Ellington

Dozens of smiling guests roam around the Chattanooga Zoo’s grand entrance on Holtzclaw Avenue. As the gates open, most rush toward the animal exhibits like there’s no tomorrow, but a few scamper joyfully to the carousel where figurines of endangered species bob up and down while spinning in a circle. Others congregate on the short wall beneath six larger-than-life chimp sculptures to study zoo maps and plan their routes.

The zoo is a happy, vibrant place full of life and adventure—but it has not always been this way. In its darker days, animals were neglected and confined to small concrete and barred cages. By the mid 1980s the zoo had lost the support of the Chattanooga community, and the public demanded it be shut down.

Then, with the zoo facing certain closure, a small group of individuals emerged at the eleventh hour to form Friends of the Zoo (FOZ), a nonprofit organization dedicated to saving the facility and making significant improvements to it.

“Friends of the Zoo had a much different vision for the zoo,” says the organization’s current president, Gary Chazen. “We always believed the zoo could one day be among Chattanooga’s top regional attractions. We realized that a complete overhaul was necessary and that it would cost money—a lot of money.”

Twenty-five years and nearly $10 million later, the once-controversial 2.5-acre menagerie has grown to a 14-acre showpiece. And it’s still expanding amid a focus on conservation education, more natural exhibits and behavioral enrichment for the animals. Shining like a polished diamond, the Chattanooga Zoo has even received accreditation from the national Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA).

Though FOZ took the lead in the zoo’s revival, Chazen also credits others with the miraculous turnaround. “We are thankful to all who’ve helped through the years—the community, local foundations, the State of Tennessee, corporations, and the City of Chattanooga,” he says, praising the staff and lauding Dardenelle Long, the zoo’s energetic executive director who is also celebrating a twenty-fifth anniversary with the zoo.

“Back then, I never thought that I would see the day when we would be celebrated in such a positive light,” says Long. “When I joined the staff in 1985, we were known as Chattanooga’s Animal Ghetto. Today, we are the Best Little Zoo in America. That’s how far we’ve come.”

She isn’t seeking the limelight. “The only thing that I will take credit for is my perseverance—I stayed,” says Long, who helped the zoo attain many memorable milestones along the way. “I’ll never forget the day in 1992 that we released Hank into his larger exhibit,” she says about the zoo’s most famous resident, a forty-two-year-old chimpanzee who has been around since 1976. “He had lived in abhorrent conditions for so many years, and it was an incredibly moving experience to see him explore his new space, to walk upon dirt and grass for the first time in sixteen years.”

“We’ve been blessed with a community that didn’t give up on us,” adds Long. “And we want to thank the community by giving Chattanooga a zoo they can be proud of.”

The best way to fully appreciate the dramatic changes at the zoo is to spend a little time there, she notes. Chatter’s tour starts at the Corcovado Jungle.

THE CORCOVADO JUNGLE

The sidewalk winds through a passageway lined with green bamboo stalks and shaded by the sprawling canopy of leaves and delicate pink and purple blossoms of giant Althea bushes. Kirk Parker, a senior keeper who has worked at the zoo for seven years, leads the way through a tunnel to a viewing area where several small children wait patiently—their hands and faces pressed against a large glass window. A spider monkey emerges from the vegetation and glides by the glass, his long, rope-like tail extending two or three feet into the air to form a whimsical curly-queue at the end. The monkey hops onto a nearby rock and places his elongated hands on his hips as if he is about to break out into a monkey version of the hokey pokey.

“Spider monkeys and the other animals in the Corcovado Jungle exhibit are native to the tropical rainforests of South and Central America,” says Parker. “Their tails are very muscular, and they can use them like extra hands. They can hang by their tails while using their hands to eat or gather food.”

GENE AND PHIL

Next, Parker stops at the jaguar exhibit. Two majestic spotted cats saunter around the space occasionally rubbing their sides on the observation glass. Their paws are the diameter of dinner plates. Their hypnotic eyes are like giant, green marbles. “That’s Phil,” says Parker. “He has the ‘V’ shaped dot pattern on his brow—that’s how we tell them apart.”

Phil and Gene arrived last November from the Brevard Zoo in Melbourne, Florida. The zoo is also working to acquire a female jaguar from Argentina, who will hopefully be a breeding match for one of the two males.

“Jaguars are a highly endangered species in the wild, so our zoo is working with others in the United States and Latin America to protect them, through conservation programs and captive breeding efforts,” explains Parker. “It’s all part of the AZA’s Species Survival Plan Program.”

Visitors browse the venomous Beaded Lizards, Amazon Milk Frogs, and Tarantulas, before pausing at a display filled with playful Cotton-top Tamarins. These white-crested creatures tirelessly chase each other up and down a network of branches—a sharp contrast to the sleepy kinkajou napping on a wooden platform just on the other side of the walkway.

Parker pauses near the macaws, explaining how Elvis and Red became a couple—a Shakespearean story filled with love, death, a torrid affair, and a jilted lover. All the while, the birds feast on grains and strawberries as visitors admire their colorful feathers—ruby reds, grass greens, indigo blues, and other colors found in a box of Crayolas.

