What is the weird smell in Florida zoos?

[brown bear 555]

So I recently spent a week-long vacation in Florida. While there I went to both ZooTampa and the Naples Zoo. and while some of the smells at a zoo are normal like the penguins or pachyderms, at ZooTampa I noticed a weird odor, kind of like a rotten egg smell. now when I first noticed it I thought it was just an everyday odor in the area but after walking the entire zoo grounds I noticed the smell everywhere. fast forward a few days and while at the Naples zoos, although it was not as often as ZooTampa, I smelt that same odor. now the question I am asking myself is what is that odor. since it is smelt like it was all over the zoo grounds I could probably, 96% sure it was not from the zoo animals because I think I would not smell a similar odor all over the zoo grounds
I do have a few ideas:

• the water in the ponds and streams
• maybe something that has to do with the Florida heat and humidity
• a gas leak?

now I have only smelt this odor at ZooTampa, and the Naples zoo

 

[brown bear 555]

anyone have any ideas of what this odor could be

 

[Green_mamba]

I remember the rotten egg smell at Tampa from my visit in 2014. I don't know what it was.

 

[Chlidonias]

I just googled "rotten egg smell in Tampa".

Some reasons here: Sulfur - Rotten Egg Smell in Tap Water | Culligan Tampa Bay

Also specifically Mercaptan: South Tampa odor (Mercaptan, which is a smelly gas added to propane tanks to make leaks easier to detect)

And then there are a bunch of Reddit threads asking why Tampa smells like farts all the time, if you want to read through them.

 

[PSO]

It is quite prevalent at the elephants pool at LPZ

 

[SwampDonkey]

Sulfur in the water, you will smell it a lot more when a moat/pond has been freshly dropped and refilled. I imagine the elephant pool gets dropped frequently.

I remember one time overhearing a patron at ZooTampa telling their kid it was because of all the poorly cared for and dead animals. I hope he was joking, but it did not sound like it.

Some homes that have well water around town have the smell too, but it can be mitigated with the right treatment on a small scale. I have not smelled it in my water at home, and I have public water.