Tyler is a small city of about 80,000 and it is a small zoo.
But in this case good things come in small packages.
The zoo has about 3 section: South America, Africa, and Texas.
By far the best part of the zoo is that it seems like there are only about 12 exhibits.
Now, that may sound underwhelming, but if you walk through this zoo, you will see a spectacular job in exhibit building.
The South American part had about 6 exhibits, including giant anteaters, tamarins, and many birds.
Africa was amazing. Other than the rhinos, it seemed like all the African animals were in one big exhibit. Carefully hidden moats kept them separated. The restaurant there looks out over a savannah with zebras, wildebeests, giraffes, warthogs, elephants, ostriches, kudus, and lions. It looks like one big exhibit, but if you look carefully you can see there are three sections - one for elephants, one for lions, and one for everyone else. It just blends in so well.
The Texas section followed the same type of pattern, but due to the need for deer fencing ti was less successful in creating the "seamless" look. Nonetheless it was a large exhibit with many animals. And it was the first place I have ever seen a pronghorn antelope in person before.
So if you're in Tyler for some unknown reason and have an hour or two to kill, head over to the Caldwell Zoo and check it out.
