Destination – Jacksonville Zoo takes a walk on the wild side

The bonobo, or dwarf chimpanzee, native to the forests south of the Congo River, grabs a couple of pieces of cardboard with its human-like hands - sliding them back and forth in rapid succession to create friction.

With a final fling, the great ape sails down the overhead caged walkway, across the skyscape, high above the visitors of the African Forest exhibit at the Jacksonville Zoo and Gardens.

Accredited since 1987 by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums, the 122-acre park sits at the mouth of the Trout River, close to where it flows into the St. Johns.

It’s home to over 2,000 animals, 1,000 plants, and is active in animal conservation, with over 45 regional/international initiatives, including an agreement with the Iwokrama International Centre in Guyana, fostering Harpy Eagle research, and work with giant otters and jaguars.

A portion of every zoo ticket and membership purchase goes towards these projects.

With nearly 95 species survival plans in place through on-site breeding programs, the Jacksonville Zoo is one of only seven zoos in the United States with a ‘wellness team’ dedicated to providing quality care for its animals.

Additionally, the zoological park is also setting a new standard – by incorporating first-of-its-kind botanical gardens amongst the animal exhibits.

Lush pocket-themed gardens, like Savannah Blooms, a two-acre South African oasis of acacia plants, water lilies, and a towering bronze elephant sculpture by Peter Woytuk, located just past the Giraffe Overlook, the kudus, and Southern white rhinoceros trio.

Nesting wood storks raise their young, unhindered, in a tree by the Plains of Africa; the hatchlings squawk boisterously for food. Nearby, a Grevy’s Zebra squeals equally vociferously, resembling a moaning donkey.

“He sounds like he’s dying,” 10-year-old Amy, a visitor from Wisconsin, says.

Just ahead is Reptiles of Seronera, the first of several awesome serpentariums.

On display: a horned- nose Gaboon viper, golden Mantella frog from Madagascar, a teal-green Meller’s chameleon, and a pair of cobras.

The West African green mamba (fastest snake in the world) curls in the corner of his cage, the same as he might huddle inside the thatched grass roofs of Berber village homes.

In Wild Florida, herpes on exhibit are typical reptiles of the Sunshine State – Eastern diamondback rattlesnake, water moccasin, and a black-and-white-patterned kingsnake.

Gators are located outdoors in the mossy pond.

An orphaned black bear, found in 2010 in West Virginia by wildlife officers, arrived three years later; unfortunately, human interaction left her ‘unreleasable’.

These bears, revived from less than 300 in the 1970’s to thousands today, are considered an American success story.

Paved paths after the coyote enclosure – imprinted with actual animal footprints dried into the concrete – lead past bald cypress trees, coral bean bushes and palmettos…to the cheetah cage.

Next, visitors reach two marquee attractions - Land of the Tiger collection, which opened in 2014, featuring Malayan and Sumatran tigers, plus Visayan warty hogs, and Range of the Jaguar, which won the 2005 Association of Zoos and Aquariums Exhibit of the Year award for its presentation of capybaras, giant anteaters and river otters, plus the magnificent jaguar, a creature revered in Incan indigenous lore.

The reptile house offers an assortment of poison dart frogs – the Golfodulcean, the strawberry with Blue Jean morph, and the black-and-green, all sharing their cage with a South American bushmaster.

As for the birds, the Jacksonville Zoo has more than its share of feathered friends.

From vibrant salmon-colored Caribbean Flamingos, cassowaries, emus, kookaburras and brilliantly-decorated lorikeets in the Australian Outback; scarlet ibises and Inca terns, from Chile and Peru, sporting skinny red beaks, plus white ‘dangles’ jutting from under their eye – both in the Emerald Forest Aviary.

In the Asian Loop - eventually to comprise 12 acres and contain sun bears, cranes and river turtles, besides its current Komodo dragon, small-clawed otters and Sulawesi babirusas - zoo-goers can thrill at the casque-hooded ‘locals’ – Rhinoceros and Wreathed Hornbills – luxuriating under mist sprayers.

Within this range, an impressive Asian Bamboo Garden showcases weeping mulberries, giant leopard plants, ice-blue yellowweed, alongside forests of bamboo, the Chinese symbol of longevity.

Not to mention, the Moon Gate, Lotus Pool, yin-and-yang gardening designs, Koi pool and Orchid Pavilion.

Looping back towards the entrance, with its metal archway being ‘artistically re-commissioned’ into a strangler fig, visitors will find more treasures: golden-breasted starlings settling beside fruit bats, while blue-bellied rollers and yellow-billed storks simulate flight amongst loquat trees.

While touring the zoo, it is hard to miss the group of frantically-screaming bonobos, native to African forests.

These bonobos are curious about everything - about being moved to a new habitat (while theirs is under re-construction), and about intermingling with other same-species chimpanzees.

This ‘fission-fusion’ society, to power genetic diversity, actually occurs naturally in the wild; here, at Jacksonville Zoo, it provides enrichment and changes the zoo dynamics.

The black-faced bonobos momentarily cease shrieking, pouting with their red lips, showing off their flat faces.

These endangered ‘friendly apes’, with their matriarchal society, are mankind’s closest living relatives.

Yet, still human populations continue encroaching on their habitats; still commercial poaching (such as hunting for bushmeat) remains a threat.

Up by the gargantuan kapok tree, Latin America’s celestial ‘ceiba’, a quintet of lemur species - black-and-white ruffed, ring-tailed, blue-eyed black, coquerel’s sifaka and mongoose – are wondering what’s all the fuss.

Usually, they are the ones making all the ruckus.

Jacksonville Zoo and Gardens

370 Zoo Parkway, Jacksonville, Florida

(904) 757-4463;

Jacksonvillezoo.org

Open 9:00-5:00 daily.

Vickie Lillo - Gadsden County News Service

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Destination – Jacksonville Zoo takes a walk on the wild side

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Man accused of assaulting police officer captured by United States Marshals

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Gretna woman dies in fatal Hardaway Highway wreck

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Gadsden County Times – Legals – 2/23

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