Nashville Zoo Headed Down to Music Valley: Nashville/Louisville Trip Report (Part 1) - Nashville Zoo Species List

Nashville Zoo Species List - 25 March, 2022

Bathroom:
Boelen’s Python.

Cotton-Top Tamarin


Entry Village:
Hyacinth Macaw.

Stanley Crane.
Common Shelduck.*
White-Faced Whistling Duck.

White-Cheeked Gibbon.

Siamang.

Lorikeet Landing:
Closed

Veterinary Center:
Bunny.
Banded Palm Civet
Caracal

Africa Loop:
Red River Hog.

Southern White Rhinoceros.

Masai Giraffe

Common Zebra.
Eland.
Ostrich.
Bontebok.

Meerkat.

Saddle-Billed Stork.

Trumpeter Swan.

Kangaroo Kickabout:
Double-Wattled Cassowary.

Red Kangaroo.

Alligator Cove:
American Alligator.

Expedition Peru:
Southern Pudu.

Andean Bear.

Silver Arowana.
Northern Caiman Lizard.
Wolf Cichlid.
Black Belt Cichlid.
Yellow-Spotted Amazon Turtle.
Xingu River Stingray.
Green Basilisk.
Achara Catfish.*

Guinea Pig.

Jungle Loop:
Rhinoceros Hornbill.

Ring-Tailed Lemur.

Red Panda.

Clouded Leopard.

North Sulawesi Babirusa.*

Red Ruffed Lemur

Mexican Spider Monkey

Cape Porcupine.

Crested Screamer.
Baird’s Tapir.*

Flamingo Lagoon:
Caribbean Flamingo.

Critter Encounters Village:
Galapagos Tortoise.

Nigerian Dwarf Goat.

Alpaca.

Toco Toucan.

Blue-Billed Curassow.*

Maleo.*

Unseen New World:
Rhinoceros Iguana.

Blackbar Soldierfish.*
Redlip Blenny.*
Blue Green Chromis
Porcupine Puffer.
Harlequin Bass
Pygmy Angelfish.*
Brown Chromis.
Striped Burrfish.*
French Angelfish.
Hawkfish
Atlantic Blue Tang.
Spotfin Hogfish.
Blackcap Basslet
Yellow Goatfish.*
Royal Gramma.
Butter Hamlet.*
Queen Angelfish.

Lined Seahorse.

Trinidad Giant Cockroach.

Smallwood’s Anole.
Cuban False Chameleon.*

Haitian Giant Anole.*
Hispaniolan Tree Frog.*
Haitian Giant Galliwasp.*

Upside-Down Jellyfish.

Pinktoe Tarantula.*

Indo-Pacific Lionfish. Sp..

Neon Goby.
Royal Gramma.
Blue-Green Chromis.

Beaded Lizard.
Spiny-Tailed Iguana (Ctenosaura hemilopha).*
Agassiz’s Desert Tortoise.

Eastern Diamondback Rattlesnake.

Banded Rock Rattlesnake.

Black Widow Spider.*

Brown Recluse Spider.

Copperhead.

Alligator Snapping Turtle.
Bluegill.

Indigo Snake.

Tiger Salamander.

Blanchard’s Milksnake.

Water Snake.*
Hellbender.

Bigclaw Crayfish.*

Arizona Blond Tarantula.*
Desert Hairy Scorpion.

Smith’s Red-Knee Tarantula.

Dragoncito.
Axolotl.

Spotted Turtle.

Yellow-Blotched Map Turtle.

Red-Eyed Tree Frog.*

Rainbow Boa.

Central American Banded Gecko
Spiny-Headed Tree Frog.*

Seba’s Short-Tailed Bat.*

Mexican Leaf Frog.*
Central American Rat Snake.*
Harlequin Racerunner.*

Elegant Helmeted Iguana.*
Casque-Head Iguana

Panamanian Golden Frog.

Bicolor Dart Frog.
Dyeing Poison Dart Frog.

Emerald Tree Boa

Green Anaconda.
Red-Tailed Boa

Mata-Mata.
Green Severum.
Serpae Tetra.
Buenos Aires Tetra.
Cuvier’s Dwarf Caiman.

Mission Golden-Eyed Tree Frog.*

Horned Frog.

Yellow and Black Poison Dart Frog
Monkey Anole
Surinam Toad
Black Knifefish.

Black Arowana.
Caiman Lizard.
Duckbill Catifsh.*
Green Severum.
Silver Dollar.
Xingu River Stingray.
Chocolate Cichlid.
Armored Pleco
Striped Raphael Catfish
Oscar.

Spiny Necked Turtle.
Wolf Cichlid.
Banded Leporinus.
White Spotted Plecostomus
Wolf Cichlid.
Pleco.
Green Basilisk
Sunshine Pleco
Jaguar Cichlid.
Spot Bellied Side Necked Turtle.
Ripsaw Catfish.
Wolf Cichlid
Pleco.
Ocellated River Stingray.
Silver Dollar
Silver Arowana.
Central American Spotted Gar.*

Abramite Headstander.*
Chocolate Cichlid
Common Pleco.
Green Severum.
Pink-Tailed Chalceus.
Yellow Fin Chalceus.*
Flag-Tailed Prochilodus.*
Big Headed Amazon River Turtle.
Convict Cichlid.
Red-Bellied Piranha.
Harlequin Racerunner
Royal Panaque Pleco
Yellow and Black Poison Dart Frog
Blue Poison Dart Frog
Convict Cichlid.

Eyelash Viper.

Brazilian Black Tarantula

Jumping Pit Viper sp..

South American Bushmaster.*
Poison Dart Frog.
Yellow-Headed Gecko.*

Golden Frog.

Puerto Rican Crested Toad.

Poison Arrow Frog.

African Clawed Frog.

Marine Toad.

American Bullfrog

Green Iguana.
Black and White Tegu
Red-Footed Tortoise

African Pygmy Goose.
White-Faced Whistling Duck.
Mandarin Duck.
Spangled Cotinga.
Paradise Tanager.*
Purple-Throated Fruitcrow.*
Red-Capped Cardinal.
Green Woodhoopoe.*
Bruce’s Green Pigeon.*
Northern Oriole.*
Black-Spotted Barbet.*
Blue-Crowned Motmot

Free-Roam:
Indian Peafowl.

A detailed trip report to come soon, but I know everyone here would love to see the wonderful species list I compiled during my visit to the Nashville Zoo. A few things to note:

• Animals I saw are marked with a period are animals I saw (I composed this list as I went and I'd rather not go through and nitpick every little line).
• Animals marked with an asterisk are those which are lifers for me. Some are true, such as Maleo, whilst others were marked so due to confusing names, such as the "Mission-Eyed Golden Tree Frog"....aka the Amazon Milk Frog. Either way, the asterisks add no value to the list and are simply a personal touch.
• I did not visit the historic Grassmere Farm. Whilst I did go into the home, I decided not to stop by the farm, as nice as it would have been to see some nice domesticated breeds.
• The list is definitely not 100% accurate. This is mainly in reference to the fact that Lorikeet Landing was closed.
• Exhibits are seperated by a space. This may not be entirely accurate, as it was done off of memory. For example, the large connected aquariums in Unseen New World may not be done accurately.

 

Mexican Alligator Lizard, called by what must be the coolest common name in the animal kingdom.

Interesting; they had Black-throated Magpie-jays as stand-ins when I visited, but people have now reported Maleo from before and after. