Anyone heard of Silver Springs?

T

tschandler71

Well-Known Member
10+ year member
I can't believe they are actually keeping it open its said, the State of Florida is taking it over in January.

My dad loved it when he was little (my granddad worked for NASA in Huntsville so they went to watch Gemini and Apollo launches at the Cape.

We went by knowing fully well how bad it was. I just wanted to let my dad see it for memories. They agree for us to do that without paying. Its sad to think anyone would pay to visit?

Anyone have any old pics of in its heyday.
 
I visited Silver Springs on several occasions throughout the 1990s, my last visit was in 1998 and I recall a walk-through area with several giraffe that you could feed, a contact yard, the world of bears with several moated-turfed habitats for Andean bear, brown bear and black bear. Habitats for Florida Panther, crowned crane, Reeve's muntjac, giant tortoise, several species of alligator and crocodile and a few aviaries. A jeep safari ride featured bantang, rhea, llama, more crocodilians and a few other species which I can't recall. The river cruise featured large paddocks for more giraffe, gerenuk, zebra (can't rememer which species), scimitar horned oryx, barbary sheep, sable antelope, blackbuck, fallow deer, nilgai and island homes for squirrel monkey, spot-nose guenon, ring tail lemur, white handed gibbon and a few other species. Of course there were many rhesus macaque running around.......I typed up my notes and sent them to Marvin Jones but that was 15 years ago and my personal records are long gone.
 
I only heard of Silver Springs recently when the local reptile rescue went out to pick up some of the crocs/gators for re-homing. They said a couple of rescues were there for the reptiles. I'm assuming the Phoenix Herp Society brought some back to Arizona or else why go all that way? Usually when they do a swap the animals are shipped. Now that I think of it, maybe they went to retrieve animals they'd swapped with Silver Springs in the past? They've never said the name of the facility they've swapped with...
 
I visited in 2000, whilst visiting relatives in nearby Ocala, i remember the largest snapping turtle i have ever seen, being presented in a show.
My first banteng on the drive round as well as gerenuk and colobus monkeys on the jungle cruise.
2 of the bear enclosures were moated those shared by Andean/Himalayan bear, American bear and the Kodiak bear enclosure was fenced as far as i can recall.
Parts of Moonraker, the James Bond movie were also shot on site.
 
I feel sad for the people who were trying to get refunds because they had prepaid etc. There are no more animals. They don't run the jungle cruise anymore, the safari ride runs but has no animals and its all in bad shape.

I just wanted to push Dad to the spring so he could see it again. luckily they didn't charge for that.
 
Zoonewsguy said:
I visited Silver Springs on several occasions throughout the 1990s, my last visit was in 1998 and I recall a walk-through area with several giraffe that you could feed, a contact yard, the world of bears with several moated-turfed habitats for Andean bear, brown bear and black bear. Habitats for Florida Panther, crowned crane, Reeve's muntjac, giant tortoise, several species of alligator and crocodile and a few aviaries. A jeep safari ride featured bantang, rhea, llama, more crocodilians and a few other species which I can't recall. The river cruise featured large paddocks for more giraffe, gerenuk, zebra (can't rememer which species), scimitar horned oryx, barbary sheep, sable antelope, blackbuck, fallow deer, nilgai and island homes for squirrel monkey, spot-nose guenon, ring tail lemur, white handed gibbon and a few other species. Of course there were many rhesus macaque running around.......I typed up my notes and sent them to Marvin Jones but that was 15 years ago and my personal records are long gone.
Click to expand...

This place sounds awesome !!!, I want to go !!!
 
ungulate nerd said:
I found out that Silver Springs actually had Amazon river dolphins at one time
Click to expand...
yes they sponsored an expedition to catch some in southern Colombia in 1956. Four were obtained via harpooning them (!). There were three males and one female. The female died on the way to Florida and one of the males soon after arrival.
 
Makes a lot of sense seeing how they ran that park into the ground. "Amateurs" is the best way to put it.
 
I grew up in Florida during the 1950-60s era when Ross Allen's Reptile Institute was the main attraction. I captured and sold native harmless and venomous snakes to make pocket money. Over the years I have visited and have seen the changes with different ownerships. Some notible movies filmed in the Spring included Creature from the Black Lagoon, and some of Lloyd Bridges TV episodes of Sea Hunt. Also, some of the gator wrassling takes for movies were filmed there. Since there are many private zoos and exotic sanctuaries located in Florida, the exotics were probably dispursed within the state to avoid redtape paperwork for interstate and international requirements.
 
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