Travel

Penguin Days at the Dallas Zoo

On our weekend escape to Dallas, the one thing we knew we definitely wanted to see was the Dallas Zoo!

Plan a trip to the Dallas Zoo! | Teaspoon of Nose

If you’ve followed along here for any amount of time, you know my love of zoos. I’m actually a child and love all things animals: zoos and aquariums make me happy. So when we headed to Dallas for a weekend, my saint of a husband suggested we check out the Dallas Zoo.

Apparently the Dallas Zoo does something it calls “penguin days,” where prices are slashed during January. Not every animal is out, but for a day’s entertainment I’d call $7 a pretty good deal. Bonus: it wasn’t crowded. There were people, but not hordes of screaming children, which is always a win.

Plan a trip to the Dallas Zoo! | Teaspoon of Nose

Plan a trip to the Dallas Zoo! | Teaspoon of Nose

Plan a trip to the Dallas Zoo! | Teaspoon of Nose


As zoos go, this one did a really great job of balancing giving the animals enough space and mimicking their natural habitat with positioning that exhibit so visitors could view the animals. The giraffes were closer than I’d ever seen them, finally helping realize just how tall giraffes are. Turns out, twenty feet is really tall on a living moving thing. I joke, but we did get close enough that you get a feel for their height.

We managed to watch the lion feeding: keepers scatter meat around the habitat, then let the lions find it. He was calmer than I expected, but incredibly big, especially as he came right against the glass to eat. He made my 90 pound dog look tiny!

Plan a trip to the Dallas Zoo! | Teaspoon of Nose

Plan a trip to the Dallas Zoo! | Teaspoon of Nose

Plan a trip to the Dallas Zoo! | Teaspoon of Nose

Another fun close encounter was with the okapi! This wouldn’t have been on the top of my list at a zoo, but the casual closeness we managed to get thanks to a keeper feeding him was cool. Okapis are enormous too – bigger than a horse, and adults weigh 600-800 pounds. But he calmly stripped leaves off branches held by the keeper as he told us about the okapi at the zoo and his 17 years of working here.

Plan a trip to the Dallas Zoo! | Teaspoon of Nose

Plan a trip to the Dallas Zoo! | Teaspoon of Nose

Plan a trip to the Dallas Zoo! | Teaspoon of Nose

If you’re planning your trip, note that parking cost $10, but is free with a membership. Normally a ticket is only $15, but I highly recommend braving the cold and going during their penguin day special!

I loved the Dallas Zoo, and the closeness we managed to get to the animals has me already dreaming up an African safari adventure. Maybe in 2019?

For more help planning a weekend in Dallas, check out the Bishop Arts District and my favorite area restaurants!

Opinions are my own & I didn’t receive compensation for my writing. The links above contain affiliate links, which means I get a few cents (at no extra cost to you) if you book or buy something via that link. This helps me keep costs down & posts up! All images copyright Teaspoon of Nose.

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8 thoughts on “Penguin Days at the Dallas Zoo

  1. I always like zoos that can balance giving the animals enough space and still letting visitors see them 🙂 That’s awesome you got to see a couple animal feedings and could see the animals up close! Oooh that lion is one gorgeous fellow! Haha I keep trying to convince some of my friends that whenever they take their kids to the NC zoo that they should invite me along because I’m such a kid at heart too 😉 I haven’t gotten any invites on those outings though (probably because they figure they don’t want yet another person to keep track of, ha!) so next time you’re in NC let’s go check out the zoo together!

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