Nashville Zoo Visit Report, 07/14/2023
It shouldn't be surprising that one of the fastest growing cities in the United States is home to one of the nation's fastest growing zoos. In spite of its modest acreage and a species count lower than most, Nashville Zoo has garnered an overwhelmingly positive reputation both on this site and in the eyes of the general public. On "America's 50 Must-see Zoos” I called it the definition of quality over quantity and it punched far above its weight on “America’s 100 Must-see Exhibits” securing three entries. Undoubtedly one of the rising stars in the US zoo landscape, it’s always been high on my bucket list, even above major collections with far more to see. Back in July I paid my first visit and I can say with certainty that it won’t be my last…
For the sake of including as many photos as possible, I've split this report into two parts that will be posted one after the other. The first part will cover the Entry Village exhibits, Unseen New World, Critters Encounters and Bamboo Trail. Part two will cover the remainder of the zoo.
Entrance
Opening at the current property in 1997, this may just be the youngest major zoo in the US (I think we’re at a point where we can call Nashville a major zoo, yes?). When it first opened there really wasn't much to the zoo, but the collection has grown steadily over the last 26 years. Attendance grew dramatically as well, so much so that the zoo was struggling to keep up with such large visitor numbers. As a result of suffering from their success, the priority shifted from building out the zoo with new enclosures to increased parking, ticketing and other guest amenities. A massive new parking garage is currently being constructed to account for an even further increase in attendance in the coming years. The reason for the zoo's popularity? I like to think it’s because the place just looks nice: clean, attractive and extremely well put together. One of the clearest examples of this is the Entry Village which was redone in 2016 and is a lovely first impression. It’s clearly African themed but is subdued enough to where it isn’t overbearing. Something else of note is that the zoo is big on animal ambassadors which I was reminded of almost immediately after enterting. I was greeted by a group of keepers who had an aardvark out on a lead. What a nice surprise it was to instantly be greeted by an ambassador species upon entering; a very cool one at that.
From there the first exhibit encountered featured a couple flight-restricted macaws, everybody's favorite. All things considered it’s probably the greatest “parrot-on-a-stick” exhibit out there mainly because it's more than just a stick. There is a collection of branches and sticks between two small islands that the birds have access to and the surrounding area is actually very attractive (won't be the last time you hear me say that). I still loathe this practice, but it didn't irritate me as much here and compared to the macaw “trees” Brookfield just added a few days ago, this looks remarkable. Still, throwing a net over this area couldn't hurt. A smallish pen for blue cranes and some waterfowl is around the bend which was similarly nice to look at, although as large as it first appears and again seeing pinioned birds didn’t make the strongest first impression.
Aardvark Ambassador
Hyacinth Macaw Exhibit
Blue Crane, Common Shelduck, & White-faced Whistling Duck Exhibit
Things picked up quickly however with the spectacular gibbon islands. No ropes, no wooden platforms, certainly no playground equipment; nothing even remotely artificial. Indeed every aspect of these exhibits looks completely natural. They even went as far as to remove the ropes that were here previously. I have never seen a gibbon exhibit that gives them full unrestricted access to so many tall trees and it works amazingly. As I approached the exhibit a young male white-cheeked gibbon was swinging from limb to limb much to the awe of onlookers. It was delightful to see so much action and every visitor was in awe at how he moved throughout the treetops. He was also quite the showoff, occasionally coming down by the edge of the island to glance at his adoring fans, make soft vocalizations, and proceed to run away. Next door is an equally fantastic island for a pair of siamangs who were engaging in another fascinating behavior. They weren’t swinging in the treetops, but instead one of them was right by the viewing area forging from a large bush. I was trying to find the other one, but when I looked a little closer at that bush, I realized that he was right in the middle of it, forging from the inside. How cool is that? It was enough to make me say that these were not just my favorite gibbon exhibits, but some of my favorite primate exhibits ever. It’s so good it makes you wonder why every zoo isn’t doing the exact same thing.
