Nashville Zoo

The Nashville Zoo’s Gibbon and Siamang area are very large with many trees surrounded by water. The chorus of calling Siamangs was extremely interesting to listen to and observe. Most of the exhibits in the zoo were quite large and gave plenty of space for the animals to roam about. The new Elephant Veldt allowed the animals to move about and explore the acreage. There were several vantage points from which to view the elephants unfortunately unless the animals were encouraged to move forward they could become so distant they would be hard to view. I understand ultimately the exhibit will be a multi species exhibit including giraffes, however right now the zoo does not exhibit giraffes. The zoo did not contain any Lions or Great Apes. There are two Tigers one being white. Beside the tigers they have several other cats such as Clouded Leopards, Cougar and Cheetah. Most of the animals could be viewed on the Bamboo Trail which was very scenic and wound around a grove of bamboo plants by a stream. The exhibits were surrounded by wire to enclose the animals which gave the appearance the animals had the whole forest within which to roam. There are 5 exhibits under construction which will help improve the quality of a visit to the zoo. I did not see any animals of the rare variety or species unseen at other zoos. In their map they show approximately a third of the area with future development over the 10 to 15 years. There is a new Jungle Gym built through the combined efforts of 40,000 volunteers, this will allow 1000 kids to be entertained at a time.