Point Defiance Zoo and Aquarium is also a botanical garden with native, exotic and endangered plants. The zoo offers monthly, guided tours of its plant collection.

A membership to the North Carolina Zoo in Asheboro also gets you into the three state-supported aquariums along the coast including the North Carolina Aquarium at Fort Fisher.

The Riverbanks Zoo and Garden is set to open The Darnall W. and Susan F. Boyd Aquarium & Reptile Conservation Center on Thursday, March 2.

Riverbanks Zoo and Garden, a world-class recreational and educational attraction in Columbia, officially opened its new state-of-the-art Darnall W. and Susan F. Boyd Aquarium & Reptile ...

I did not hear back from the zoo; but Darin Reinke, the director of husbandry at the Great Lakes Aquarium, invited me to come to the aquarium for a tour and an interview.