THEY ROAM IN THE WILD - SORT OF.

Byline: - Eric Noland

TUCSON, Ariz. - The zoos are getting wise to it: Visitors generally don't want to see high-walled pens where wild creatures are inclined to do little more than sleep or pace. No, today's zoo-goers desire habitat.

At the popular Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, just west of Tucson, they get it.

The most popular features of the complex are areas where animals can ramble, rut, hunt and hide much as they do in the wild. That means one expansive enclosure set aside for coyotes, another for javelinas (also known as collared peccaries). There's even a prairie dog village.

Most of the critters here can be found in nearby Saguaro National Park, but in that natural world you might have to sneak about with a flashlight in the evening to spy such nocturnal creatures as rattlesnakes, scorpions or gila monsters. Particularly for younger visitors, there is considerably more payoff here - without the terror. (Snakes, scorpions and centipedes, by the way, are not entitled to free-ranging habitat at this museum but must reside behind glass.)

It's probably amusing to note that the coyotes, while given a lot of room to roam, nonetheless are kept in captivity by high, overhanging screens around their area. These creatures are, after all, legendarily resourceful.

Meanwhile, the javelina, a piglike desert animal, often can be heard before it is seen, as it rustles about in the undergrowth of its habitat, snorting and digging.

At both areas, whoops of excitement often go up from visitors who spot one of the animals ducking in and out of a brushy area.

The museum features a lot of docents and staffers manning exhibits throughout the grounds. Around every turn, it seems, there is someone eager to talk about a rattlesnake's digestive system, dinosaur bones found in the area, the characteristics of various animal skulls, or perhaps the hunting prowess of a ferruginous hawk.

There is also a cactus garden here, which seems a little peculiar. Just a short distance away, inside the boundaries of Saguaro National Park's Tucson Mountain District, incredible botanical diversity spreads out for acres - in habitat that is truly wild.

The Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum is on Kinney Road between the Old Tucson Studios and the entrance to Saguaro National Park. It currently is open between 7:30 a.m. and 5 p.m. High-season admission (through April) is $9.95 for adults, $1.75 for children ages 6-12. The adult admission drops by $1 from May through October. Information: [phone]; www.desertmuseum.org.

CAPTION(S):

photo

Photo:

A ferruginous hawk perches on the hand of program manager Sue Tygielski at the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum.

Eric Noland/Travel Editor