White-cheeked Gibbon Exhibit
Siamang Exhibit
The best gibbon exhibits I’ve ever seen were promptly followed by the best meerkat exhibit I’ve ever seen. It’s nothing too fancy, essentially a sloping dirt yard with small palms dotting the landscape. Viewing from multiple levels and angles was neat and there's also a small pop-up tunnel for kids which seems to be all the rage these days. Right next door is a saddle-billed stork habitat that looks like a slice of natural forest, almost perfectly blending into the landscape. Once again this is another case where the exhibit would have benefitted from being netted over, but it didn’t bother me as much here considering just how well done the yard was. The adjacent swan pond provided yet another stunning view.
Meerkat Exhibit
Saddle-billed Stork Exhibit
The Unseen New World focuses almost exclusively on ectotherms from the Americas. 75% of the zoo's on-show collection is found within this building (I did the math
) which shows just how small the mammal collection really is. Most large reptile houses don’t exactly have a theme beyond taxonomy, but this house focuses almost exclusively on ectotherms found in the America’s. They don’t falter on this theme at all, well with the herp collection at least. The connected aviary includes a few African birds which only slightly blemishes the overall focus of the building. I’d actually go as far as to say the aviary was the weakest part of the whole thing. It’s very attractive and includes some nice species, but the layout is really awkward. It’s already small enough to where it can get a bit congested, but it’s even worse due to the fact the upper level leads to a dead-end. This means you have to backtrack through an already tight space with only one entry/exit point which further makes it a slightly troublesome experience.
Back inside the main building is a diverse assortment of vivaira of all shapes and sizes. I heard previous complaints about the house being overwhelming due to the crowds and heat, but I didn’t find it to be much of an issue at all. It was actually much cooler inside than out and while crowds were an inconvenience, they weren’t a problem at all when I ran through a second time later in the day (and keep in mind I went on a Friday). I’m not a reptile guy who meticulously searches for every single herp in every single terrarium, but there were a lot of pretty species on show here. I even quite liked the little cave for seba’s short-tailed bats. Obviously the highlight was the series of amazon habitats; consisting of a half-dozen tanks that appear as a single visually cohesive aquarium. The middle two are connected via an underwater portal which allows the inhabitants to access both tanks and the coolest part was watching a pair of caiman lizards freely swimming between the two interconnected aquariums. Usually these guys are as still as a rock whenever I see them, so seeing such a behavior was thrilling. Seriously awesome stuff. I do have one big complaint about the whole thing; the signage is terrible. It’s all electronic and rotates at different speeds which is just silly. Considering the way they are placed, there’s no reason why they can install some traditional signage instead. Digital annoyances aside, I was surprised just how much I enjoyed myself in this building and I’d even call it my second favorite reptile house. In fact, the highlight of my entire visit happened here, but I’ll get to that later…
It's also worth noting that there is a small amphitheater adjacent to the building where ambassador presentations occur. These demos may be your only chance at seeing some cool species that otherwise kept off-show. I popped in during the middle of a presentation and saw a caracal, tamandua, and a silvery hornbill, all of which are not exhibited anywhere in the zoo.
Unseen New World
Aviary (13 species)
Neotropical Tanks
Dwarf Caiman Exhibit
The Critter Encounters area would be an easy skip to most zoo-nerds, but be warned! What looks to only be a larger than usual goat petting paddock has a few neat little secrets that shouldn’t be missed. A yard for large tortoises is off the side which was typical, but what’s with seeing are a trio of simple aviaries containing some interesting suspects. One of them was empty, but the other two contained maleo/blue-bellied roller and toco toucan respectively. Maleo in particular was a very nice surprise. Stay alert of these aviaries, a black-throated magpie jay was on display as of late 2021 and could pop up again some time.
