anyway, going right first, visitors will be able to see the zoo's Reptile House, a decent-sized building with a collection of reptiles, amphibians, mammals, and more featured in a rotunda. The center of the building features a model of some sort of pterosaur (most likely a Pteranodon) and a small educational display of reptile features. The largest and first exhibit guests will most likely notice is for the zoo's Komodo dragons which are displayed alongside a flock of Taveta golden weavers. Visitors can look at the animals through 2 windows, a small curved one and a large __/\__ style one. After that are a small tropical terrarium for Amazon milk frogs, A tall tropical terrarium for Hispaniola giant anoles. A semiaquatic terrarium for tentacle snakes. A temperate tank for a Hellbender(s?). Another tank for Vietnamese long nosed snakes. A tropical terrarium for red-banded trinket snakes. A semiaquatic terrarium for a Chinese crocodile lizard(s?). A tall tropical habitat for green tree pythons and New Guinea ground boas, a desert habitat for blue spiny lizards, chuckwallas, and Mexican beaded lizards. An empty exhibit, a large rainforest exhibit which is home to ducks, I believe a sloth (perhaps an armadillo), and maybe some tortoises (Unfortunately I didn't get a good pic of the signage on this exhibit). Two more empty exhibits. The reticulated python exhibit which is a tropical habitat with a large pool, and yet another empty exhibit. A small insect section also exists within the reptile house, featuring thorny devil walking sticks (which I believe were off-exhibit), an empty enclosure, two exhibits stacked on top of each other which both had animals in them, on the top one were Madagascar hissing cockroach(s?) and on the bottom was an African giant black millipede(s?), and finally a terrarium for emperor newts. Outside of the reptile house, visitors can see a koi pond featuring koi (obviously) and perhaps goldfish (I'm not sure if they're still there) After this we will go left towards the western part of the zoo, including animals such as flamingos, condors, wolves, and bears.
