This may be the day of the trip that turned Yilin into a wildlife enthusiast, because from this moment, wildlife encounters and opportunities to photograph them doing funny things were highlights of any day for her. The big expectation for our visit to Fossil Rim was the chance to feed giraffes from your hand: we read that they are the only animals that can be hand-fed pellets provided at the admission office, the remaining animals have to eat them from the ground.
We read that the best time to see as many animals as possible is to go early in the morning, so we booked entry tickets for the driving tour fairly early, at 9:30, since we'd have to drive over an hour to get there. For some background, Fossil Rim is an animal conservation organization that offers species in peril a near-natural living space with lots of space to roam and forage, while also giving people a chance to see many of these amazing animals: giraffes, wildebeests, oryxes, cheetahs, gazelles, emus, zebras, various types of deer, antelope, rhinos, and ostriches. We got to meet many different animals, and I hope to correctly identify them all in the pictures of this post...apologies if I make any errors, and please comment below so I can make corrections!
On our way to Fossil Rim, we encountered another "Unusual Modes of Transport" bingo item, that being "person walking on the freeway." It happened so fast I didn't get photo evidence, but it occurred on US-67 on our way southwest on this morning.
Upon arrival, we saw a few other cars and some families lined up to take the other type of tour you can book here - safari style bus tours, each of which were painted in zebra or cheetah print. We opted for the drive-yourself version since it would give us more freedom to go at our pace as we saw various animals. No matter if you book the safari tour or the self-guided tour, you get a bag of food pellets to feed various animals along the trip, and the key is to ration it properly so you have some left for the giraffes! They estimate 2 hours to drive along the 7 mile loop, but we clearly exceeded that since I had fun looking for harder to spot animals, and Yilin wanted to take many photos of every animal that approached the car. It was so nice to have my Nikon camera with me on this trip, as its 30x zoom allows for some highly detailed photos without getting too close to animals or birds.
I've selected our best photos to represent each animal we saw along our trip here, as well as notes from their animal guide, so enjoy the show below!
Common Wildebeest Known for their 1,800-mile annual migration across the African plains. Almost immediately after birth, a calf is able to stand and run alongside its mother. Silvery-gray, they are also called blue wildebeest.
Blackbuck (male) Adult males are black, while females and calves are light tan. Only males have horns, which are ridged and spiraled. Because the genders look drastically different, blackbuck are considered sexually dimorphic.
Indian Blanket
Scimitar-Horned Oryx Scimitar-horned oryx were classified as extinct in the wild in 2000. However, a reintroduction program project with Fossil Rim began releasing this species into Chad in 2016, and the species was reclassified as endangered in 2023. Named after a scimitar sword, it is the only oryx with curved horns.
Emu The emu is the second-tallest living flightless bird. It is thought to have roamed the outback of Australia 80 million years ago. The Australian government has protected it since the 1960s. Emus are monogamous. The male incubates eggs and guards chicks for up to 18 months.
Dama Gazelle The largest gazelle species. The dama is diurnal and requires lore water than its desert neighbors, although it can still survive long periods of drought. It is highly nomadic, ranging extensively in search of food and water.
Addax (looking for a treat?) The best desert-adapted antelope, addax can survive for long periods of time without drinking water, instead deriving sufficient moisture from plants. An addax reintroduction effort began in Chad in 2020, as staff from Fossil Rim traveled abroad to assist with the release.
Fallow Deer Even in their native Mediterranean countries, most "wild" fallow deer are semi-domesticated. These are the only Fossil Rim deer with palmate (broad, flat surface) antlers.
Common Waterbuck An oily, musky secretion from the skin serves a waterproofing function. Waterbuck must drink daily, so they never stray far from water and are good swimmers. Only males have horns and serious fighting is more common than in most ungulates.
Giraffes (back) Giraffes are the tallest living land mammals and, although it looks like their hind legs are shorter, all four legs are almost the same length. Its mouth is soft with a hairy upper lip and purplish tongue that is nearly 18 inches long.
Roan Antelope (front) The fourth-largest African antelope, roan males can weigh 660 pounds. Like most horse antelope, they are gregarious and territorial. Herd sizes are smaller for roan than similar antelopes, and they maintain a greater individual distance apart. Bonds between calves can be stronger than mother to offspring.
Blackbuck (female)
Northern Mockingbird (this wasn't in our animal guide, I just happened to see one)
A curious giraffe approaches...perhaps to be hand-fed?
Lunchtime for the curious giraffe!
A giraffe army passes
This must be the extra-long tongue they mentioned
Hartmann's Mountain Zebra Unlike other zebras, the mountain zebra has a dewlap, or fold of skin, hanging from the throat. The Hartmann's have a white belly, like the Grevy's, but Hartmann's have much wider stripes. If surface water is not available, wild Hartmann's will dig for subsurface water.
Scissor-tailed Flycatcher (also not in our animal guide, but I loved the peach color of the underside)
Black-tailed Jackrabbit Despite its name, the black-tailed jackrabbit is actually a hare. Rabbits are typically much smaller than hares, with shorter legs and ears and a much stockier frame. Hares have long, powerful back legs and thin bodies that allow them to run rather than hide. They are much better suited to habitats without thick vegetation, and don’t burrow underground like rabbits.
Possibly a melanistic female blackbuck? We thought she looks a little burnt!