Toco Toucan Aviary
Past a modest flamingo exhibit leads to Bamboo Trail. It hosts a variety of semi-unusual rainforest species without much geographical focus beyond that. It’s actually quite interesting to see such a large exhibit area dedicated to what are mostly small to medium-sized species, with almost no traditional megafauna present. It starts out with a spacious baird’s tapir/crested screamer paddock that once again may just be the best tapir exhibit I’ve seen. I know of a few that would probably top this, but the standards for tapir exhibits don’t seem to be particularly high and this was really nice. Cape porcupines can be found down the path in what’s probably the most out-of-character exhibit in the zoo. No plants, not attention to sightlines, just a small little dirt yard surrounded by imposing rock walls. A bit jarring considering how much care has gone into aesthetes elsewhere, but fine none-the-less. My personal favorite exhibit on the trail however was the newer Mexican spider monkey enclosure which was just fantastic. You go up a winding ramp which leads to an elevated building which lined with large windows that look out into a beautiful exhibit. I was particularly fond of the back wall of the building which features a photo gallery of 40 monkey species that can be found in South and Central America. Here is yet another case scenario where I can describe this as being among the best spider monkey enclosures I've seen; the nicely done faux trees combined with the dense vegetation on the outskirts of the enclosure once again create a really attractive scene and there are even some live plants accessible to the monkeys on the bottom floor of the enclosure. I was also endeared by an adorable little monkey who couldn't be more than a year old. It was poking its tail through the mesh and would climb up and down to get the attention of guests.
Baird's Tapir & Crested Screamer Exhibit (can you spot the tapir?)
Mexican Spider Monkey Exhibit
There’s a long stretch of woodland before encountering what’s probably the worst exhibit in the zoo: the cougar enclosure. Fencing is overbearing and visibly dated and the enclsoure lacks climbing opportunities, but if this otherwise perfectly adequate enclosure is the worst thing in the zoo, that speaks volumes to just how high the standards are overall. With the exception of a pleasant babirusa yard, the remainder of Bamboo Trail consists of five similar looking mesh enclosures for the following species: red-ruffed lemur, ring-tailed lemur, red panda, clouded leopard and rhinoceros hornbill. All of these enclosures are suitable, although some are a bit on the small side in my opinion. On the surface everything appears very lush, but all of the vegetation is placed directly outside of the enclosures. I understand why this is for the lemurs who would destroy any plant life they can get their hands on, but adding some additional greenery within the clouded leopard and hornbill habitats would be very welcome. I would also be remiss not to bring up the zoo’s outstanding clouded leopard breeding record. As of the date this report is posted, the zoo has produced a whopping 43 cubs since 2009! It cannot be understand how impressive that is.
Babirusa Exhibit
Clouded Leopard Exhibit
Cougar Exhibit
Continued...
It shouldn't be surprising that one of the fastest growing cities in the United States is home to one of the nation's fastest growing zoos. In spite of its modest acreage and a species count lower than most, Nashville Zoo has garnered an overwhelmingly positive reputation both on this site and in the eyes of the general public. On "America's 50 Must-see Zoos” I called it the definition of quality over quantity and it punched far above its weight on “America’s 100 Must-see Exhibits” securing three entries. Undoubtedly one of the rising stars in the US zoo landscape, it’s always been high on my bucket list, even above major collections with far more to see. Back in July I paid my first visit and I can say with certainty that it won’t be my last…
For the sake of including as many photos as possible, I've split this report into two parts that will be posted one after the other. The first part will cover the Entry Village exhibits, Unseen New World, Critters Encounters and Bamboo Trail. Part two will cover the remainder of the zoo.
Entrance
Opening at the current property in 1997, this may just be the youngest major zoo in the US (I think we’re at a point where we can call Nashville a major zoo, yes?). When it first opened there really wasn't much to the zoo, but the collection has grown steadily over the last 26 years. Attendance grew dramatically as well, so much so that the zoo was struggling to keep up with such large visitor numbers. As a result of suffering from their success, the priority shifted from building out the zoo with new enclosures to increased parking, ticketing and other guest amenities. A massive new parking garage is currently being constructed to account for an even further increase in attendance in the coming years. The reason for the zoo's popularity? I like to think it’s because the place just looks nice: clean, attractive and extremely well put together. One of the clearest examples of this is the Entry Village which was redone in 2016 and is a lovely first impression. It’s clearly African themed but is subdued enough to where it isn’t overbearing. Something else of note is that the zoo is big on animal ambassadors which I was reminded of almost immediately after enterting. I was greeted by a group of keepers who had an aardvark out on a lead. What a nice surprise it was to instantly be greeted by an ambassador species upon entering; a very cool one at that.
