This year, we’re celebrating our 30th anniversary by investing more in the conservation work we do best—and now you can “answer the call” to help us.
Please make a gift to our new Wildlife Rescue Fund to supercharge our lifesaving impact for threatened and endangered Florida species such as sea turtles, black bears, and manatees. Your support today will provide urgently needed operational funding for Brevard Zoo’s signature conservation programs including our nationally recognized Sea Turtle Healing Center and our future behind-the-scenes Brody Bear Rehabilitation Center and Manatee Rehabilitation Center, both currently under construction.
Together, we can save Florida wildlife. Join us by donating toward our Wildlife Rescue Fund on Facebook or at https://bit.ly/3ARIusP.
Walk through what it's like for our Expedition Africa keepers to trim our giraffe tower's hooves! 🦒
Our hoofstock, like zebras, oryx and giraffes, all receive extra care when it comes to their feet! Our animal care team has undergone intensive training to learn how to perform hoof trims on our giraffe tower. It takes a lot of teamwork and coordination, but our giraffes are healthier because of this important routine!
Oscar the striped skunk was treated to some scent-sational enrichment created by one of our wonderful volunteers. 🥬
Mealworms and bits of lettuce were sprinkled around the cardboard encouraging Oscar to explore the elevated surfaces and hidden tunnels carved into the towering cake.
We're continuing to celebrate our 30th birthday on the 30th of every month with fun birthday-themed enrichment through the end of the year. Make sure to stop by! 🎉
Training With Our American Alligators
Crikey! Did you know we train our American alligators to do all kinds of behaviors that benefit their overall wellbeing? 🐊
Whether it's to prepare Martha and Toothless for voluntary medical procedures or for a temporary move across the Zoo, our Herps and Aquatics team practices these important trainings frequently.
Watch Herps and Aquatics keeper Kaitlyn walk us through how the team prepares to work with these big reptiles!
Just keep swimming, Dory! This juvenile green sea turtle has returned to the water after spending three months at our Sea Turtle Healing Center. 🌊
Dory was found floating and unable to dive in the Indian River Lagoon south of Eau Gallie Causeway and brought to us by the Sea Turtle Preservation Society - thank you! This little green received a full veterinary exam and supportive care including blood work, a CT scan , radiographs, ultrasound, antibiotics, GI motility medication, antiparasitic medication and nutritional support.
We opted to release this river-side sea turtle privately due to logisitics, but we hope to invite you to a public release soon! Until then, we hope you'll join us in wishing Dory well!
Have you ever seen a goat busyboard? Crafted by our animal care team, this board was designed to encourage a safe and positive way for our four goats to enjoy mouthing or chewing behaviors with a variety of interesting objects. The peanut butter is just an extra bonus! 🥜
You've goat to celebrate World Goat Day! 🐐Our animal care team recently treated our four Nigerian dwarf goats Charm, Pebbles, Puff and Trix to a mini feast of hay and veggies in honor of their special day.
Gerald the Amazon puffing snake recently went on an enriching Zoo-wide adventure with Herps & Aquatics keeper Jenna! 🐍
Gerald is very comfortable with his animal care team, so he got the chance to see some new-to-him places beyond his regular habitat!
Go, Ryu, go! We love enriching our animal resident's lives by providing them new ways to enjoy their meals. For this Komodo dragon, that may look like leaving scent trails and crushed up crocodile biscuits in the sand to dig up or it might mean hooking a large salmon to a pole for him to pull down.
We have pollen in love with our new queen bee, Queen Clarisse Renaldi. 🐝She has adjusted well to the new colony and is being attended to by all the worker bees.
Bees are an important part of our native landscape, and we are happy to have two active hives now on our property! You can view these hardworking honey bees from a distance at the Lands of Change boardwalk across from the black swan habitat.
⚠️Have you seen the new detour to get into the Rainforest Revealed loop?⚠️
Due to construction, there will be an alternative route to enter the loop on Mondays-Thursdays through August 29. The loop will close at 3 p.m. on these days to accommodate our sloth encounters. The regular entrance will be open on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays.
This new vantage point offers you an up-close look at our Linnaeus's two-toed sloth,, Lorenzo. See if you can spot him during your next Rainforest trek.
We apologize for any inconvenience and appreciate your understanding.
Happy World Lion Day! We’re roaring back to school today with fun, games, and lion-themed activities from 10 a.m.-3 p.m. at the Zoo!