Aoudad The aoudad is the only African sheep. Its eyes could be considered its most remarkable feature with horizontal pupils surrounded by brilliant-yellow irises. It is a very agile climber and jumper.
Aoudad #784 came to inspect us in the car
Fallow deer (front) with female blackbucks (back)
Cheetah The cheetah can reach 65-plus mph in seconds, but can only run for 400 yards before exhaustion sets in. Oversized nostrils, flexible spine, enlarged heart, and increased lung capacity all benefit the fastest land animal.
South Central Black Rhino Black rhinos can be identified by their prehensile upper lip for browsing, while white rhinos have square lips for grazing. Males may tolerate other males if they remain submissive.
Ostrich The largest living bird, the flightless ostrich uses its wings mainly for communication, courtship displays, and helping to turn or brake when running up to 45 mph. Ostriches have excellent vision and very powerful kicks. The largest eggs weigh three pounds and are equivalent to 24 chicken eggs.
The ostriches concluded our 3-hour trip through Fossil Rim, quite a bit longer than they advertise, but that was the joy of taking the self-guided tour. The loop is two lanes wide so people who want to stay longer in any spot can easily do so while not holding up any other visitors. About halfway through, there is a short turnoff to a small gift shop and cafe atop a hill overlooking the valley. Inside, we saw an "I fed the giraffe" shirt which seemed fitting, but instead opted for another set of matching T-shirts with illustrations of a bunch of the animals we saw. Yilin also spotted one of those penny-press machines where you can choose a picture and it rolls the penny out into an oval. I only learned this later on in the trip, but apparently there's a whole database map of where all these machines are in the country - a helpful tool for collectors, of which Yilin is now one, with a little passport book for them and all!
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Fort Worth Stockyards
After a very fulfilling and exciting morning viewing wildlife, we headed back toward Fort Worth to try and reveal our true Texan spirit at the Fort Worth Stockyards, the only location to offer twice-daily cattle drives! They have rodeo shows on weekends, but we'd have to do without that since we happened to be passing through mid-week, and decided to have lunch at a roadhouse style place called Riscky's BBQ, one of the several eateries to be found in this very cool cobblestoned pedestrian plaza. We ended up with enough food for a family of four it seems like, since we wanted to try so many things: deep fried brisket bites, loaded potato skins, smoked ribs, sausage, and catfish (who knew this was a smokable item!) Despite our (my) best effort, we needed takeout boxes for leftovers.
While waiting for the 4pm cattle drive, we explored some of the weirdest shops I've ever seen, as well as some very cool leather goods places with ungodly prices. We saw a cowboy offering a chance to sit on a Texas longhorn, and I still can't believe how long the horns are, and how it's not a huge inconvenience for the cows.
Texas Longhorn cowboy
Shortly thereafter, we saw a bunch of cowboys on horses getting ready for the cattle drive, with one speaking over the microphone. (We kept looking for him to the left, but it turns out he was to our right and we were fooled by the speakers.)
Extra-longhorn cows!
The actual cattle drive was very short, only a few minutes, but really cool! I recommend any visitor to the Dallas/Ft. Worth area come and see it if you can. You come for the cattle drive and stay for the bizarre taxidermy animals in the adjacent shops. Just in taxidermy form, we saw a raccoon band featuring an accordion, a raccoon cellist, a pole-dancing mouse, canoeing squirrels, an eel(?) eating some type of rodent, alongside plenty of large and non-native animals - elephants, lions, ostriches, a polar bear. It felt like cowboy nirvana, I think?
For all your taxidermy needs
Just an average gig for this raccoon
Yilin has turned full Texan
Editing my post to include this split-windshield truck outside of the Stockyards shops
Our stomachs full and our brains confused at what we've just seen in the shops, we meandered over to the cultural district to walk off some of our lunch at the Trinity Park Duck Pond, and enjoy the early evening under the shade, accompanied by a multitude of ducks, geese, grackles, and turtles.
Trinity Park Duck Pond
We finished out our full day with a short walk through the Fort Worth Water Gardens, which featured three different areas—a terraced waterfall pool, a quiet pool lined with trees, and an aerated pool with misty fountains spraying water up. The terraced waterfall pool was the most fun with its walkway down to the center where we could be surrounded by the rushing water.
After the Water Gardens, I tried visiting REI to see if I could acquire a Benchmark atlas for any of the western states we'd be spending some time in (New Mexico, Colorado, or Wyoming), but they didn't have any at the location I visited. Usually I'm a big fan of Delorme's state by state atlases for back roads, but I recently read that Benchmark makes a slightly better product for the western states, and I thought it would be helpful to have those atlases in case we run in regions without cell service. (Worry not though, I do have the complete North American atlas by Michelin - I'd never do a trip without it!)
It was 9pm by the time we got back to our little green AirBnB house, and there was little to do except try and get things mostly packed for our departure in the morning since we wouldn't be coming back to the house. On our agenda for the next day was the Dallas Museum of Art, which opened late morning, giving us a little time to sleep in, truly a luxury on our full schedule.
This day seems so much longer writing about it and curating all the photos I wanted to share for it, but I hope you've enjoyed following our journey! Yilin did a great job planning out our time in DFW, and it's really best if I stick to planning anything nature or wilderness related.
I loved the wildlife park ! Thanks
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