Put Me In The Zoo: Las Vegas Springs Preserve Review Springs Preserve - Official Web Site Date visited: March 2011 The Las Vegas Springs Preserve is the site of the spring where the first Europeans wandering through what is now Las Vegas stopped. The spring dried up long ago, but miraculously the natural area remained unpaved. The site has been turned into an oasis of natural habitat, desert gardens demonstrating ecologically appropriate landscaping for the region, and great museums. It is the Las Vegas equivalent perhaps of the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum in Tucson, Arizona. The Origen Museum is a combination natural history museum-cultural museum-small zoo and is one of the main attractions of the Springs Preserve. This museum interprets the history of the Las Vegas region from the geological formation of Nevada many millions of years ago to the present day. It is an interactive museum full of games, activities, artifacts, live animals, and many other things. One of the main attractions is the recreation of a flash flood in which museum visitors stand on a platform and a flash flood rushes underneath and all around them. There is a reproduction of a Shoshone American Indian village site including buildings, crop recreations, etc. There are many cool interactive displays on how modern Las Vegas came to be including a full size train, a recreation of a Hoover Dam construction site, and interactive games showing how well (or not well) Las Vegas balances its water use with the natural ecology of water available in the desert. The main interest to readers of ZooChat will likely be the live animal and natural history displays that are part of the Origen Museum. This is the aspect of the museum and overall Springs Preserve that I will review. Birders and botanists will also enjoy the restored natural habitat area of the Mojave that is present at the Springs Preserve. Does this zoo satisfy the reviewer’s Inner-3-Year-Old by featuring his lifelong favorite animals, giraffes and elephants? The zoo aspect of the Springs Preserve is very small and the largest animal is a grey fox. There kind of is an elephant species present in that there are mammoth teeth present in the display showing the prehistoric biology of Las Vegas. Does this zoo have any animals that would excite a zoo aficionado? There is a cave area with live pallid bats with cool accompanying graphics and displays that allow one to hear like a bat. There are several species of lizard including Gila monsters, desert iguanas, and chuckwallas. There is a Merriam’s kangaroo rat, botta pocket gophers, a grey fox, desert cottontails, and desert tortoises. There are several desert snake species and invertebrates including a harvester ant colony. Does this zoo have any immersion exhibits that would impress a zoo aficionado? The lizards are in large terrariums. The grey fox and bunnies are in fairly large enclosures in the outside part of the museum, as is the bat cave. The pocket gophers are in a large tunnel complex somewhat like naked-mole rats are usually displayed in zoos. The flash flood experience is a very cool immersive experience. Does this zoo have any elements that make it particularly family friendly? I think that the Las Vegas Springs Preserve may be the best family activity in Nevada, other than maybe going to explore the actual desert. I saw families with kids of all ages genuinely enjoying this museum. There were several teenagers looking at the animals when my wife and I visited and they all seem to be very excited to see the animals. We pointed out the kangaroo rat to a girl who then promptly ran to get all of her friends to see it. Does this zoo have any interesting plans for the future? The Nevada State Museum just opened in late 2011. I have not seen it, but it looks like it has a full mammoth skeleton and some dinosaur exhibits, so I hope to check it out some day. The Origen Museum has traveling exhibits in addition to the permanent displays that I mention above. If you are planning to visit check out their website to see what their current temporary exhibit is. Also be on the look out for coupons to the Spring Preserve, which seem to be widespread and will help defer the somewhat pricey (but very worthwhile) admission cost. Would a zoo aficionado like this zoo enough to go out of his or her way to visit it? This place easily gets lost in the glitz of Las Vegas, but it is a genuinely outstanding natural history and cultural institution. Any city would be proud to have a complex like this and I think anybody interested in zoos and desert natural history and wildlife would enjoy this place.