From there the first exhibit encountered featured a couple flight-restricted macaws, everybody's favorite. All things considered it’s probably the greatest “parrot-on-a-stick” exhibit out there mainly because it's more than just a stick. There is a collection of branches and sticks between two small islands that the birds have access to and the surrounding area is actually very attractive (won't be the last time you hear me say that). I still loathe this practice, but it didn't irritate me as much here and compared to the macaw “trees” Brookfield just added a few days ago, this looks remarkable. Still, throwing a net over this area couldn't hurt. A smallish pen for blue cranes and some waterfowl is around the bend which was similarly nice to look at, although as large as it first appears and again seeing pinioned birds didn’t make the strongest first impression.
Aardvark Ambassador
Hyacinth Macaw Exhibit
Blue Crane, Common Shelduck, & White-faced Whistling Duck Exhibit
Things picked up quickly however with the spectacular gibbon islands. No ropes, no wooden platforms, certainly no playground equipment; nothing even remotely artificial. Indeed every aspect of these exhibits looks completely natural. They even went as far as to remove the ropes that were here previously. I have never seen a gibbon exhibit that gives them full unrestricted access to so many tall trees and it works amazingly. As I approached the exhibit a young male white-cheeked gibbon was swinging from limb to limb much to the awe of onlookers. It was delightful to see so much action and every visitor was in awe at how he moved throughout the treetops. He was also quite the showoff, occasionally coming down by the edge of the island to glance at his adoring fans, make soft vocalizations, and proceed to run away. Next door is an equally fantastic island for a pair of siamangs who were engaging in another fascinating behavior. They weren’t swinging in the treetops, but instead one of them was right by the viewing area forging from a large bush. I was trying to find the other one, but when I looked a little closer at that bush, I realized that he was right in the middle of it, forging from the inside. How cool is that? It was enough to make me say that these were not just my favorite gibbon exhibits, but some of my favorite primate exhibits ever. It’s so good it makes you wonder why every zoo isn’t doing the exact same thing.
White-cheeked Gibbon Exhibit
Siamang Exhibit
The best gibbon exhibits I’ve ever seen were promptly followed by the best meerkat exhibit I’ve ever seen. It’s nothing too fancy, essentially a sloping dirt yard with small palms dotting the landscape. Viewing from multiple levels and angles was neat and there's also a small pop-up tunnel for kids which seems to be all the rage these days. Right next door is a saddle-billed stork habitat that looks like a slice of natural forest, almost perfectly blending into the landscape. Once again this is another case where the exhibit would have benefitted from being netted over, but it didn’t bother me as much here considering just how well done the yard was. The adjacent swan pond provided yet another stunning view.
Meerkat Exhibit
Saddle-billed Stork Exhibit
The Unseen New World focuses almost exclusively on ectotherms from the Americas. 75% of the zoo's on-show collection is found within this building (I did the math
) which shows just how small the mammal collection really is. Most large reptile houses don’t exactly have a theme beyond taxonomy, but this house focuses almost exclusively on ectotherms found in the America’s. They don’t falter on this theme at all, well with the herp collection at least. The connected aviary includes a few African birds which only slightly blemishes the overall focus of the building. I’d actually go as far as to say the aviary was the weakest part of the whole thing. It’s very attractive and includes some nice species, but the layout is really awkward. It’s already small enough to where it can get a bit congested, but it’s even worse due to the fact the upper level leads to a dead-end. This means you have to backtrack through an already tight space with only one entry/exit point which further makes it a slightly troublesome experience.Back inside the main building is a diverse assortment of vivaira of all shapes and sizes. I heard previous complaints about the house being overwhelming due to the crowds and heat, but I didn’t find it to be much of an issue at all. It was actually much cooler inside than out and while crowds were an inconvenience, they weren’t a problem at all when I ran through a second time later in the day (and keep in mind I went on a Friday). I’m not a reptile guy who meticulously searches for every single herp in every single terrarium, but there were a lot of pretty species on show here. I even quite liked the little cave for seba’s short-tailed bats. Obviously the highlight was the series of amazon habitats; consisting of a half-dozen tanks that appear as a single visually cohesive aquarium. The middle two are connected via an underwater portal which allows the inhabitants to access both tanks and the coolest part was watching a pair of caiman lizards freely swimming between the two interconnected aquariums. Usually these guys are as still as a rock whenever I see them, so seeing such a behavior was thrilling. Seriously awesome stuff. I do have one big complaint about the whole thing; the signage is terrible. It’s all electronic and rotates at different speeds which is just silly. Considering the way they are placed, there’s no reason why they can install some traditional signage instead. Digital annoyances aside, I was surprised just how much I enjoyed myself in this building and I’d even call it my second favorite reptile house. In fact, the highlight of my entire visit happened here, but I’ll get to that later…
It's also worth noting that there is a small amphitheater adjacent to the building where ambassador presentations occur. These demos may be your only chance at seeing some cool species that otherwise kept off-show. I popped in during the middle of a presentation and saw a caracal, tamandua, and a silvery hornbill, all of which are not exhibited anywhere in the zoo.
