History

Nashville Zoo agrees to take over management of the Grassmere property after the closing of the Grassmere Wildlife Park. The city of Nashville was bound by the will of the Croft sisters to maintain the South Nashville site as a nature center. Led by then-Mayor Phil Bredesen, the city offered Nashville Zoo the opportunity to relocate the Zoo from Joelton and develop a “new” zoo for Nashville on the Grassmere property.

The 66,000 sq. ft. Jungle Gym opens to the public thanks to thousands of volunteers who helped build the largest community built playground in the United States.

The Zoo's Reptile Curator travels to Indonesia alongside a group of other researchers to study the unique ability of the Komodo Dragon to carry lethal bacteria in its blood stream and saliva without becoming infected.

The new barn became the centerpiece of the Historic Farm with yards for sheep, cows and other farm animals.

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 (ZPO), Nashville Zoo, Smithsonian's National Zoological Park, Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium, and the Clouded Leopard Species Survival Program. The Consortium focuses on building a sustainable population in human care of the elusive and threatened cats, and studying wild populations in Southeast Asia.

In the early 2000s, the Consortium focused its research efforts on figuring out how to successfully pair clouded leopards and how to improve cub survival in captivity. The Consortium learned that for successful pairing, male cubs need to be introduced to their future mates by the time the males are six months old. They also learned that hand-rearing cubs from birth is the best way to ensure that clouded leopards are comfortable around humans, which increases their breeding success later in life.

Nashville Zoo staff begin developing a conservation plan for Haitian Giant Galliwasps - large burrowing skink-like lizards that live in an extremely limited range in Haiti. Staff members traveled to Haiti to collect 9 males and 9 females to start a captive "reserve population."

The Nashville Zoo’s brand new commissary was designed to meet the daily needs of animals but also meet any future needs the Zoo may have in years down the road. Our new animal diet commissary houses all the coolers needed for produce items and freezer space for frozen meat products, as well as a grain room, three food preparation areas, dishwasher room, thawing room and a live food room.

To celebrate, the Zoo hosted a summer picnic with descendants of the Croft sisters in attendance.

The trackless miniature train takes guests along a circular pathway near the African Plains exhibit.

The Zoo welcomed two new cougar to its animal collection. The 4-month old cubs were part of a trio rescued in Washington State after their mother was illegally killed.