Parents Magazine has named the San Antonio Zoo the 6th best zoo for kids in the United States.
Brian Carter, the zoo’s Vice President for Marketing, says the San Antonio Zoo has spent the last couple of years focused on enhancing the guest experience, including simplifying habitats and making them more natural and realistic.
“The giraffe exhibit is a great example of this, where you are actually inside the giraffe yard.”
Carter says the zoo is moving more exhibits toward open environments where guests feel like they are in the habitat and interact with the animals.
“We’re breaking this plane that has always existed in zoos – that guest fence – that barrier where you’re just staring into a habitat. What we want to do is bring the guest closer, bring them into the animals’ world, and allowing them to make a deeper, more close connection to that animal.”
Parents Magazine’s Top Zoos for Kids list praised San Antonio’s Tiny Tot Nature Spot as the first children’s zoo created for the 5-and-under set – and opportunities for older kids to feed animals.
Twenty-five zoos were on the Top Zoos list this year.
