NASHVILLE – When most people think of a zoo, they think of a place of entertainment, to see exotic animals and watch a show.
The mission of the Nashville Zoo at Grassmere is to inspire a culture of understanding, educate its patrons about the animals living there and introduce people to the diversity of animal life across the globe.
“We hope that the people who see this care more about the planet and care enough to say we think it’s more important to preserve these animals than it is to use them for our immediate benefit,” said Jim Bartoo, zoo marketing and public relations director.
Compared to many zoos across the country, Nashville Zoo at Grassmere is relatively young – having been in operation just over 20 years, it is one of the newest zoos in the country.
“Because of that, we’re able to build habitats that have the latest philosophies and technologies to them,” Bartoo said.
As a result, the habitats look far more natural than many of the country’s older zoos. The zoo also has the space to build new habitats to accommodate more animals. This year the zoo is adding three habitats, one for spider monkeys, one for Sumatran tigers and one for Andean bears. It is renovating its former elephant habitat for white rhinoceros.
To inform patrons, the zoo offers several educational programs. The most popular Bartoo said is Zoo Tots. The six-week program is designed to introduce children from 18 months to 5 years of age to different animals, environmental and conservation concepts, like how to recycle through tactile craft activities.
The zoo offers several day camps over the summer, spring and fall breaks for children ages 4 to 14. For younger students, the zoo offers “Storybook Tails” and “Native Navigators.” For the older children, the camps are “Camp Zoovivor” and “Project Globe.” The offerings also include a “Zooper Heroes Camp” for children with special needs.
The Zoo Teen program is a volunteer program for teenagers who want to experience working at the zoo. Participants are trained about different animals and placed outside the exhibits to better inform the public.
For Families looking to learn more about each animal, there is an animal show offered in the warmer months when keepers bring animals on stage to teach the audience about the zoo’s inhabitants.
Also on the grounds of the zoo is the historic Grassmere farm house. Patrons can tour the house and learn how the property evolved from a farm to the zoo.
Bartoo said the zoo offers biology and science programs for homeschooled children. The classes, for children ages 5-14, include live animal presentations and animal artifacts.
Conservation effort
“Like many zoos, we are very involved in conservation efforts. Clouded leopards in particular are kind of our signature animal,” Bartoo said.
Clouded leopards are among the rarest cat species in the world, and are listed as vulnerable. Because the clouded leopard is elusive, precise population numbers are not known.
“They avoid people as much as they can. They are being poached in the wild, so we know they’re still out there,” Bartoo said. “They’re being collected for the pet trade over in Thailand in their own home range.”
Nashville Zoo has been working with the clouded leopards since the late 1980s, before they acquired the Grassmere location. Males can grow up to twice the size of the females and are known to be aggressive. So, attempts to mate them in a captive environment often resulted in the females being injured or even killed – the zoo began an introduction program in the early 1990s.
Instead of introducing the pair as adults, they were hand raised together. That had the result of making the animals calmer in captivity and in the presence of people. It also made the males significantly less aggressive toward the females and the pairs often mated for life.
“The success rate went from less than 10 percent to 100 percent,” Bartoo said.
According to the zoo’s website, since 2000, Nashville Zoo has partnered with zoos around the world to develop collaborative breeding programs and field monitoring projects for clouded leopards in Thailand. The resulting Clouded Leopard Consortium is based at the Khao Kheow Open Zoo with assistance from Thailand Zoological Parks Organization, Nashville Zoo, Smithsonian’s National Zoological Park, Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium, and the Clouded Leopard Species Survival Program. Despite the success of the Nashville Zoo’s clouded leopard breeding program, the zoo now participates in an artificial insemination program in an attempt to increase the genetic diversity of its leopards.
“We can now impregnate captive females without ever introducing the male,” he said. “As the wild population disappears … the captive environment is really one of the few safe environments for them to be in. In order to sustain a healthy captive environment for this animal you have to maintain a broad genetic diversity.”
On March 1, the zoo welcomed its first clouded leopard born using artificial insemination.
Although they are best known for their clouded leopards, the zoo is also working with Hellbenders – a giant salamander that lives in the Tennessee and Mississippi waterways. Like the clouded leopards, the zoo has had success breeding the Hellbender using artificial insemination.
“A great accomplishment [because] it means you can actually catch and take samples from wild caught males and introduce them to captive females and hopefully get to a point where you can re-release those back into the wild if we can get our river systems cleaned up and protected,” Bartoo said.
Puerto Rican Crested Toads are an example of a successful reintroduction animals into the wild by the Nashville Zoo. Because of the nature of the animal and the existence of protected waterways in their native land, the zoo is able to ship eggs to be released.
“If we did nothing they would certainly disappear,” Bartoo said.
Price of admission to the zoo is $16 for adults, $14 for seniors age 65 and older, 11 for children 2-12 and free for children younger than 2 and zoo members. Service members and everyone in their party can receive $1 off admission when presenting a military ID.
“[For Veteran’s Day] we offer a free day for the military usually the weekend before,” Bartoo said.
Families also can purchase tickets ahead of time at Morale, Welfare and Recreation’s Leisure Travel Services for $12.25 per adult or $8.75 for children 12 and younger.
Parking is $5 per vehicle. Parking for zoo members is free. The Nashville Zoo at Grassmere is located at 3777 Nolensville Pike, Nashville. For more information, call 615-833-1534 or visit www.nashvillezoo.org.