Totally Texas -- Peek at underwater worlds in Fair Park

Children’s Aquarium at Fair Park

1462 First Avenue (MLK at Robert B. Cullum)

Dallas

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With so many new family-oriented activities in Dallas, I was startled to find myself neglecting established favorites like the Children’s Aquarium at Fair Park. The aquarium has the Art Deco exterior of the Fair Park exhibits built for the Texas Centennial celebration in 1936. But thanks to a major renovation in 2010, its interior beautifully reflects twenty-first century attitudes toward ecology, hands-on learning, and animal welfare.

One side is dedicated to displays of fresh water habitats, the other to salt water. Habitat designers manage to accommodate fun as well as science. On the fresh water side, the display of South American piranhas points out that these fish aren’t usually dangerous to humans, but scatters replicas of animal bones and skulls across the bottom of the tank. On the salt water displays, a tank with concave sides gives us bottom up views of octopi suckering their way across the sides.
　

The aquarium’s rescued hawksbill sea turtle provides an object lesson in the impact of human technology on other creatures. Found as a hatchling entangled in abandoned fish netting, the turtle was so badly injured portions of its right flippers had to be amputated, leaving it unable to survive in the wild. A resident of the aquarium since 2001, the turtle maneuvers its way around its tank, expertly locating tidbits during weekly feeding demonstrations.

The aquarium schedules public feedings at 2:30 p.m. daily at various habitats -- turtles, moray eels, alligators, sting rays, piranhas and most popularly, sharks.

Sharks get their weekly treats in the 58,000 gallon open-air aquarium called Stingray Bay. Most feedings are done by aquarium staff, but for a couple of dollars, visitors can buy a cup of scallops to feed the stingrays. And give them a pat as well. (The rays’ barbels have been clipped for the safety of visitors, who are asked to wash their hands before touching, for the safety of the fish.)

The rays understand perfectly that the presence of visitors signals a feeding and aren’t shy about mobbing the side of the tank looking for attention.

The aquarium is open 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. daily except Thanksgiving and Christmas. Admission is $8 for adults, $6 for children ages 3-11 and seniors aged 65 and older. Or save with annual passes or discounts for holders of Dallas Zoo memberships. Special rates and tours are available for school groups.

This is one place and time I recommend driving. Parking is free except during special events, such as next month’s state fair, and the lots at Gate 6 are convenient both to 
the aquarium and the nearby Butterfly House. I took DART’s Green Line train, but had to dodge construction equipment on my walk across Fair Park, as crews prepare for the State Fair opening September 27. For more information, including directions and complete schedule of feeding demonstrations, see www.childrensaquariumfairpark.com/.

(How, while rating Dallas’ public fountains recently, did I forget the fountain at Fair Park, with its ground level splashing, textured footing, adjacent shaded seating? While hot weather lasts, dress the kids appropriately and let them cool off, before or after visiting the fish.)

Totally Texas -- It's a wet, wet world!

Dallas World Aquarium/Children’s Aquarium at Fair Park

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I admit -- I love both the Dallas World Aquarium in downtown, and the Children’s Aquarium at Fair Park. Each has the summertime advantage of offering indoor entertainment with some education thrown in when it’s too hot to play outdoors. And their “niches” are sufficiently different that seeing either doesn’t detract from the fun of experiencing the other.

I visited the Dallas World Aquarium, 1801 N. Griffin, recently to check out some changes. The exhibit of giant river otters on level two of the multi-story building has moved due to work on an expanded habitat for the aquarium’s tamarins (small monkey relatives -- yes, DWA includes a lot more than water creatures). But the otters still seemed to have plenty of room to cavort -- and eye their human visitors.

Also new for the summer -- through Labor Day, September 3, Grupo Pakal will dance to Native American music every weekend -- Friday through Sunday -- in the Mundo Maya exhibit. The dancers and their birds graciously pose for photographs afterward.  
Performance times as well as schedules for animal feedings several times daily are listed at www.dwazoo.com/. 

(For reasons best known to themselves, my grandsons are crazy about the two-toed sloths and imitate them by hanging upside down whenever possible.)

Although the sun was hot on the day of my visit, even the outdoor exhibit of black-footed penguins felt comfortable for both people and birds, thanks to shade and ample flowing water. The DWA states that the penguins are native to South Africa’s Cape of Good Hope, not needing frigid Antarctic temperatures to thrive.

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The Children’s Aquarium at Fair Park focuses only on water-living creatures. It generally isn’t as crowded as DWA, and the boys love being able to get close to exhibits such as the rescued sea turtle and the “bubble” wall in the octopus habitat that invite you to reach in and -- almost -- touch.

Actual touch is possible Sundays, Wednesdays and Fridays at 2:30 p.m. when the sharks and stingrays in the shaded outdoor Stingray Bay exhibit gather for feeding. The catwalks and glass-sided tanks allow ample views of the shark feedings. Aquarium employees feed the sharks, but visitors may feed -- and touch -- the stingrays whose barbs have been clipped for safety.

For $2, the aquarium sells small cupfuls of shellfish for stingray feeding. And the fish aren’t shy about coming close for food. (Daily feedings of other animals, including the aquarium’s albino alligator, are open for visitor viewing as well.)

The Children’s Aquarium offers a couple of other benefits. It costs $8 for adults compared to the DWA’s $20.95, with parking always free except during the State Fair. (Enter at gate 6 off Second Avenue in Dallas for adjacent parking.) And the Children’s Aquarium is only yards away from the Fair Park lagoon, where kids can continue the aquatic theme by following the raised pathways. For complete ticket and schedule information, see
www.childrensaquariumfairpark.com/.