[okapikpr]

The SFCC Teaching Zoo a small 12 acre zoo that is responsible for making over 1000 zookeepers, curators, and a zoo director.

Teaching Zoo Santa Fe Community College, Gainesville, FL

As part of a two year - associate degree program to provide and education for people pursuing a career in the zoo field. There is another teaching zoo at Moorpark College in California and it is more geared towards animal training. Santa Fe is geared more towards husbandry and other zoo topics.

The zoo is located in Gainesville, Florida in a forest on the edge of the community college campus and established in 1972. Its collection is small (about 200 animals, 75 species) and is solely mained by the students - the professors are curators and directors. The collection consists of Alligators, Small-clawed Otter, Springbok, Matschie's Tree Kangaroo, Coendou, Ocelot, Red Ruffed Lemur, Bald Eagle, native florida reptiles and amphibians, Guam Rails, peccaries, muntjac, emu, caracal, sika deer, gibbons, crowned cranes, guanaco, capuchins, kookaburra, parrots, Gould's Monitor lizard, and Black Swans.

The zoo also was one of the last facilites to hold the extinct Dusky Seaside Sparrow, before they were all sent to Disney's Discovery Island where they became extinct.

It can only be visited by guided tour and was free for many years until recently. The zoo has undergone a lot of development in the last few years since it was hit by two hurricanes in 2004, about half of the exhibits have been rebuilt or renovated - all done by staff and students.

I went to school here from 2004 to 2006 and was apart of the hurricanes and major rebuilding. While I was there many of the animal were older and the zoo is in a transistion to acquire new animals and species as their older residents pass on. They also have two acres undeveloped. Their future plans include a new gibbon exhibit, a tree kangaroo conservation center, bongo, white rhinoceros, and an African aviary.

[okapikpr]

1970 - Establishment of SFCC Zoo Animal Technology Program
1972 - Opened at SFCC Northwest Main Campus; 1st Office/Kitchen (later Reptile House, now Conservation Pavilion)
1974 - Awarded a $30,000 grant from SFCC; Jack Brown arrived; Trail system created
1974/75 - Training Class instituted for volunteer tour guides, later suspended for lack of funds. Zoo students now guide tours through the zoo as part of the curriculum.
1975 - Main Pond & Boardwalk; 2nd Office/Kitchen; Reptile House (renovation of former Office/Kitchen); Spider Monkey enclosure (later Tree Kangaroo, demolished 2005); Phase I of teaching zoo’s original plan completed, funded by SFCC grant.
1976 - Guanacos donated from Salisbury Zoo, MD
1977 - AAZK chapter formed
1980 - 1st Board of Advisors met
1981 - Springbok arrived from Busch Gardens; 3rd Office
1988 - Bald Eagle enclosure
1989 - Red Ruffed Lemurs arrive from Lincoln Park Zoo, Chicago, IL
1990 - 1st Caracal arrived; ZOOciety created (zoo themed student club)
1992 - Asian Small-clawed Otter enclosure
1994 - 1st Tree Kangaroo arrived from Sedgwick County Zoo
1995 - 1st Boo-At-The-Zoo
1996 - Galapagos Tortoises arrived
1997 - Office, Medical Facility, Classroom, and Herpetarium
2003 - Jack Hanna films an episode of his animal television series
2004 - Teaching Hit by two hurricanes (Frances, Jeanne)
2005 - Thomas the Capuchin Monkey died
2006 - Squirrel Monkey enclosure; Tree Kangaroo enclosure
2007 - Ocelot enclosure
2008 - 1st Admission charge ($4 adults, $3 children)
Future - Tree Kangaroo Conservation Center, Education Center, new Main Entrance
Past - Prairie Dog enclosure (1975-77), 1st Tree Kangaroo Birth, Dusky Seaside Sparrow, Guam Rail arrived, Brutus arrived, Thomas arrived, Eddie arrived, present Capuchin exhibit

[okapikpr]

Nice article written by the zoo's curator and education specialist on the zoo's perdido key beach mouse program...

http://www.aza.org/Publications/2008..._aug08_web.pdf