Lowcountry Zoo Lowcountry Zoo Species List/Review (4/30/23 and 8/17/23)

biggest_dreamer

biggest_dreamer

Well-Known Member
I've been meaning to make this thread or even upload some pictures after each of my past few visits (I probably average twice, maybe three times a year here), but I've simply never gotten around to it. A species list based across two visits is certainly unorthodox, but for clarity's sake I made the list in April, never posted it, and merely confirmed no species removals since then. I'll just italicize the species I saw on neither visit.

Anyway, I really love this zoo. It's incredibly small, keeps exclusively domestics and natives, and is well-hidden inside a statue garden that results in quite a price markup if you're just interested in the zoo itself, so on paper it probably doesn't sound too exciting. What keeps me coming back, though, is the amount of space all of the animals get, carved out of their natural environment. It's so cozy, so quaint, so naturalistic. That, and the walk-in aviaries are both really amazing.

Given the heavily wooded, natural landscape that the zoo resides in, there are quite a few species that aren't explicitly managed by the zoo that find themselves choosing to live within the zoo's enclosures, which in turn has led the zoo to sign them as well (these signs are new, having cropped up between my last 2022 visit and my April visit). I'll indicate these naturally occurring species with an asterisk.

Farmyard Area
  1. Spanish goat
  2. Red Devon cattle
  3. Tunis sheep
  4. Marsh Tacky horse
  5. Dominique chicken
  6. Helmeted guineafowl
The farmyard is great, all of the species are afforded much more space than even some headliner exotics might get in other zoos. It isn't presented as a petting zoo in the way so many places with domestics tend to default to. It's just like, these are animals too, they've got their space, they're free to walk around and graze and lay in the shade and don't need scratches or scraps.

Signed but unseen are unspecified guineafowl (which I have seen before, they're domestic helmeted) and an old mule that passed away some months ago.

Swamp Aviary
  1. White ibis, great egret, snowy egret, black-crowned night heron
This is a boardwalk through a large aviary covering a natural swamp. Four species of birds live here, but the heron and great egret exist in considerably larger numbers. This exhibit is a real experience, and I always want to take way more time than the rest of my party as we're moving through.

The Cypress River
  1. North American river otter, red-jointed fiddler crab*
The otters have both an indoor and a spacious outdoor area to freely move between. The indoor tank allows them to swim along and kick off the glass in front of guests, while the outdoor area allows for more natural swimming while offering ample shade and a hammock.

The fiddler crabs are as best as I can tell naturally occurring, and I've never actually laid eyes on them.

Foxes (I don't recall the specific name, sorry!)
  1. Red fox, gray fox
Two gray foxes and a red fox share a large slice of the natural landscape. The grays are typically lounging on a tree branch while the red hides elsewhere, but I've seen both species active before as well.

Birds of Prey
  1. Bald eagle
  2. Great horned owl
  3. Barred owl
  4. Barn owl
  5. Red-tailed hawk
Standard un-releasable bird of prey aviaries. They aren't bad for what they are, but if the zoo has a weak point it's this. Between April and August, they seem to have dropped from 2 eagles and 3 hawks to 1 eagle and 2 hawks barring either of them being behind the scenes.

The Forest Edge
  1. American alligator, yellow-bellied slider*, sandhill crane*, wild turkey*, fox squirrel*
A large pond with a large grassy perimeter. It's comfortable enough that non-managed cranes and turkeys feel comfortable setting up camp in here - my most recent visit was the first one where I didn't see either bird. You'd never know that they were wild animals if the zoo themselves didn't stress that fact. The gator himself is hit or miss, but there's usually enough going on here with all of the wild species that I don't leave unsatisfied.

Flights of Passage - Migratory Waterfowl of the Lowcountry
  1. North American ruddy duck, North American wood duck, blue-winged teal, fulvous whistling duck, red-headed duck, black-bellied whistling duck, hooded merganser, northern pintail
I could spend hours in here. I could take a nap on the benches in here. This duck aviary is just absolutely serene. Trickling water, a wide variety of ducks to watch, it's just nice. Unfortunately, it sounds like the zoo lost quite a few of their ducks to avian flu last year, so the flock is a bit thinner than it was a few years ago. Hopefully they can rebuild.

Red Wolf Ridge
  1. Red wolf
  2. Gopher tortoise*
This is the zoo's newest exhibit, having opened I believe just last month after many years spent up in the air. This replaced one-half of a previous white-tailed deer exhibit, which I had considered another highlight of the zoo (also the best place to see a bunch of fox squirrels). The deer are supposedly aging and slowly dropping off, however, so they were allowed to move into a fully wooded area behind the scenes to live out their days. The deer exhibit was massive, so even taking half of that leaves quite a sizeable area for a trio of male red wolves to spread out. I only saw two of them on my visit, but I've been told that all three of them are prone to being really active. Can't wait to see these guys again, and hopefully see some puppies once they introduce some females to the mix. The wild gopher tortoise was technically in the other unused half of the former deer exhibit, but it was very visible and very eager to dig.

And that's it! Like I said, small zoo, but one that consistently leaves me feeling warm and fuzzy. There's also a butterfly house that I've only went inside once before so I couldn't tell you what's in there off hand. I've heard that the zoo's next goal is to get unspecified bears (one would assume American black), but this is supposedly a long-term goal. Having another big carnivore will certainly help draw crowds, but I can't help but wonder if they could utilize some of their unused land (because really, I don't think half of their zoo grounds are being used) to take in some medium-small natives such as raccoons, bobcats, coyotes, opossums, skunks, or perhaps even beavers. Just a few more species would go a long way with how few are on exhibit here, I think. Or perhaps some sort of proper focus on small herps? I'm teetering towards full speczoo territory now though, so I'll leave it at that.

Overall, I think this is a great and super cozy little zoo and hands down the best the Myrtle Beach area has to offer, despite just how small it is.
 
biggest_dreamer said:
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The Cypress River
  1. North American river otter, red-jointed fiddler crab*
The otters have both an indoor and a spacious outdoor area to freely move between. The indoor tank allows them to swim along and kick off the glass in front of guests, while the outdoor area allows for more natural swimming while offering ample shade and a hammock.

The fiddler crabs are as best as I can tell naturally occurring, and I've never actually laid eyes on them.
Click to expand...

Do the otters eat the crabs?
 
Brookgreen’s heron aviary is probably in my personal top thirty exhibits. Shame there are really no good photographs of it. Never liked the waterfowl one quite as much but I’m glad someone enjoys it as much as you seem to.

Never realized those turkeys were wild. They were reliable enough that I figured they were part of the collection. And agreed that even half the deer exhibit is a phenomenal wolf exhibit. They’d probably have to modify the fences and make another building but bears would be a good enough fit for the other half. Or coyotes. Or more deer. Whatever they go with it’ll be a good exhibit.

Are there still honeybees on the platform overlooking the wolf exhibit?
 
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