NASHVILLE ZOO: BEHIND THE SCENES (PART 2)
We selected to do the Saving Species tour which made stops to the commissary, giant anteaters, clouded leopards, and the rhino barn. We only had another couple on our tour and the tour guide was very friendly and informative.
The commissary had a fridge prepped with food and a whole side completed for the following day. Their food is restaurant quality and comes from local businesses.
The next stop was the main reason I wanted to take this tour; the giant anteater barn. The zoo has the largest collection of giant anteaters in the country. We asked why none were on display for visitors and our tour guide said because they are so lethargic on exhibit, they didn’t want guests to complain they don’t seem them visible. She did mention that perhaps in the future they will be in a mix exhibits so if visitors don’t see them, they are still able to see other animals in the space. I also heard from one other keeper that it was once mentioned putting them on exhibit with the Baird’s tapir. Oboom, one of the male giant anteaters, has one of the front exhibits and I heard he is a good greeter as he comes out to see the guests then comes inside when visitors enter the barn. Caesar, the eldest male, was across the hall from him and right by Oboom was Dolce, the female who was selected for the feeding that day. Babies Isabella and Noelle were sleeping under their mothers’ tails when we first walked by the bedrooms. However once the yogurt was out for feeding, all the anteaters were alert. The babies were walking about with the noses sticking out in between bars. A fun fact is human sweat has the same chemical found in insects so if you’re sweaty, anteaters think you like smell insects. One of the giant anteaters was known for licking feet if you had sandals on. It nearly scared a mother half to death on a previous tour. Dolce was a delight to feed and she stood up on her hind legs. I had the most turns to feed her and it was a really fun experience. Each giant anteater also have their own separate yards for more area to roam.
After that stop, we went down tamandua lane. What is tamandua lane? It’s an area with a bunch of small meshed exhibits connected to buildings which once house tamanduas in each of its exhibits. Now they are only occupy two of the exhibits and the others are used for clouded leopards and binturongs. We were going to walk by one of the tamandua exhibits, but the tour guide said the tamanduas hardly ever come out, unless it’s someone’s birthday. They have a six sense about it, haha. However, since I am an avid lover of tamanduas, they must have known it was a special occasion and Ke$ha was out and about waiting for a treat. The tour guide got her some yogurt and we were able to see her for a bit. Her mother, Pisca, was inside and content being there.
Next door was the exhibit for two juvenile female clouded leopards. I believe we saw Hope, as the other one, Faith was unwilling to come out. The zoo has had tremendous success with breeding clouded leopard and also had a cub in the past couple of years done through A.I. They try to hand raise the cubs to be more docile and then pair them up at a young age so when they are reintroduced at sexually maturity, the male, being on the smaller size, won’t attack the female out of intimidation. Hope and Faith were "oops" cubs. The SSP asked the zoo to breed their parents again, then came back asking them to separate them as the genetics were actually well represented. Well, mom was already pregnant so surprise!! Hope and Faith are not recommended to breed and will hopefully be ambassador animals. The zoo would like to use them for their shows; however there is a law in Tennessee that large cats must have a barrier between them and visitors.
On the way to the rhino barn, we were able to see the back of the new animal hospital which will open to the public within the next year. The rhino barn is connected to the giraffe barn. The barn was modified when the African elephants were moved out and the zoo decided to get rhinos instead. The bars were lowered and the watering bowls were move to inside the exhibit (no trunks to reach outside bars). Another area has sand floors, which will be used to house a male rhino that they hope to get in the future. We were able to walk through a pathway eventually to be used for the rhinos to enter into their exhibit. At the end of this walk way is an area in the barn that they can use to secure in a rhino when they need to check them up close. The female rhinos came from Africa and had extra time for crate training. Pilots detest flying a plane with a rhino in it because any movement from a rhino could swift the weight of the plane. The females were pros though and all were able to fly on the same plane. Through their 72 hours journey, they were docile and very easy to transport. The biggest challenge they actually had was introducing them to their outside yard as they seemed to be startled by grass. I assume they were only on concrete or dirt in Africa and this was their first exposure to this natural substrate. We asked a couple of zoo employees what was the real reason they got rid of their elephants. The main reason was of the policy to resort to closed contact. Also the renovations they would need for the barn were just too costly for the zoo. One was moved to Florida, but died, so that is why they made the decision for a shorter commute for the rest of the herd and they were sent to the TN sanctuary. The zoo may eventually get African elephants back, especially with plans for an Africa expansion, but it will be with other elephants that are closed contact trained. However, I am guessing most likely it won’t happen or be any time soon.
This behind the scenes tour is only $40 per person and definitely worth it! Since the zoo is small, you can easily do the tour and still have time before and after it to explore the zoo.
The other tours I got was from a zookeeper who I knew through social media. I told her I wanted to come visit her zoo and I always wanted to see a baby tapir. She told me to contact her and she’d make sure that would happen. After the zoo’s tour I contacted her and met her over at the tapir exhibit, where mom and baby were in, and Tybalt, the former male offspring was about to go on exhibit. I was able to see him being coaxed on exhibit with treats and I was told he was the easiest tapir to shift. We went into the tapir barn and mom and baby were waiting for us. We were able to feed them bananas and other treats. It was a bit of a challenge for me as I wanted them to grab it with their prehensile noses as we were warned not to get too close to their teeth. Tybalt is known to chirp to the other tapirs and his baby brother usually responds. We were told he actually does that because he smells a female nearby and he’s interested, not realizing he’s calling to his mother! Tapirs are so stocky and you really can feel their muscles when you pet them. They hair and body feel similar to a pig. After this, we went over to the yellow backed duiker exhibit to give them some browse for a snack. I mentioned to the zookeeper I was unable to see them the day before at Zoo Knoxville so she made sure to get them visible. The zoo has a mother and daughter pair. Fun fact: Yellow backed duikers squat like a dog when they pee and it looks hilarious!
Our zookeeper friend had to be present with the okapi for another behind the scenes tour so we said our goodbyes and she told us when to contact her later to view more animals! The other behind the scenes tour the zoo has displays giraffe, okapi, and bongo. We pretty much got that tour with our friend.
So we met up again and she took us by cart back to tamandua lane for a surprise stop. She used to work with the tamanduas and wanted to say hello. We were able to go into Pisca’s indoor exhibit and she came down to say hello, something unusual for her. Can I be called the tamandua whisperer? Then we went into Ke$ha’s outside exhibit but she was nowhere to be found. Our friend climbed the ladder, checked a bucket and there she was. Ke$ha came down, smelled our shoes, and then crawled under a turtle shaped sandbox cover. After that we drove over to the okapi barn and met their resident male okapi. The zoo hopes to expand their Africa section in the future and the okapi and bongo will probably get exhibits then. There’s also mention that they would like to house gorillas too. The male okapi was friendly and loved to have the inside of his ears scratched. If you’ve seen okapi fur, they feel like what you would expect; velvet. We then toured the giraffe barn, talked about their subspecies, and how they are endangered and people don’t believe it. We then went and fed the giraffes in the upper part of their exhibit so their heads were the same level as us. The male was eating and kind of putting up a front as he’s a tad uneasy with males thinking we’re taking his lady giraffes. That wrapped up our time behind the scenes and it was amazing to see a snippet of all the unused land the zoo can expand on!
