Short announcement: after this review the thread will be going on a short hiatus from now until sometime after Christmas, both so that I may spend time with family and because there is still a lot of work I need to do for the zoos covered in Part II. Rest assured there is more to come, as at least half a dozen zoos remain to be covered.
Day 6: As Lorikeet Droppings Rain From the Heavens, I Stand Unenthused
Last night was the easiest night I’d had thus far; my motel was only 15 minutes from my next zoo and my motel room was on the ground floor with an empty parking space immediately across from it. I knew from other people’s reviews that tomorrow’s zoo wouldn’t take me as long as Memphis, so I went a little overboard and stayed up until 2 or 3 AM – in other words, my usual sleep schedule when I’m not confined by work hours or morning appointments. I groggily woke up around 9 AM; this was the coldest morning I’d experienced on the road trip so far, with the temperature still hovering around freezing outside. I went ahead and waited until around 10:30 AM to leave, drinking coffee and eating a couple of breakfast snack items to get my energy levels up to something approximating “alive” so that I could tackle the last zoo in this bullet I-40 trip.
Nashville Zoo
Location: Nashville, Tennessee
Size: ~45 acres (excluding Grassmere site and large sections of non-public areas)
Species Count: 166
Closed Areas: Unseen New World Aviary
Rarities/Target Species: Haitian Giant Galliwasp, Black-throated Magpie-Jay, Blue-billed Curassow, Southern Pudu, unseen birds
Price: $19 admission + $8 parking = $27
Recommended Time: 3 hours currently; new exhibits upcoming, adjust time up as needed
Species List:
Nashville Zoo Species List - Nov 2021 [Nashville Zoo]
Media Gallery:
Nashville Zoo - ZooChat
Zoo Map:
https://assets.speakcdn.com/assets/2147/map_postcovid_2021_noanimalshows.pdf
Nashville is fairly well-known on the forum, and also a bit unusual compared to many other American zoos both on this trip and not. It’s one of the newest major zoos in the country, having opened at its current location in the mid to late 1990’s. Walking around, it’s easy to tell that the place is fairly new; no structure in the zoo (other than the historic Grassmere portion) look even remotely aged, and there’s still a decent amount of unfilled space between existing enclosures and along the perimeter for future growth. At 45 acres of just the enclosures, paths and visitor areas along with close to 200 species, you’d think the zoo is pushing the upper limits of mid-sized; however, Unseen New World (the only exhibit building) houses 75% or more of the zoo’s collection. The roughly 50 species remaining are scattered along several winding trails, mostly through woodland. It adds a strong nature vibe to the place, even as it means that you’re often walking far distances for only a small handful of species.
I wanted to hit Unseen New World sooner rather than later, thinking it might get packed by the afternoon when temperatures would rise into the low 60’s F / 15 C (by this point it had warmed up to low 50’s / 10 C). Along the way I passed the first two exhibits and I was quite surprised; islands for gibbon and siamang, with no artificial climbing structures at all! The islands had tall, existing trees on them already and these provided the only climbing opportunities for the apes. It seems to work; when I arrived both gibbons were swinging and leaping through the branches of actual live trees. This was a harbinger of good things to see further on: following this was a large, split-level meerkat habitat full of sand for digging and a shady, marshy open-topped yard for Saddle-billed Stork (always a favorite). Across from the stork was the source of its habitat’s marshiness: a large lake dedicated solely for Trumpeter Swan. The stork yard was surrounded by thick forest, and looked like a clearing in the middle of the woods – a design feature that would be common throughout the rest of the thickly-wooded zoo.
At this point I got to Unseen New World, and immediately regretted not getting to the zoo when it opened (although given my obligate nocturnality that would have sucked for different reasons). A line had already formed out the door, as the zoo was enforcing limited capacity in the building and already by 11 AM the building had hit critical mass. Trying to take photos over the heads of crowded packs of zoogoers would be a theme today, as Nashville was the busiest zoo of this entire trip. At first I was confused by this – the weather was decent, but it was still November – until I realized that it was the day before Thanksgiving. One of the time-honored traditions many Americans partake in during the Thanksgiving holidays is frantically shoving all of their visiting relatives out the door, packing them in a car, and taking them somewhere else to stall or minimize the invasion of their homes and erosion of their sanity. The zoo, being family-friendly and mostly outdoors, is the perfect place during COVID to enact this scheme.
As an introvert taking close-in shots of herps and being decently COVID risk-averse, I was naturally annoyed with the crowds inside the building – but that’s my own deal. The building itself is great, with a huge collection housed in appropriately sized and well-furnished enclosures topped with a minimalist but smooth interior decor. Unlike much of the rest of the zoo (as I’ll get to), the ectotherm part of Unseen New World sticks to its theme very well; you’ll find no King Cobra, Puff Adder, Komodo Dragon or Blue-tongued Skinks in here. Instead you’ll find a wide variety of herps from the Americas, starting off with a couple reef fish tanks and some choice Caribbean herps such as Cuban anoles, Hispaniolan Tree Frog, and Haitian Giant Galliwasp – a species that was extracted from the wild and bred up in captivity by this very zoo. Following this were several sections whose titles I admittedly paid little attention to, but included some interesting species such as Coronated Tree Frog, Helmeted and Casquehead Iguanas, Puerto Rican Crested Toad, Bigclaw Crayfish, Harlequin Racerunner, Yellow-headed Gecko, and several more common American staples like rattlesnakes, snapping turtles, tree frogs and tarantulas. I also found a terrarium for Mexican Alligator Lizard signed as “Dragoncito”, which is from now on the only name I will accept for it. You’ve heard of Despacito, but have you heard of...
