NEW BRAUNFELS, Texas -- The Animal World and Snake Farm Zoo in New Braunfels has plans to expand, more than doubling the size of the facility.

  • Animal World and Snake Farm Zoo to double in size
  • Enclosures being upgraded first 
  • Facility has added numerous animals and education programs

The owner of the New Braunfels treasure has purchased 20 acres surrounding the site to update the grounds. While specifics of the expansion are being kept under wraps, staff said they are in the midst of updating animal enclosures, creating more realistic habitats.

"We've torn out all the old chain link and old style zoo enclosures to build things like a big naturalistic Jaguar exhibit," Development Director Jarrod Forthman said. "We really focus on giving the animals a lot of enrichment, which means giving them things to do, whether it's new smells every day, having to forage for food, just keeping animals that are stuck in a captive situation as happy and as healthy as we can do."

The original Snake Farm has been around since the late '60s and has way more than just reptiles these days, thus the addition of "Animal World" to the name.

Two new mountain lion cubs have joined the crew, and in the future visitors can expect to see much larger animals like giraffes and rhinos. There's also been talks of inserting a children's playground, and possibly a tram system to ride through and feed exotic livestock.

"We want to make sure do it right. We don't want to skip any steps. I can guarantee within the next few years, you're going to be walking around with me on areas that people have never seen before," Forthman said.

Being a smaller facility than San Antonio Zoo, staff said the Snake Farm really has to stand out. Staff has expanded their educational programs to give a unique experience to visitors.

"What we're doing to separate ourselves is we're getting people up close and personal with animals, not just through enclosure fences," Forthman said. "But we're doing animal programs around the clock, getting children to get hands-on, being able to pet a baby crocodile, meet a fennec fox up close and personal. We think that it's those experiences that just get ingrained in a child's brain, that grows them up just loving animals."

Overall, Forthman said he just wants to make sure the existing facility is top notch before moving on to the planned expansion.

"There's a whole lot of potential there," Forthman said. "Our goal is if we can create even one new future zoologist or someone that they really cares about the environment to help protect our planet in the future, we're doing our job."