Reston Zoo, any good?

[Anonymous]

Do the animals at the National Zoo look "happy" to you?

The animals at the petting barn at the Reston Zoo seem extremely happy to me - they are being petted and fed all day long.

[Anonymous]

Reston Zoo and National Zoo are apples and oranges.

National Zoo is... well, you know if you've been there: it's a big, scientific operation with a strong education/conservation mission.

Reston Zoo is basically a large petting zoo. You can buy bottles of milk and cups of pellets to feed many of the animals. You can go on pony rides. Etc.

In my experience, kids have a ball at both -- they're just very different.

[Anonymous]

I love, love, love the Reston Zoo for smaller kids. For me, the National Zoo is just too big of a hike for a kid young enough to lose interest in anything beyond an hour (technically we don't live that far, but between traffic and metro, it takes forever). 15 monhts is a great age for it if you can suck up the price. We just usually went with one parent most of the time - hey the kid is free - and buy one small thing of food. So its - $13 approximately. Not great, but not horrible. My son is now 3 and only now did he get interested in the pony ride, so at a younger age, its easier to keep the price down.

What I do like about it is that it has the benefit of getting really (really) close to some animals (goats, sheeps, geese), but also has some more exotic animals (lemurs, kangeroos, parrots, monkeys, camel, buffolo, giraffes). Actually, even the giraffes will walk up to people some times (it's on the other side of a fence of course).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The Reston Zoo is hardly "wonderful", unless very small and not so modern animal enclosures are your thing. Some of it is fine - feeding the sheep, pigs, etc. But, the wild animal enclosures are, frankly, small and not the best. They are, literally, cages in most instances.
Some of the animals look quite unhappy, in my view and that of my DH (as well as friends).
I'm not saying don't go but it is not a modern, well-equipped zoo.

Compared to the National Zoo? The National Zoo sadly is the worst. Come on, the large animals are in tiny enclosures. At the Reston Zoo, the larger animals have so much room you can't even see them sometimes. I always wondered what is like being a neighbor that lives there. Honey - the giraffe is looking into our window again - can you close the blinds he is creeping me out.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The Reston Zoo is hardly "wonderful", unless very small and not so modern animal enclosures are your thing. Some of it is fine - feeding the sheep, pigs, etc. But, the wild animal enclosures are, frankly, small and not the best. They are, literally, cages in most instances.
Some of the animals look quite unhappy, in my view and that of my DH (as well as friends).
I'm not saying don't go but it is not a modern, well-equipped zoo.

Compared to the National Zoo? The National Zoo sadly is the worst. Come on, the large animals are in tiny enclosures. At the Reston Zoo, the larger animals have so much room you can't even see them sometimes. I always wondered what is like being a neighbor that lives there. Honey - the giraffe is looking into our window again - can you close the blinds he is creeping me out.

Well, I will just have to agree to disagree with calling Reston Zoo a "zoo." I don't think the enclosures overall are very well done or large - you have seen some of the cats and other animals in their cube cages? That's acceptable for a zoo for you? The tiny little monkey island? I'm not saying the folks at RZ are ill-intentioned but to me it is not a zoo and is not particularly great.

The petting zoo aspect is fun and the animals do seem to have lot of room. That's not as bad.

And, yes, the animals at the National Zoo DO look quite happy (though I did not compare RZ to National Zoo and if I was comparing it would not be to that particular zoo), having been there twice in the past month. I'm sure any animal would rather be in wild.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:honestly, i would not patronize a zoo that is not accredited by the national association of zoos and aquariums. that is the only way you know the animals are treated appropriately and the mission is conservation/education and not profit/entertainment.

god forbid someone opens a for-profit business in the USA anymore ....

a profitable business has the most incentive to keep their animals healthy, as opposed to the National Zoo where the animals drop dead left and right ...

This is true, but it is conflicted with the tendency of private to save a few nickels here and there to make a buck. You might see this with some rancher feeding animal based feed becuase it is cheaper, and the next thing you know, you have mad cow in 10 years. He wont care because his animal is sold and gone before it is detected randomly.

So a public zoo will just fleece the taxpayer and order good food. As virtually any spouse knows, people spend differently when they are spending someone elses money.

[Anonymous]

The goose poop everywhere really grossed me out!