We just wanted to thank everyone who has contributed to our “virtual housewarming party” for our lion brothers Chobe, Karoo and Ruaha by donating toward fun new enrichment for their new habitat, opening soon in Expedition Africa!
Want to contribute? There’s still time! Donate here or visit https://bit.ly/3yuBotq.
📸Special thanks to our keepers for this fun footage of our brothers enjoying all kinds of enrichment in their current home!
Our permanent lion habitat has been years in the making! We were thrilled to welcome Chobe, Karoo and Ruaha to our Zoo 2 years ago to a temporary home – but we’re ready to welcome them to a new space fit for three kings!
With your help, we’re going to welcome the boys home with some lion-sized enrichment items! These heavy-duty items give them the chance to act on their natural instincts. We want to give them a habitat full of meaningful choices and safe challenges – like these enrichment items – to help them be at their best, both physically and mentally.
Please give now to help us hit our goal of raising $2,700 for these large, expensive pieces of hardware. Every dollar helps! Thank you as always for your generosity. Donate here on Facebook or at https://bit.ly/3yuBotq.
Brody the Florida black bear tried his paw at opening a bear-resistant trash can recently! Guess who won this round? 🐻
Our bears are part of a program in which bears in zoos and rescue organizations test garbage cans, food storage bins, coolers, and any other containers designed to keep bears out of food or garbage. We hope their participation will help identify effective items for the public to use – and hopefully lower the rate of negative interactions between people and bears in their natural range.
Learn more about their work - and how to prevent bears from accessing your trash can - on our blog: https://brevardzoo.org/news/testing-bear-resistant-items-with-brody-and-cheyenne/
📱Thank you to our animal care team for the footage!
Dental Training with Frankie the Rhino!
Have you ever wondered what a rhino dental checkup looks like? 🦷🦏
Watch Expedition Africa keeper Cindy walk us through what it's like to do important dental checks and target training with this gentle giant, Frankie! Training our animals to voluntarily participate in their own healthcare is incredibly beneficial for their wellbeing, and we are proud to offer it for all our animals, from our tiny tortoises to our largest mammals.
Who do you want to see during training time next? 👇
What’s that sound?👂️Bats! We’ve joined the effort to better understand the bat species that call Florida home.
We set up a specialized bat acoustic monitoring station in a behind-the-scenes area at the Zoo to record bat calls in our area for our partners. Researchers can identify which species makes the call based on the pattern and frequency. They use this data to understand what habitats bats need and their migration patterns while giving insights to potential population declines. 🦇
Want to learn more? Head to our blog: https://brevardzoo.org/news/bat-call-recording/
We'd be proud to have any of these animal athletes represent us in the zoolympic games! 🐾
Which other animal residents do you think would make it to the podium? 🥇
We finally said goodbye to an out-of-this-world turtle! 💫
Jupiter the sub-adult loggerhead headed home to the ocean after a nearly 3-month rehabilitation at our Zoo’s Sea Turtle Healing Center. 🐢
Jupiter arrived in May after being accidentally hooked by a fisherman, who thankfully followed the correct protocol when a sea turtle is accidentally hooked. If this happens to you, please call the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission’s Wildlife Alert Number at 1-888-404-3922.
This sea turtle was emaciated and covered in epibiota-like barnacles. After Jupiter had the hook removed, the loggerhead was treated to antibiotics, good food and a rest to prepare them to return to the ocean. 🌊
If you want to learn more about Jupiter head to our blog: https://brevardzoo.org/news/releasing-jupiter-the-loggerhead-sea-turtle/ 🔗
It’s almost time to say goodbye, July! Here are a few animal videos that made us smile this month:
🤝 Talk about a meeting of the minds! George the okapi and Victoria the dingo got a chance to say hey while Victoria the dingo went on a Zoo walk with her animal care team.
🥬 Rako the radiated tortoise was treated to quite a unique meal! This enriching experience gave him a new way to dine.
🌊 Our capybaras Biggie and Calypso enjoyed a dip in the pool to cool off from our Florida heat.
🎥 Thanks to keepers Alyssa and Jenna for some of these video clips!
There's no 'dragon' your feet around here! 👟
Ryu our Komodo dragon shows lots of enthusiasm when it comes to training. Training, in this case targeting, keeps our Zoo residents' minds and bodies active, while also building a positive relationship with trainers and allowing us to monitor their health without using more invasive procedures.
What other Zoo residents do you want to see doing a training set?👇
