Koala Walkabout at the Dallas Zoo
650 S. R.L. Thornton Freeway. dallaszoo.com
Hours: 9am-5pm daily. Admission: $12 adults 12 and older, $9 children and seniors, free for children ages 2 and younger.
Parking: $7 per car.
If the closest you’ve ever come to a koala is the pages of National Geographic, don’t miss the Australian treasures in the Koala Walkabout exhibit at the Dallas Zoo. A pair of Queensland koalas just arrived from the San Diego Zoo in March, joining their fellow natives – wallabies, kangaroos, emus and new kookaburras and lorikeets.
Tekin – meaning escape – and Kobi –medicine man – are both male, about 4 years old and live in a temperature-controlled enclosure with floor-to-ceiling glass windows to protect them from the ever-changing Texas weather. Zoo staff members give daily Keeper Talks at 9:30am and 1:30pm to show off the animals, who spend most of their waking hours lazily munching on a diet of fresh eucalyptus leaves that arrive twice weekly from Phoenix. Keepers will discuss native habitat and the koalas’ individual personalities.
There is no need to limit yourself to the Down Under. You’ll easily spend the whole day discovering exotic animals to see, feed, touch and even ride. Take a camel ride around the large mammal enclosure and visit the neighboring black rhinoceros. Step inside the rainbow lorikeet aviary at the Koala Walkabout and discover 24 more bird species at Bird’s Landing in the Children’s Zoo. The tame birds will perch on your arm or shoulder and feed from your hand on nectar, seed sticks or mealworms. Crawl through a tunnel and see the naked mole rats that do it best in the Underzone. Pet the zoo’s other marsupials, short-tailed and Virginia opossums, during hourly animal handlings at the Discovery House.
Venture to the other side of the park where the Giants of the Savanna roam together and get eye-level with giraffes at their feeding station. While you fill up with lunch and catch some shade at the Serengeti Grill, watch lions and lionesses sunbathe behind a glass window. For a grassland area not accessible by foot, go on a 20-minute narrated tour of the Wilds of Africa on the Monorail Safari, and for a quick trip to and from the zoo, hop aboard the Red Line on the DART Rail – another train ride the kids will enjoy. It’s only about a 20-minute ride from the four stations in downtown Dallas and stops just outside the zoo’s Oak Cliff entrance gates. Local all-day passes are $4, and trains depart every 20 minutes from each station. Check dart.org for maps and schedules.
