Outside Magic -- Fort Worth Zoo

April 29, 2026

Hello Blog!

For my outside magic entry, I waited until our class visited the Fort Worth Zoo together. We went yesterday, on April 28, and it was incredibly fun to walk around the zoo with my classmates. We all have a similar lens now with nature, I think, and we are able to discuss our observations more similarly than I would with someone outside of our class.

We arrived at the zoo at 2pm, and the sun was out, and the air was thick and humid. We were expecting rain during our trip, so we brought rain jackets and umbrellas. The animals were active, and we started at the front of the zoo with the primates. The Mandrill and Orangutan were the first we saw, and we were shocked at how aware they seemed to be. They moved so intentionally, playing with each other, eating, and swinging on their structures. I was walking through the zoo with six of my classmates, and we were noticing how much the monkeys resembled us, and wondering if they thought the same. We were also struck by how colored the mandrill's noses were. Their mouth and nose area has a unique and bold shade of blue and red/orange.

The moment that stayed with me the most from the primate area was the Western Lowland Gorillas. A father or brother was playing with a baby, letting it climb on him and run around him. Soon after, the mother came over and began to breastfeed the baby monkey. I have been to zoos before, but I do not think I have ever watched animals do something so necessary and private. We were all rather surprised to see this moment, but it was a unique experience.

The flamingoes and elephants were next, and the elephants had a large, bright pool and plenty of grass around them. A mother and baby were on one side of the habitat, and what looked like a couple was on the other. My classmates and I found ourselves building a whole narrative for them without meaning to. From there, we moved through the savanna section to the springbok, ostrich, and giraffes. The giraffes were a few adults grazing openly, and then, closer to the front, appeared to be a family with a baby, eating lettuce that visitors were feeding them as snacks.

As we walked, we saw a hippo in a ginormous pool structure with a variety of fish. The hippo was swimming so leisurely that it looked like a dance -- it reminded me of the Madagascar hippo! We also saw a rhino a little bit after the hippo, and I began to wonder if these animals could even comprehend their size and power. I would imagine they have never had to use it, especially considering they have probably spent their whole lives in a small space with no predators and no need to hunt for their food.

The Sumatran Tiger was pacing and jumping around when we passed. The pattern on its coat was awesome to see in person. The African Leopards at our zoo were siblings, and one of them had an entirely black coat with orange spots (but you could not really see the spots). I did not know it could be reversed like that. Maybe I have seen them before and mistaken them for a panther. This was my second favorite discovery of the trip. We then passed the lions, so large and beautiful. We passed the lion closer to the end of our trip at the zoo as the weather was starting to turn down, and I noticed the lions were sitting under trees and yawning, getting ready for the rain, perhaps.

After walking through the big cats, we passed many different animals on our way back to the front of the zoo. The Harpy Eagle made me think about flight and captivity more than any other bird we saw. The bird is rather big, but their wings are massive! Its cage was on the larger side, but I still wondered if it knew how much sky it was missing outside of the zoo. We also saw a Wrinkled Hornbill, which we thought was a toucan at first.

The Aldabra Giant Tortoises were sitting together as well - a common theme I noticed with all the animals during our trip. The Crested Penguins were waddling around and getting fed by a zoo employee; the penguins are always appearing happy and zen! In the reptile area, my favorite was the Vietnamese leaf-nosed snake, whose camouflage made it hard for me to find it at first, but this happened with most of the reptiles.

My big picture observation was the weather. When we arrived, the sun was fully out, and the animals were active and energetic. By the end of the two hours I was there, the clouds had started to roll in and make the whole zoo darker. With it, the animals started drifting towards the edges of their enclosure and lying down. The only animals that were still active while this change happened were some of the birds, singing and yelling as people started to leave the zoo. It seemed like the animals knew it was coming before we did. I am now pretty curious what they do with the animals during severe weather.

My takeaway from this experience is that I want to travel and see all of these animals in their true habitat someday. The zoo gives us proximity, which is its own kind of magic, but watching them in a space where they cannot be their innate selves and they do not have a pack with them made me a little sad. I am so happy to have had this experience with my class, but I am overall curious what all the animals are like when there are no walls at all.