Thanks for uploading such fascinating photos! There are many cages and enclosures at the now defunct Crandon Park Zoo that make me think of a type of "Animal Alcatraz". There is definitely an element of decay with such antiquated exhibits, but at the same time the photos speak volumes if one analyzes them from a historical perspective.
I'm amazed these relics are still around, nearly 30 years after the Miami Zoo was moved to its current location. Crandon Park is prime real estate, and I'm shocked some other use hasn't been made of the old zoo site.
Thanks for sharing with us Tarsius, a look back at a zoo that is no more. What a contrast to the modern new Miami Metro Zoo.
It is indeed. I had the choice to visit Crandon park Zoo or Miami Seaquarium, so I decided to see Crandon park Zoo, because its free and better to see such old outdated exhibits and cages WITHOUT animals instead of old and outdated exhibits WITh animals at Miami Seaquarium, and thats for 40 Bucks ! I don't know, if there are more still existing exhibits and cages at Crandon Park, which is now a public park, because it was full of mosquitos, especially in the area of the cats cages. I ha dto ask for directions to the zoo at an iformation desk close to the beaches parking lot. The guy there was very ncie and he showed me a lot of pictures of Crandon Park zoo, when it was still open...After you have visited this palce, you know why they have build a new zoo. Nevertheless, Crandon park Zoo has had a few good breeding sucesses, so the raised some aardvarks, for example.
It's a bit ironic that one of the main reasons for moving the Zoo was the perceived vulnerability of low-lying Crandon Park to hurricanes and flooding. Then of course the new Miami Metrozoo was devastated by Hurricane Andrew less than ten years after it opened.
I remember seeing an old photograph of a Meerkat at the Crandon Park Zoo, being checked-out by a zoo vet taken back in the 1960s. Probably the first American zoo I remember seeing with them in its collection. Not that they were the first of course.
That is great that it is still there. I thought the old Griffith Park Zoo (Los Angeles) was the only old zoo site in America still around. If I ever go to Miami (and I do want to go) I will try to see this site now that I know about it.
