Jungle Island

Last updated
Jungle Island
Parrotjungleisland.jpg
Jungle Island along the MacArthur Causeway
Jungle Island
25°47′10″N80°10′27″W / 25.78611°N 80.17417°W / 25.78611; -80.17417
Date openedDecember 20, 1936;87 years ago (December 20, 1936) (as Parrot Jungle)
June 28, 2003;20 years ago (June 28, 2003) (at current location)
Location Miami, Florida
Website www.jungleisland.com
Jungle Island
Military/Greenwing Macaw with Blue-and-Golden Macaw in Jungle Island Two different macaws -Jungle Island -Miami-6a.jpg
Military/Greenwing Macaw with Blue-and-Golden Macaw in Jungle Island

Jungle Island, formerly Parrot Jungle, is a relaunched eco-adventure park on Watson Island, Miami, Florida, United States. [1] The park is re-opened following a series of major renovations after the park incurred damage from Hurricane Irma. [2] The park features new pop-up waterslides, an outdoor wind tunnel flight experience, zip lines, escape rooms, a Nerf battle stadium and other attractions.

Contents

Photograph of Parrot Jungle (1990) by John Margolies who traveled the U.S. documenting architectural sights and roadside attractions Parrot Jungle, Miami, Florida LCCN2017708584.tif
Photograph of Parrot Jungle (1990) by John Margolies who traveled the U.S. documenting architectural sights and roadside attractions

Originally named Parrot Jungle, it was moved from its original suburban location in Pinecrest, Florida to its present location just east of downtown Miami after the previous site was purchased for Pinecrest Gardens in 2002. It was renamed as Parrot Jungle Island. In 2007, the park was again renamed, to Jungle Island.

History

The entrance from the original location, where Pinecrest Gardens is now located. Parrotjungle.jpg
The entrance from the original location, where Pinecrest Gardens is now located.

Parrot Jungle was a zoological park south of Miami on 20 acres (8.1 ha) of property at Killian Drive and South Red Road.

The ticket entrance in the jungle island. Jungle Island -Florida -USA.jpg
The ticket entrance in the jungle island.
Sir Winston Churchill with a sulphur crested cockatoo and a military macaw at Miami's Parrot Jungle in 1946. Jungle Island Winston Churchill.jpg
Sir Winston Churchill with a sulphur crested cockatoo and a military macaw at Miami's Parrot Jungle in 1946.

Founded in 1936 by Francis "Franz" & Louise Scherr, Parrot Jungle is one of the oldest tourist attractions established in the Miami area. [3] [4] Scherr would often visit another attraction, Monkey Jungle, owned by Joe Drummond. [3] On one visit when Scherr was again making one of his many suggestions for improvement, Drummond became fed up and told him, "Go start your own jungle." [3] Scherr, who owned and operated a feed and supply store in Homestead, became intrigued with the idea of building an attraction where birds would "fly free". [3] Scherr leased 20 acres (81,000 m2) of hammock land for US$25(equivalent to about $549 in 2023). [3] The site was previously a naturist resort. [3] Parrot Jungle was built as a winding nature trail dug through the coral rock and hammock land, indigenous to the area. All the natural plants were left undisturbed, and the entrance was built on Red Road.

The attraction opened on December 20, 1936, to about 100 visitors. Each person paid 25 cents to see and hear Scherr talk about his birds, trees and flowers. [3] Since 1936, over a million visitors have visited Parrot Jungle. [5] [ page needed ] Among its many famous visitors were Sir Winston Churchill, [5] [ page needed ] [6] film director Steven Spielberg, and former US President Jimmy Carter. [5] [ page needed ]

In 1988 Bern Levine purchased Parrot Jungle from the Scherr family. [7] On December 17, 2002, the Village of Pinecrest purchased the Parrot Jungle site with the aim of developing the site as Pinecrest Gardens. On March 8, 2003 Pinecrest Gardens opened as a municipal park. The original site was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2011 as the Parrot Jungle Historic District. [6] [8] The actual attraction moved to a new waterfront location on Watson Island, between downtown Miami and South Beach. [7] It opened on June 28, 2003 as Parrot Jungle Island. [9] Until 2004 exotic birds were sold. [4] On June 28, 2007, four years after the park first opened at its bayfront location, Jungle Island became the official name. [10]

Features

Front entrance to the park JungleIsland-MainEntrance.JPG
Front entrance to the park
Jungle Island's southern cassowary, Mama Cass, jumps in the air for an apple, which she swallows whole, in front of an audience. Jungle Island Cassowary.jpg
Jungle Island's southern cassowary, Mama Cass, jumps in the air for an apple, which she swallows whole, in front of an audience.
Pink Flamingos Pink Flamingos.jpg
Pink Flamingos

