How did the Fort Worth Zoo become one of the best? Inside its 30-year transformation

A variety of sights and sounds welcomes visitors to the Fort Worth Zoo.

A giraffe browses for bark under a tree while a small herd of ostriches glance curiously around. Nearby, a 2-month-old lesser kudu, a species of African antelope, wanders across a grass-covered knoll.

Chirping insects and rushing waterfalls complete the idyllic picture.

The wide open spaces and animal-friendly habitats are a stark contrast from what greeted philanthropist Ramona Bass on her first visit in 1983.

“When my husband brought me here the first time, the tigers were in cages the size of this room,” Bass said gesturing around her small office at the zoo. “They were on concrete and it was just caging and concrete, and it broke my heart. And I said ‘This is terrible.’ And then he said ‘Well, maybe you should do something about it.’”

Bass accepted her husband Lee’s challenge and embarked on a journey that transformed what she describes as “a mess” into the best zoo in the country in a 2020 USA Today poll.

In April the zoo celebrated 30 years since it reopened under a public-private partnership between the city of Fort Worth and the Fort Worth Zoological Association. According to Bass, the privatization marked the turning point in the zoo’s vision and design.

William Meadows, who served on the Fort Worth City Council from 1990-97, said the zoo already had some elements that were ahead of its time, but the changes since privatization are impressive.

“I think it’s been such an extraordinary success as evidenced by the fact that it keeps getting ... selected as the best zoo in the country, so you know it’s pretty hard to argue with that,” he said.

Privatization efforts

The Fort Worth Zoo opened in 1909. It was originally owned and operated by the city and funded in part by the Fort Worth Zoological Association. But by the 1980s the zoo was in decline and the zoological association was defunct.

Bass and a group of like-minded friends came together to get the zoological association going again. Then they asked the city if they could manage the zoo.

“Let us take this and make it something wonderful,” Bass told the city leaders.

Bass said Fort Worth leaders rejected her initial efforts to privatize the zoo, but once the privatization happened, they embraced the project.

“Every mayor, every city council, they’ve been 100% supportive,” Bass said. “It’s really, really been something. ... We just hope to keep on going and getting better and better.”

Fort Worth Mayor Mattie Parker said in an emailed comment that the zoo is a treasure for residents.

“Over the last 30 years, the entire zoo team, led by the vision of Ramona Bass, has kept raising the bar of excellence,” Parker said. “[It is] proving itself to be one of the foremost examples of how strong public-private partnerships are foundational to the success of our city.”

Bass has raised $300 million to date as the zoo’s chief fundraiser.

Meadows said funding concerns were a primary reason not all City Council members were in favor of turning the zoo into a public-private partnership.

“There were questions about whether or not the zoo association really had the wherewithal to be able to successfully pull off the full operation of the zoo, which some of us were convinced from the outset that that was something that there was no question about,” Meadows said. “But certainly there were community questions ... raised with regard to the privatization initiative. It was not without its detractors and critics, like most propositions.”

New habitats

One million visitors come to the zoo each year, according to Avery Elander, director of marketing and public relations. Thousands of students have gone through its educational programs, and the zoo is involved in a cooperative breeding program with other zoos and conservation efforts worldwide.

The zoo is in the third phase of “A Wilder Vision,” a $130 million four-phase project that Elander called the “master plan for the next generation.”

“These habitats have been built, not only to create more naturalistic and enriching habitats for the animals, but to provide ways for the guests to interact and observe the animals like they have never been able to,” Elander said.

Phase one, the African Savanna, opened in 2018. It is a mixed-species habitat where reticulated giraffes, ostriches, pink-backed pelicans and two species of African antelope mingle freely in the same space.

Phase two, Elephant Springs, opened in 2021. Three generations of Asian elephants live here, including 8-month-old Brazos. A 400,000 gallon river runs through the habitat and visitors can shoot streams of water at the elephants with a sprayer.

Phase three, Asian Predators and Hunters of Africa, is scheduled to open in 2023. Elander said lions, tigers and cheetahs will return and African dogs, African leopards and clouded leopards will be added to the habitat.

The final phase, Forests and Jungles, is scheduled to open in 2025.

Bass said the habitat will be in the middle of the zoo and will include a pair of okapi, a striped mammal that looks like a zebra and is the only living relative of the giraffe.

Elander said instead of expanding the zoo to accommodate the new habitats, engineers repurposed land the zoo already owned.

“Much of those habitats are currently old space behind the scenes,” Elander said. “It was like our old engineering yard and our old warehouse space. ... So it’s an expansion in terms of people will be able to walk in areas that they never had before, but it’s still within our footprint.”

Elander said the larger habitats facilitate the zoo’s cooperative breeding program.

“We’re carefully pairing animals so that they can stay genetically healthy [and] diverse,” Elander said.

There are about 10 giraffes, including four calves, but the new giraffe barn is equipped to hold up to 18. The males will eventually be sent to other zoos for breeding purposes, according to Elander.

“A lot of the things that you can’t see behind the scenes also add an element of ... additional care for these animals’ lives,” Elander said. “And there’s a lot of conservation work that happens kind of behind [the scenes].”

Some of that conservation work happens at the herpetarium, known as the Museum of Living Art. MOLA houses a variety of critically endangered reptiles and amphibians, like the gharial, a fish-eating crocodile from the Indian subcontinent.

Elander said the habitat is specially designed with temperature controlled water and sand, with the goal of making it easier for the gharial to breed. So far the females have laid only unfertilized eggs, but Elander said that is a step in the right direction.

MOLA also houses the Assisted Reproductive Technology Lab where researchers successfully produced the first Houston toads via in-vitro fertilization last year.

The zoo also spearheads conservation projects in other parts of the world, including an Anegada Iguana breeding and reintroduction program in the British Virgin Islands.

Bass said she’s grateful for Fort Worth’s continued support and for cherishing the zoo as much as she does.

“I love it,” Bass said. “I want to make it great. I want to take care of the animals and give back to Fort Worth because it’s such a great town.”