GOMBE FOREST

Five chimpanzees in a spacious sanctuary of vinyl ropes and vegetation captivate crowds in the zoo’s Gombe Forest exhibit. Gentle Goliath grooms Randi while wallflower Josie sits on the sideline watching their every move.

“They are man’s closest genetic relative,” explains Parker. “We share 98 percent of our genes with chimps. We have to be very careful with our contact with these animals because they can actually catch infections from us, and vice versa.”

Hank sits in a separate, nearby enclosure watching the others. The graying, 42-year-old chimp recognizes Parker and ambles over to the viewing area where the keeper stands. The two interact playfully through the glass playing tag for a few minutes before Hank notices children in another viewing window and rushes over to them.

“He loves children,” says Parker.

“They stare at him, and Hank stares back. And he loves to look at people’s shoes and feet. We don’t know why, but we like to believe that he recognizes the great difference between his feet and human feet.”

Nearby, two African Crowned Cranes pace back and forth, peering in at enamored visitors and occasionally pecking at the glass. Th eir golden headdresses resemble the spiked hair of the radical punk rockers of the eighties.

HIMALAYAN PASSAGE

Up ahead, gangs of people hurry up stairs to the viewing platform of the Himalayan Passage exhibit, an area showcasing a few animals common to the Himalayan Mountains of Asia. From the observatory, a crowd of guests stands mesmerized by two snow leopards sleeping peacefully in the shade of a rocky ledge. Tsar and his girlfriend, Kasimir, sport nearly white coats freckled with the signature spots of all leopards. The staff has their fingers crossed that the two will have babies in the future.

In the next outdoor area, two female hanuman langurs sit quietly, perched on a cable high above the ground. These pale gray monkeys with contrasting dark faces eat leaves, fruits, and flowers. As if someone has flipped a switch, one langur’s demeanor quickly changes from easy-going to angry. She shows her irritation by displaying her sharp, white teeth to viewers on the platform. And then the episode is over, and she returns to her passive, calm state. A guest mumbles the word bipolar under his breath, and everyone snickers in agreement.

Perhaps the darlings of the Himalayan Passage exhibit are the adorable, cute-as-buttons, red pandas. Slightly larger than common house cats, these reddish brown animals have long shaggy tails, fuzzy white ears, and dark eyes. Everything about the red pandas is endearing from their waddling gait to their eating green grapes from the fingertips of zookeepers.

WALKIN’ THE TRACKS

The maniacal screams of peacocks in the Walkin’ the Tracks exhibit echo throughout the zoo grounds. The males strut their stuff occasionally fanning their brilliant tail feathers to display a series of iridescent, eye-like designs. White-tail deer and turtles wander around the same area.

Across the pedestrian bridge, blacktailed prairie dogs are busy excavating their area digging dozens of tunnels and holes.

“We had to install electric wiring on the top of the exhibit to keep the prairie dogs confined to this space,” Parker laughs. “For a while, we had prairie dogs here, there, and everywhere. Apparently, they are astute rock climbers and had no problems scaling the vertical walls of the canyon that we had prepared for them.”

Up ahead, an old rail car has been converted into the Cougar Express, an indoor area to observe two adult cougars. “These cougars were confiscated from private owners by the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency,” says Parker somberly. “The cougars had been abused. They had been declawed which left one with permanent injuries, and their tails had been removed to make them look like bobcats. We agreed to take them through our animal welfare program, and we have worked hard to restore a better quality of life for them.

The Chattanooga Zoo is a fully licensed wildlife rehabilitation facility recognized by the state of Tennessee and serving the Chattanooga metro area. Since 2004, the zoo has provided permanent housing for cougars, bobcats, deer, and numerous native raptors and birds that were injured and unreleaseable or confiscated from private owners.

From the rail car, guests gaze at a cougar sprawled out in the shade of a large black corrugated pipe. Several migratory birds bathe in an artificial pond just beyond where the cougar rests.

Today, not a trace of the zoo’s troubled past remains. Happy, inquisitive patrons wander the sidewalks that connect one interesting exhibit to another. No doubt about it—the zoo rocks now and, according to FOZ, the best is yet to come.

General Admission and Behind-the-Scenes Tours

Want to get even more up close and personal with the animals? Guided Behind-the-scenes tours are available March through October on Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays, from 10:00am-3:00pm.

General Admission

Adults ......................... $ 8

Seniors (65 +) ............ $ 6

Kids (3-15) ................ $ 5

Kids (2 and under) .... Free Behind-the-Scenes Tours

Adults ...................... $ 15

Seniors (65+)............ $ 10

Kids (3-15) ................ $ 8

Kids (2 and under) .... Free

Chattanooga Zoo

www.chattzoo.org

301 North Holtzclaw avenue (inside Warner Park)

Chattanooga, TN 37404

(423) 697-1322

Friends of the Zoo

The zoo is jointly operated by Friends of the Zoo, incorporated in agreement with the city of Chattanooga.

FOZ Executive Committee

Gary Chazen

Dardenelle Long

Dr. Charles Myers, DVM

Pete Serodino

Doug Warner

FOZ Board of Directors

Robin Derryberry

Dr. Tom Donovan

Brenda Flinn

Mimi Warner Iversen

Susan Perruso

Teresa Simmons

Tanya Williamson

Sonia Young