As of 2003 there were 1,000 varieties of parrots among the 3,000 animals at Parrot Jungle Island. [9] The theme park's landmark is the sails covering the Jungle Theater, an arena where "Tale of the Tiger", featuring large cats and wildlife and other shows are presented. Hercules, a 900-pound liger, a cross between a lion and a tiger, is housed near the Jungle Theater. In the Parrot Bowl, the "Winged Wonders" show highlights birds from around the world, including the Andean condor, cassowary (the only trained cassowary in the world), and king vulture. In the "Serpentarium" (named in honor of Bill Haast's famed Miami Serpentarium), a wide spectrum of animals are presented from African penguins to alligator snapping turtles, boa constrictor snakes to lemurs.

Various other animal feedings, keeper talks and casual presentations occur throughout the park daily. There is a petting zoo where visitors can interact with a number of domestic and exotic animals, including an experience with red kangaroos. The park's "Everglades Habitat" recreates the ecosystem of the Florida Everglades, featuring much of the natural flora and fauna found in the natural environment.

A $20 million redesign with zip lines, swimming facilities and other new attractions and restaurants was planned for late 2017. [11]

Parrot Cove Beach

Jungle Island opened up a water park for guests with a view of downtown Miami. [12] The water park features several obstacle courses, riptide rapids, slides, and a climbing wall. During summer months, the park offers their "Summer Savings Ticket," granting entry into both the main park and the water park. Occupancy of the water park is usually restricted to 60 people at a time, with a duration of one to two hours. The section of the beach is privately owned by Jungle Island and is currently closed due to Hurricane Irma.

Environmental efforts

The landscaping for the new 18 acre (7.3 ha) site was begun in 2000 with a four foot elevation change. [13] The four year site development was designed to be environmentally sustainable, minimizing the use of fertilizers and pesticides. [13] In well-traveled areas, vegetation was planted that stays healthy, green and stable despite heavy foot traffic, without the use of fertilizers, pesticides and fungicides. Jungle Island also uses an integrated pest management system which employs biological controls, reducing the need for pesticides. [13]

Jungle Island has taken on a role in the greater Miami and the beaches environmental movement. Jungle Island purchased carbon credits to offset a special event. [14] Jungle Island also hosts environmental conferences and events including Gateway To Green, [15] Energy Smart Florida, [16] and Earth Miami. [14] Some of the proceeds from the Earth Miami event were to be donated to the Everglades Foundation. [14]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Everglades</span> Flooded grassland in Florida, United States

The Everglades is a natural region of flooded grasslands in the southern portion of the U.S. state of Florida, comprising the southern half of a large drainage basin within the Neotropical realm. The system begins near Orlando with the Kissimmee River, which discharges into the vast but shallow Lake Okeechobee. Water leaving the lake in the wet season forms a slow-moving river 60 miles (97 km) wide and over 100 miles (160 km) long, flowing southward across a limestone shelf to Florida Bay at the southern end of the state. The Everglades experiences a wide range of weather patterns, from frequent flooding in the wet season to drought in the dry season. Throughout the 20th century, the Everglades suffered significant loss of habitat and environmental degradation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pinecrest, Florida</span> Village in Miami-Dade County, Florida

Pinecrest is a suburban village in Miami-Dade County, Florida, United States. The village is part of the Miami metropolitan area of South Florida. As of the 2020 census, the population was 18,388.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Biscayne National Park</span> American national park located south of Miami, Florida

Biscayne National Park is an American national park located south of Miami, Florida in Miami-Dade County. The park preserves Biscayne Bay and its offshore barrier reefs. Ninety-five percent of the park is water, and the shore of the bay is the location of an extensive mangrove forest. The park covers 172,971 acres and includes Elliott Key, the park's largest island and northernmost of the true Florida Keys, formed from fossilized coral reef. The islands farther north in the park are transitional islands of coral and sand. The offshore portion of the park includes the northernmost region of the Florida Reef, one of the largest coral reefs in the world.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Everglades National Park</span> National park in Florida (US)

Everglades National Park is an American national park that protects the southern twenty percent of the original Everglades in Florida. The park is the largest tropical wilderness in the United States and the largest wilderness of any kind east of the Mississippi River. An average of one million people visit the park each year. Everglades is the third-largest national park in the contiguous United States after Death Valley and Yellowstone. UNESCO declared the Everglades & Dry Tortugas Biosphere Reserve in 1976 and listed the park as a World Heritage Site in 1979, and the Ramsar Convention included the park on its list of Wetlands of International Importance in 1987. Everglades is one of only three locations in the world to appear on all three lists.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Watson Island</span> Neighborhood of Miami in Miami-Dade County, Florida, United States

