The SFCC Teaching Zoo a small 12 acre zoo that is responsible for making over 1000 zookeepers, curators, and a zoo director.
Teaching Zoo Santa Fe Community College, Gainesville, FL
As part of a two year - associate degree program to provide and education for people pursuing a career in the zoo field. There is another teaching zoo at Moorpark College in California and it is more geared towards animal training. Santa Fe is geared more towards husbandry and other zoo topics.
The zoo is located in Gainesville, Florida in a forest on the edge of the community college campus and established in 1972. Its collection is small (about 200 animals, 75 species) and is solely mained by the students - the professors are curators and directors. The collection consists of Alligators, Small-clawed Otter, Springbok, Matschie's Tree Kangaroo, Coendou, Ocelot, Red Ruffed Lemur, Bald Eagle, native florida reptiles and amphibians, Guam Rails, peccaries, muntjac, emu, caracal, sika deer, gibbons, crowned cranes, guanaco, capuchins, kookaburra, parrots, Gould's Monitor lizard, and Black Swans.
The zoo also was one of the last facilites to hold the extinct Dusky Seaside Sparrow, before they were all sent to Disney's Discovery Island where they became extinct.
It can only be visited by guided tour and was free for many years until recently. The zoo has undergone a lot of development in the last few years since it was hit by two hurricanes in 2004, about half of the exhibits have been rebuilt or renovated - all done by staff and students.
I went to school here from 2004 to 2006 and was apart of the hurricanes and major rebuilding. While I was there many of the animal were older and the zoo is in a transistion to acquire new animals and species as their older residents pass on. They also have two acres undeveloped. Their future plans include a new gibbon exhibit, a tree kangaroo conservation center, bongo, white rhinoceros, and an African aviary.
Teaching Zoo Santa Fe Community College, Gainesville, FL
As part of a two year - associate degree program to provide and education for people pursuing a career in the zoo field. There is another teaching zoo at Moorpark College in California and it is more geared towards animal training. Santa Fe is geared more towards husbandry and other zoo topics.
The zoo is located in Gainesville, Florida in a forest on the edge of the community college campus and established in 1972. Its collection is small (about 200 animals, 75 species) and is solely mained by the students - the professors are curators and directors. The collection consists of Alligators, Small-clawed Otter, Springbok, Matschie's Tree Kangaroo, Coendou, Ocelot, Red Ruffed Lemur, Bald Eagle, native florida reptiles and amphibians, Guam Rails, peccaries, muntjac, emu, caracal, sika deer, gibbons, crowned cranes, guanaco, capuchins, kookaburra, parrots, Gould's Monitor lizard, and Black Swans.
The zoo also was one of the last facilites to hold the extinct Dusky Seaside Sparrow, before they were all sent to Disney's Discovery Island where they became extinct.
It can only be visited by guided tour and was free for many years until recently. The zoo has undergone a lot of development in the last few years since it was hit by two hurricanes in 2004, about half of the exhibits have been rebuilt or renovated - all done by staff and students.
I went to school here from 2004 to 2006 and was apart of the hurricanes and major rebuilding. While I was there many of the animal were older and the zoo is in a transistion to acquire new animals and species as their older residents pass on. They also have two acres undeveloped. Their future plans include a new gibbon exhibit, a tree kangaroo conservation center, bongo, white rhinoceros, and an African aviary.