Dragoncito?
A highlight of the building is a row of several interconnected Amazon tanks, with at least three dozen species of Neotropical fish and turtles swimming in the water below while basilisks and caiman lizards bask on the branches above. The only non-ectotherm in the main hall of the building was a small cave for Seba’s short-tailed bats; the building also has a small indoor walk-through aviary full of Neotropical birds attached to it, but unfortunately due to COVID I wasn’t able to get in.
Photo credit:
@Moebelle
Once past the building, I embarked on a myriad of trails that took me deep into the Nashvillean woodlands. I was subsequently treated to a number of semi-unusual animals with no geographic consistency. We’re talking tapirs, babirusa (and baby), clouded leopards, hornbills, Mexican spider monkeys – all good stuff. You’ll also see a contact farm with some goats;
don’t skip the contact farm. I know it’s the MO for most of us – we’re here to see cool exotic wildlife, not step in goat poop and get our clothes chewed on. Nashville, however, has one of its nicest rarities hidden over in a row of cages lining one side of the contact pen – a pair of Black-throated Magpie-Jays (there are also supposed to be Maleo in this area, but they were nowhere to be found...) Next to it are Toco Toucan and Blue-billed Curassows – two other worthy birds of mention – while a pen for giant tortoises sits on that side as well. Not a fan of this setup personally; I’d prefer not to delicately watch my step for goat turds in order to see exotic Neotropical birds (if I wanted to do that, I’d go to the actual Neotropics!) I’m just warning you ahead of time so you don’t make the same mistake I did: skipping it initially, walking all the way around the zoo, checking the map before walking out, and cursing under your breath as you speedwalk like a lunatic towards the contact area at 2:30 PM.
Once I’d hacked my way through the bamboo forest, I stumbled into the 6 year-old, 2018 AZA Exhibit of the Year Award-winning Expedition Peru: a small but fantastically designed Spectacled Bear, Southern Pudu, some herps and fish, and a guinea pig... herd? Flock? Colony? In any case, an appreciated reminder to everyone that before guinea pigs were popular as pets they were popular on plates. The little plaza area was designed with an Andean village flair. The Spectacled Bear exhibit gave strong Teton Trek vibes from the day before, as you look out onto a vast grassy meadow with a running stream and waterfall-laden cliffs in the background. Meanwhile, the Pudu tried to make friends with everybody.
2nd photo credit:
@geomorph
After checking up on a very cool alligator exhibit nearby, I headed up the trail to yet another newer, 2019 AZA Exhibit of the Year Award-winning area for tigers. It’s admittedly a pretty nice tiger yard, though I was sort of surprised it won an award of that caliber as it only had a single species, was similar in design to other tiger yards I’ve seen (some of which were built many years ago), and it appears to be roughly similar in dimensions to the old enclosure that predated it. To be fair, I only stepped into the indoor viewing area long enough to confirm there were no other animals because of the crowds; maybe there’s a lot of great educational signage or a fantastic breeding complex on the back end I don’t know about. The architecture did look very cool though, and according to their website the wooden viewing bridge leading past it features hand-painted and hand-carved woodwork.
1st photo credit:
@snowleopard
After passing by a large open clearing home to ostriches and a few African hoofstock, two cassowary yards, and a walk-through kangaroo exhibit, I found what looked like a side path and what looked like some new construction advertising signage. Curious, I decided to venture down the rabbit hole into what I’ll call the “early-development suburb” portion of Nashville Zoo. After wandering through a patch of standing woodland with bat and bird boxes I inexplicably came across a yard for Masai Giraffes and the former African Elephant yard, which is now an enormous home for a small herd of White Rhinos (seen as gray rocks out in the distance around a corner). Signage did indeed advertise many more African exhibits to be constructed over the next 5-10 years; for now, I would wander through a stereotypical African zoo path except where every viewing area was just more rhino yard, which sounds more like I’m describing a very mundane dream I had the night before than an actual place I went. Besides a side yard for Red River Hogs, I spent the next 15 to 20 minutes photographing different angles of the (admittedly very beautiful) rhinoceros meadow and wondering when next I would see an animal. This corner of the zoo will be great in 10 years, but for now it’s a lot of walking around for not much payoff (in fairness, the departure of the elephants probably changed the calculus here).
