biggest_dreamer
Well-Known Member
Cypress Gardens is a garden/nature preserve in Moncks Corner, SC. I was unaware of this before visiting yesterday, but the place has a small collection of animals so I figured I would share my list since this place has never been brought up on this site before. I was actually able to snag a few lifers here, so maybe this info will come in handy for someone else who happens to be in the area.
Bird Exhibits
Former pets kept mostly in standard corncrib cages. The peafowl had a somewhat larger enclosure, and the amazon's was smaller.
A few quick notes about this mostly indoor area - the outdoor alligator exhibit was actually impressive for this sort of place. Easily the best non-AZA alligator enclosure I've seen. The ordering here is a bit odd, since I was tracking the tetrapods for my life list before adding the fish (which I don't personally track) so that I could share a more full list. There were also a lot of unsigned small "filler" fish that I couldn't identify. Finally, I have a horrible phobia of snakes so I skipped those exhibits and had my wife provide me with a species list, so I cannot personally vouch for their accuracy or whether they were actually on exhibit.
And that's it! Certainly not somewhere to go out of your way for if you're seeking out animals, but perhaps a pleasant surprise if you wind up here without expecting any. I also took a guided swamp boat tour while here, hoping to see some birds, but that wound up somewhat underwhelming - on the boat I saw alligators, unidentifiable turtles, wood ducks, and yellow-rumped warblers, and heard but did not see red-shouldered hawk, tufted titmouse, and blue jay. The boat was a novel experience and the swamp itself was beautiful, at least, so there's certainly worse ways to spend an afternoon in the lowcountry.
Bird Exhibits
Former pets kept mostly in standard corncrib cages. The peafowl had a somewhat larger enclosure, and the amazon's was smaller.
- Blue-and-gold macaw
- African grey parrot
- Triton cockatoo
- Red-lored amazon
- Indian peafowl
A few quick notes about this mostly indoor area - the outdoor alligator exhibit was actually impressive for this sort of place. Easily the best non-AZA alligator enclosure I've seen. The ordering here is a bit odd, since I was tracking the tetrapods for my life list before adding the fish (which I don't personally track) so that I could share a more full list. There were also a lot of unsigned small "filler" fish that I couldn't identify. Finally, I have a horrible phobia of snakes so I skipped those exhibits and had my wife provide me with a species list, so I cannot personally vouch for their accuracy or whether they were actually on exhibit.
- American alligator (outdoors)
- Two-toed amphiuma
- Eastern mud turtle
- Yellow-bellied slider
- Mata mata
- Chicken turtle
- Spiny soft-shelled turtle (signed, unseen - was present in the butterfly house however)
- Saharan yellow uromastyx
- Diamondback terrapin
- Argentine black-and-white tegu
- Dwarf crocodile
- Smooth-sided toad
- Russian tortoise
- Broadhead skink
- Eastern box turtle
- Glass lizard sp. (signed as "Eastern glass lizard (Ophisaurus attenuatus)", so take your guess)
- Southern leopard frog
- Longnose gar
- Largemouth bass
- American eel
- Arkansas blue catfish
- Spotted sunfish
- Blue-spotted sunfish
- Marbled lungfish
- Red-bellied pacu
- Bluegill
- Redear sunfish
- Colombian rainbow boa
- Green anaconda
- Eastern garter snake
- Corn snake
- Southern copperhead
- Rough green snake
- Scarlet kingsnake
- Greenish rat snake (Elaphe obsoleta obsoleta X Elaphe obsolets quadrivittata)
- Canebrake rattlesnake
- Eastern cottonmouth
- Colombian red-tailed boa
- Zebra longwing
- Black swallowtail
- Giant swallowtail
- Monarch
- Yellow-bellied slider
- Spiny softshell turtle
- Koi
- Tiger swallowtail
- Gulf fritillary
- Zebra swallowtail
- Great southern white
- Pipevine swallowtail
- Spicebush swallowtail
- Painted lady
- Red admiral
- Common buckeye
And that's it! Certainly not somewhere to go out of your way for if you're seeking out animals, but perhaps a pleasant surprise if you wind up here without expecting any. I also took a guided swamp boat tour while here, hoping to see some birds, but that wound up somewhat underwhelming - on the boat I saw alligators, unidentifiable turtles, wood ducks, and yellow-rumped warblers, and heard but did not see red-shouldered hawk, tufted titmouse, and blue jay. The boat was a novel experience and the swamp itself was beautiful, at least, so there's certainly worse ways to spend an afternoon in the lowcountry.
