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| - Excellent zoo and aquarium with very well-maintained exhibits. The exhibits themselves tend to be either fenced or wooden posts for barriers. The wooden post barriers are nice in that you get a very close view of the animals. There are a wide variety of animals from different parts of the world. There also had some animals that were genetically unusual, such as the white alligator, albino python, and white tiger. The baby animal nursery was great and we got a close up view of those adorable babies (Porcupines and black jaguar when we were here). One of my favorite exhibits was the penguin exhibit, and we stuck around for the penguin feeding. They had a group of only one type of penguin here (The black footed penguin), but hey, for Arizona, it's great that they have penguins here at all!
While the zoo closes at 6, the aquarium is still open until 9 P.M. We spent the day at the zoo, had dinner at Dillon's, then spent the rest of our time here at the aquarium, which made for a very nice, pleasant day. The aquarium has 3 different buildings you can go to. There's two different "touch" pools, one for starfish/horseshoe crab, and another with various rays. There were some unusual aquarium setups, such as an aquarium on the ceiling which I thought was cool because you can see the bellies of the fish and the rays when you look up. I was surprised to see they had a (Ridley?) sea turtle, very cool. I also thought it was cool that they had a nautilus exhibit, a very unusual and beautiful animal.
If you buy Hickman's eggs, there is often a coupon for 2 for 1 on the inside package, which is how we got our discount. I have also seen them on Groupon. If you are in West part of the valley, this is an excellent way to spend your day.
P.S. Please don't come here in the evening expecting to see Zoo Lights, and then complain to the poor cashier about how they are open until 9 P.M. but don't have any animals on exhibit! I felt bad for the cashier who patiently explained to the irate customer how the animals are naturally sleeping at night, that they are not the Phoenix Zoo, but they do have aquarium exhibits to see until 9. Despite refunding the customer's money, the customer was still argumentative!
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