Photo credit:
@Moebelle
Eventually I moved past the African area and saw a sign pointing me up to a new animal hospital; curious and with a little time on my hands, I decided to walk up the hill. Construction on a Komodo dragon exhibit is underway in front of the hospital, yet another sign that this zoo is going to be quite a bit larger someday. The hospital looks very nice from the outside, but even nicer is that the glass-fronted windows look into the nursery; it is here and only here that visitors can see baby versions of Nashville’s many off-exhibit species. Today were an adorable pair of caracal kittens and an unseen Banded Palm Civet pup; the week prior there had been binturong cubs. I then backtracked my way down to the Lorikeet Aviary, where supposedly the zoo’s Western Gray Plantain Eater resided.
I’m not a fan of feeding aviaries. Just like contact farms they are a staple of many zoos, great for raising money and getting visitors close to wildlife, and one of the places in a zoo I consistently skip because I loathe them. I’ve taken care of a parrot before; they’re essentially a mix between a toddler and a puppy that can fly. A single one can be a handful even when you’re used to it; an entire aviary’s flock of them is like hell on Earth. Even as a completionist, lorikeet aviaries are usually the one part of the zoo I’m not willing to grind; I’m content to just take a photo or two of the interior to see if there’s anything besides Rainbows in there, and then just let people guess at how many species it contains.
But I couldn’t just pass up a rare turaco because of some bird poop and chewing, could I? I’d come this far.
So after waiting in line I was finally in the thick of it. As lorikeet droppings rained from the heavens, I stood unenthused while desperately searching around the small and not densely-planted aviary for a large bird I was increasingly certain could not be hiding anywhere. I’d also put my sweatshirt on and pulled the hood over my head, initiating a questionable trade of not getting directly crapped on for being a very convenient perching surface. As bird after bird decided my arm and head-branches were the best thing since sliced bread, I eventually wandered over a bit sullenly to the aviary’s overseer. Glumly adorned with the most fashionably colored miniature parrots, I probably looked like the jungle’s saddest superhero. The overseer was very helpful, advising me that the plaintain eater had been shipped off just the week prior. She was also kind enough to keep a straight face when a lorikeet landed atop my head and turned itself upside down to peek over the top of my hood in the middle of our conversation. After finally closing the aviary door behind me and inspecting my jacket for new holes and patches of processed nectar, I decided that my loathing of lorikeet aviaries had been validated and I was done with them forever. You'll see how long that decision lasted later on in this thread.
photo credit:
@ThylacineAlive
What to say of Nashville Zoo? It has a quite solid selection of not-quite-rare but also not-quite-usual species, some beautiful exhibits, several winding paths through the Tennessee woodlands, and blueprints that suggest a future as a potential middle-weight champion of American zoos (if it isn't already one). As one of the newest major zoos in the country with undeveloped land, it feels rather sparse at the moment but that’ll change soon; I look forward to coming back a decade from now and eating my words about wandering around for 20 minutes to look at rhino rocks on the far horizon.
Note: I did not tour the Grassmere portion of the zoo due to hunger of the highest order; it showcases the original property the zoo was founded on and is probably worth checking out if you ever make it there. Fauna-wise they only have barn owls and farmyard animals, but also some cool historical stuff if you’re into that.
Traveling
Today was my last leg of the I-40 parade; I had only a half-day’s drive to a new, temporary homebase further east. The travel past Nashville was nearly all in the dark and largely uneventful, so without much fanfare we’ll leave that as is and focus on my food review, which I wasted zero time getting to. I was so hungry walking out of the zoo I forgot to check for the “Boelen’s Bathroom”, which is a slang term for when you put a Boelen’s Python... in the bathroom. I guess I probably didn’t need to explain that one (side note: the ladies get cottontop tamarins!). Fortunately, I made it to the restaurant before I self-cannabalized to survive and was rewarded with another sampling of fine Tennessean cuisine.
(Not so Fast) Food Review of the Day: Nashville Hot Chicken
While hot chicken has only recently exploded in popularity and geographic reach with the boom of Nashville’s music and tourist industry, like many of America’s best local offerings it originated in the African-American neighborhoods where it’s been enjoyed for close to a century. The touch here is a sauce or paste spiced with a healthy dose of cayenne pepper, giving what would otherwise just be very good fried chicken a solid kick. Of course you can’t have chicken without some good sides, so helpings of pimento mac ‘n cheese and collard greens adorned the side of my carton. I was so stuffed from these that I actually had to take a half-hour in the car just to digest. Fortunately, the best desserts are the ones that fill in the gaps: in this case, an exquisite banana pudding (for the unfortunately uninitiated, a sweet custard with freshly cut banana slices and soft vanilla wafers – a Southern classic).
I’ll issue a challenge: to anyone who assumes all American food is bad and that we’re not a destination for the culinarily curious, go ahead and book a trip to the States sometime. PM me and I’ll tell you where to go and what to eat, and we’ll see if I can’t find you
something in this vast land you were glad to discover. We make a lot of crap for sure, but we also have plenty of local delicacies and hidden hole-in-the-wall gems in neighborhoods across the nation. From Tex-Mex to lobster bisque and key lime pie to shrimp gumbo, we have the comestibles to mollify any hater who takes the plunge