Unseen New World
Aviary (13 species)
Neotropical Tanks
Dwarf Caiman Exhibit
The Critter Encounters area would be an easy skip to most zoo-nerds, but be warned! What looks to only be a larger than usual goat petting paddock has a few neat little secrets that shouldn’t be missed. A yard for large tortoises is off the side which was typical, but what’s with seeing are a trio of simple aviaries containing some interesting suspects. One of them was empty, but the other two contained maleo/blue-bellied roller and toco toucan respectively. Maleo in particular was a very nice surprise. Stay alert of these aviaries, a black-throated magpie jay was on display as of late 2021 and could pop up again some time.
Toco Toucan Aviary
Past a modest flamingo exhibit leads to Bamboo Trail. It hosts a variety of semi-unusual rainforest species without much geographical focus beyond that. It’s actually quite interesting to see such a large exhibit area dedicated to what are mostly small to medium-sized species, with almost no traditional megafauna present. It starts out with a spacious baird’s tapir/crested screamer paddock that once again may just be the best tapir exhibit I’ve seen. I know of a few that would probably top this, but the standards for tapir exhibits don’t seem to be particularly high and this was really nice. Cape porcupines can be found down the path in what’s probably the most out-of-character exhibit in the zoo. No plants, not attention to sightlines, just a small little dirt yard surrounded by imposing rock walls. A bit jarring considering how much care has gone into aesthetes elsewhere, but fine none-the-less. My personal favorite exhibit on the trail however was the newer Mexican spider monkey enclosure which was just fantastic. You go up a winding ramp which leads to an elevated building which lined with large windows that look out into a beautiful exhibit. I was particularly fond of the back wall of the building which features a photo gallery of 40 monkey species that can be found in South and Central America. Here is yet another case scenario where I can describe this as being among the best spider monkey enclosures I've seen; the nicely done faux trees combined with the dense vegetation on the outskirts of the enclosure once again create a really attractive scene and there are even some live plants accessible to the monkeys on the bottom floor of the enclosure. I was also endeared by an adorable little monkey who couldn't be more than a year old. It was poking its tail through the mesh and would climb up and down to get the attention of guests.
Baird's Tapir & Crested Screamer Exhibit (can you spot the tapir?)
Mexican Spider Monkey Exhibit
There’s a long stretch of woodland before encountering what’s probably the worst exhibit in the zoo: the cougar enclosure. Fencing is overbearing and visibly dated and the enclsoure lacks climbing opportunities, but if this otherwise perfectly adequate enclosure is the worst thing in the zoo, that speaks volumes to just how high the standards are overall. With the exception of a pleasant babirusa yard, the remainder of Bamboo Trail consists of five similar looking mesh enclosures for the following species: red-ruffed lemur, ring-tailed lemur, red panda, clouded leopard and rhinoceros hornbill. All of these enclosures are suitable, although some are a bit on the small side in my opinion. On the surface everything appears very lush, but all of the vegetation is placed directly outside of the enclosures. I understand why this is for the lemurs who would destroy any plant life they can get their hands on, but adding some additional greenery within the clouded leopard and hornbill habitats would be very welcome. I would also be remiss not to bring up the zoo’s outstanding clouded leopard breeding record. As of the date this report is posted, the zoo has produced a whopping 43 cubs since 2009! It cannot be understand how impressive that is.
Babirusa Exhibit
Clouded Leopard Exhibit
Cougar Exhibit
Continued...
With that said, you could hardly even call it a zoo in 1997 as according to the
