The largest crocodile facility in the country is in Houston’s backyard

Dieter describes the wildlife educational facility as a cross between a zoo and a nature center that promotes species survival for endangered animals. The 23-acre facility is home to at least 250 crocodiles and alligators as well a 200 or so other animals, including kangaroos, lemurs, antelopes, pigs, tortoises and more.

Visitors are allowed to get up close and personal with some of the center’s apex predators thanks to enclosed, 1-acre interactive exhibits consisting of winding boardwalks that travel through the animals’ natural habitats.

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“So you’re actually going to them, rather than us bringing the animal to you,” Dieter said. “One of our primary goals is to get some of these really rare animals to reproduce and live well, and they have to realize they are not living on concrete.”

The wildlife tours also consist of feeding sessions, where visitors can watch trained staff feed the alligators and crocodiles in a stunning show that will send chills up your spine. You can also mingle with the facility’s more friendly residents, such as the stoic large tortoises, by feeding them their favorite treats.

“When you’re here, you’re in the wilderness – that’s exactly the feel we want you to get,” Dieter said.

The majority of the animals have been born at the facility or came from other zoological facilities. Dieter said only a small number were rescued in special circumstances.

“A lot of them are coming from zoos that just don’t have space for them any more,” Dieter said. “We can provide [a] really good, long-term situation for them.”

While some critics of zoos and zoo-like facilities may argue that animals should not be kept in captivity, Dieter argues that his facility mimics the animals’ true habitat and also does more good than harm.

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“The work that is done in zoological organizations has been enormously influential on species survival,” Dieter said.

Last year, the facility was the first in the U.S. to breed Chinese alligators in the last two decades. Dieter said the rare breed has less than 150 animals left in the wild.

“Should that wild population go out, our population is genetically viable to potentially replace an entire group of animals in the wild,” he said. “If zoos and the resources that we have did not exist there would be no hope for those animals.”