Half-price admission brought the wild to the Fort Worth Zoo

With an excited and growing crowd, the Fort Worth Zoo opened about 15 minutes earlier than scheduled for half-price admission day.

“Spring break doesn’t catch us by surprise,” Alexis Wilson, Fort Worth Zoo communications director said. “We know it’s coming, every year.”

With 18-25,000 guests expected on most days during spring break, Wilson said schools and day cares don’t usually attend half-price admission days because of how busy the park is.

Ready Set Jump Childcare Learning Center, a daycare located in Fort Worth, was an exception. Phaneicia Harrison, a teacher at the daycare, took about 30 children to the zoo.

After deciding between a park, an aquarium and the zoo, the children at the daycare chose to visit the Fort Worth Zoo for the second year in a row. Harrison said they allow the children to vote every year on what they want to do for the break.

Wearing bright yellow t-shirts, Harrison yelled “hocus pocus” and the daycare children responded with “stay focused.” She said this is a way to get their attention before walking to another attraction at the park and to stay grouped together.

Traffic along University Drive and other main roads connecting to the park caused delays for guests but Cleburne resident Savannah Valadez said she and her 5-year-old son Adrian Valadez arrived early.

“I was pretty impressed with how quickly we were able to get in,” she said.

Fort Worth resident Candice Norman brought her three children for the first time since the summer.

“They want to see the lions and the tigers and the bears, of course,” she said.

Although the attractions were all open Wednesday, Wilson said a new attraction, called “African Savannah,” will open April 21. Exhibits will host a multitude of species from hoofstock to hippopotamuses. Guests will have the opportunity to feed the giraffes, which is a first for the zoo.

“It will enable interaction with giraffes that our guests have never had before,” she said.

This story was originally published March 14, 2018 at 7:04 PM with the headline "Half-price admission brought the wild to the Fort Worth Zoo."