Temporarily Closed Due To Renovation

Normally, we would love for you to stop by our Children’s Animal Center, but due to our renovation project, the animals are "on vacation". They're spending the summer in some of our pastures that are not accessible from the Scenic Drive. We appologize for this inconvenience, and will make a big announcement when the Children's Animal Center will reopen.

Once we reopen, you can meet Vinnie, our Boer/Nubian goat. He is known for giving hugs to our guests. You may even be lucky enough to hear Pearl one of our bare eyed cockatoo say “hello”. You’ll also see Ralph and Venus our African spurred tortoises. We also have African Pygmy goats, Texas Tortoises, Eclectus parrot, Mollucan Cockatoo and of course, Einstein, one of Fossil Rim Wildlife Center’s male Emus. Each of the animals has their own special personalities. We ask that you don’t feed them as they are all on special diets, but you can brush the goat’s coats, which they all really like.

Extreme Makeover: Children’s Animal Center 2010

Click here to volunteer! Although not a televised event (as yet…!), Fossil Rim Wildlife Center is pleased to announce that Extreme Makeover: Children’s Animal Center (CAC) is coming in April 2010. Made possible through the recreation grants program of Texas Parks and Wildlife, we are proud to announce that we were one of the ten recipients for their first-ever funding for zoological institutions. The award was offered to projects which ‘increase awareness of Texas native flora and fauna and provides facilities which enable recreational activities within the institution’.

Consequently, Extreme Makeover: CAC 2010 will include the building of seven new free-flight aviaries, a new animal barn for the goats and pot-bellied pigs, new indoor/outdoor housing for the Texas tortoises, the complete renovation of the existing barn, which will incorporate new facilities for the introduction of two new Texas species, the Texas horned-lizard (also known as the Texas horned-frog) and the endangered Houston toad. Both species are unique to Texas and will be housed as part of captive-breeding programs that will provide opportunities for educating visitors about local habitats and environments. In addition, for the first time in five years, we are pleased to announce that visitors will be able to observe Texas’ most endangered species, the Attwater’s prairie chicken on the public drive again. Since Fossil Rim Wildlife Center is home to the largest and most successful breeding program for these critically endangered birds, it makes sense that the Children’s Animal Center will now showcase display birds. This new facility will provide opportunities for guests to observe the distinctive breeding displays of the males and learn about their status in captivity and the wild.

The redevelopment will also allow for the enlargement of the Butterfly Garden and the construction of a new nature walk. This walk will now take visitors around the outside of the CAC, linking the CAC with our established nature trails, which are home to the endangered golden cheeked warbler, black capped vireo, and many other native species. In all, the new Butterfly Trail will provide visitors with three different options for observing the local flora and fauna: walks that will be ~0.5, 1.5 and 2.5 miles in length.

Construction of the new aviaries and animal barns will commence in April and thus we will ask that you pardon-the-dust and some closures of the CAC over the next five-to-six months. New facilities will open throughout the summer, followed by an official grand opening in the fall. Keep checking our website for details on construction, closures and openings.

*UPDATE*UPDATE*

The Children’s Animal Center Extreme Makeover is in full swing! The weather has been beautiful and we have been hard at work!

With in the last couple weeks lots of progress has been made. All of the cement has been poured and set for the seven new free-flight aviaries and the brick work for the bird houses is underway. We have also completed most of plumbing and electrical work and the new retaining walls are being constructed as we speak!

With FRWC being a 501 c(3) non-profit organization we are unable to match this grant with actual money, luckily we can use other means to match the amount. The way this type of grant works is that we can use the value of contributions to equal the amount of money that TPWD is putting in to our project. Donations can be in the form of labor, equipment, or materials. Each hour of labor performed by a volunteer or staff member has a dollar amount assigned to it, and all of that ‘money’ helps us reach our goal.

In order to make the CAC Extreme Makeover a complete success we need your help! We will be conducting ‘Volunteer Days’ on Saturdays through out the summer. We need as many people as possible to come out and help us painting, laying walkways, planting, making trails, etc. We even plan to have a couple work days for the kids to come out and give us a hand! Click here to volunteer!

Our next Volunteer Work Day will be Saturday September 11th starting at 8:30am. We plan on leveling out dirt in the yard, working on fencing, prepping areas for painting and any other work that may need to be done. If you have children that would like to help out ages 9 and up should have no problem giving us a hand.

We Need Specialized Help!

Landscaping

We are now getting ready to do landscaping in the yard.  Before we do so, we need to install a new irrigation system in the yard and areas to keep our new plants and grass growing!  Unfortunately, due to budgetary constraints we really need some volunteer workers to instruct us on how to install this new system.

Do you or someone you know have experience in laying out or installing yard irrigation systems?  We need some help!  We will purchase all supplies and materials and also have a team of workers to help with the installation process!

Painting

We also are in need of skilled painters.  The metal beams on our seven free flight aviaries need to be painted. As much as we would like this to be a project that anyone could help with, we need volunteers with some experience in painting to ensure it results in a quality appearance.  If you or someone you know has done some painting here and there we would love to have them come out and give us a hand.  There is no set day or time to do this, whatever is convenient for you!  Please just let us know when you plan on coming out so we can have all the supplies ready to go.  As with all the other volunteering opportunities we are more than happy to allow our helpers a free pass through our park!

If you can help us out in either area, click here to tell us about your experience and what you can do to help.