Watson Island is a neighborhood and man-made island in Biscayne Bay, in Miami, Florida. It is located Immediately east of the Central Business District and Arts & Entertainment District neighborhoods of downtown Miami and is connected to the mainland and South Beach, Miami Beach by the MacArthur Causeway.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge</span> United States National Wildlife Refuge in Florida

The Arthur R. Marshall Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge is a 145,188-acre (587.55 km2) wildlife sanctuary is located west of Boynton Beach, in Palm Beach County, Florida. It is also known as Water Conservation Area 1 (WCA-1). It includes the most northern remnant of the historic Everglades wetland ecosystem.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sarasota Jungle Gardens</span> Zoo in Sarasota, Florida

Sarasota Jungle Gardens is a tourist attraction located in Sarasota, Florida, United States since 1939. The gardens contain over 10 acres (4.0 ha) of botanical plantings along with bird and animal shows. It is open to the public for a per-use ticket fee and also offers yearly membership passes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Flamingo Gardens</span> Botanical garden and wildlife sanctuary in Davie, Florida, U.S.

Flamingo Gardens is a 60-acre (24 ha) botanical garden and wildlife sanctuary, located just west of Fort Lauderdale, Florida and north of Miami at 3750 South Flamingo Road, Davie, Florida, United States. It is open to the public for a fee.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Zoo Miami</span> Zoo in Miami, Florida, United States

The Miami-Dade Zoological Park and Gardens, also known as Zoo Miami, is a zoological park and garden in Miami and is the largest zoo in Florida. Originally established in 1948 at Crandon Park in Key Biscayne, Zoo Miami relocated in 1980 as Miami MetroZoo to the former location of the Naval Air Station Richmond, southwest of Miami in southern unincorporated Miami-Dade County, surrounded by the census-designated places of Three Lakes (north), South Miami Heights (south), Palmetto Estates (east) and Richmond West (west).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Florida State Road 990</span> Highway in Florida

State Road 990 is the 2.97-mile-long (4.78 km) central section of the approximately 11.6-mile-long (18.7 km) Killian Drive, also known as Killian Parkway, Southwest 104th Street and Southwest 112th Street and historically South Kendall Drive, located in southern Miami-Dade County, Florida. Running from east to west, it serves to connect the community of The Hammocks with the village of Pinecrest via the community of Kendall, with State Road 990 connecting Southwest 107th Avenue and the Don Shula Expressway to the South Dixie Highway. Recognising the role the road played in southern Miami-Dade County's history and development, the section of State Road 990 between the Expressway and US 1 was designated the Killian Drive State Historic Highway by the Florida Senate in 1995.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hammock (ecology)</span> Type of ecosystem in the southeastern United States

Hammock is a term used in the southeastern United States for stands of trees, usually hardwood, that form an ecological island in a contrasting ecosystem. Hammocks grow on elevated areas, often just a few inches high, surrounded by wetlands that are too wet to support them. The term hammock is also applied to stands of hardwood trees growing on slopes between wetlands and drier uplands supporting a mixed or coniferous forest. Types of hammocks found in the United States include tropical hardwood hammocks, temperate hardwood hammocks, and maritime or coastal hammocks. Hammocks are also often classified as hydric, mesic or xeric. The types are not exclusive, but often grade into each other.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pinecrest Gardens</span> United States historic place

Pinecrest Gardens is a 20-acre (81,000 m2) park in Pinecrest, Florida on the corner of Southwest 111th Street and Southwest 57th Avenue.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Miami Rock Ridge</span> Geological formation in Florida, USA

The Miami Rock Ridge is an oolitic, continuous outcrop of limestone, part of the Miami Formation, which formerly encompassed a large extent of southernmost South Florida; as part of an ecosystem it formed portions of the Everglades. The traditional base of the elevation, which rises 7 to 8.6 m above sea level, ranges from northern Miami-Dade County—the approximate latitude of North Miami Beach—southward to the upper Florida Keys and extends southwestward into Everglades National Park, creating a karst-dominated landscape. A series of tidal channels, dubbed transverse glades, formed within valleys in the ridge and served as conduits for freshwater from the Everglades, thereby modulating the estuarine environment of Biscayne Bay. One of these glades enclosed the Miami River, a section of whose course featured a 6-foot-2.5-inch (1.892 m) waterfall and 450-foot-long (140 m) rapids until 1908, when it was progressively bypassed by the Miami Canal and partly dredged. Being one of the few areas sited above pre-drainage sea level, the Miami Rock Ridge was heavily exploited for agriculture and real estate.

There are a number of environmental issues in Florida. A large portion of Florida is a biologically diverse ecosystem, with large wetlands in the Everglades. Management of environmental issues related to the everglades and the larger coastal waters and wetlands have been important to the history of Florida and the development of multiple parts of the economy of Florida, including the influential agricultural industry. This biodiversity leaves much of Florida's ecological ecosystem vulnerable to invasive species and human sources of industrial pollution and waste.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Geography and ecology of the Everglades</span> Details of the natural environment of the Everglades

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tropical hardwood hammock</span> Ecological region of Florida, US

Tropical hardwood hammocks are closed canopy forests, dominated by a diverse assemblage of evergreen and semi-deciduous tree and shrub species, mostly of West Indian origin. Tropical hardwood hammocks are found in South Florida or the Everglades, with large concentrations on the Miami Rock Ridge, in the Florida Keys, along the northern shores of Florida Bay, and in the Pinecrest region of the Big Cypress Swamp.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Matheson Hammock Park</span>

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The West End is a wholly unincorporated area in suburban Miami-Dade County, Florida, United States. It is the collection of communities within and adjacent to County Commission District 11. At the time of the 2010 census, there were 213,839 residents.

References

  1. ↑ "Jungle Island in Miami". PlacesOnLine (Tourism marketing site). Valica. Retrieved 7 November 2017.
  2. ↑ Davis, Craig (11 September 2017). "Hurricane Irma slams Jungle Island: popular attraction closed indefinitely". Sun-Sentinel.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Lenox, Teresa B. (1991). "Parrot Jungle: Miami's postcard perfect attraction" (PDF). South Florida History Magazine. No. 1. Historical Association of Southern Florida. pp. 9–11. Retrieved 16 March 2024.
  4. 1 2 Blank, Dennis (22 February 2004). "Parrot attraction stops selling exotic birds". New York Times. p. TR3.
  5. 1 2 3 Gittmer, Cory H. (2000). Miami's Parrot Jungle And Gardens: The Colorful History of an Uncommon Attraction . University Press of Florida. ISBN   9780813018171.
  6. 1 2 "Village of Pinecrest: Our Village: History". www.pinecrest-fl.gov. Archived from the original on 27 February 2017. Retrieved 7 November 2017.
  7. 1 2 "Island near Miami new home for Parrot Jungle". USA Today. Associated Press. 22 July 2003. Travel News. Archived from the original on 25 October 2012.
  8. ↑ National Park Service (28 October 2011). "Weekly Highlight: Parrot Jungle Historic District, Miami-Dade County, Florida". National Register of Historic Places Program. National Park Service: US Department of the Interior. Retrieved 7 November 2017.
  9. 1 2 Nash, Eric P. (27 July 2003). "Travel Advisory: Miami's parrots get a bigger Jungle Island". New York Times. Archived from the original on 20 September 2011.
  10. ↑ Hanks, Douglas (29 June 2007). "The parrot has left the jungle: so long Parrot Jungle. The 71-year-old tourist attraction decided to part ways with its feather-centric image and become Jungle Island. The hope: Chimps". Business News. Miami Herald.
  11. ↑ "Jungle Island getting $20 million makeover with rivers, zip lines". CBS Miami. 19 June 2017. Archived from the original on 30 September 2017. Retrieved 7 November 2017.
  12. ↑ "Jungle Island's Parrot Cove is Miami's only private beach". www.jungleisland.com. Jungle Island. Archived from the original on 21 September 2017. Retrieved 7 November 2017.
  13. 1 2 3 Environmental Protection Agency (September 2006). "Greenscaping from the Ground Up: Jungle Island's Holistic Approach to Landscape Site Development". United States Environmental Protection Agency. Archived from the original on 8 May 2012.
  14. 1 2 3 "Earth Miami on Jungle Island". www.miami.going.com (Event promotion site). Going Inc. Archived from the original on 11 March 2011.
  15. ↑ Thomas, Vanessa (16 March 2009). "City of Miami and Dream in Green to host first annual Gateway to Green, April 7 and 8, 2009". www.miamigov.com (Press release). Office of Communications: City of Miami. Archived from the original on 20 July 2011.
  16. ↑ Kent, Cindy (30 July 2010). "The Planner: Business networking in south Florida". Sun-Sentinel. Archived from the original on 24 August 2010.
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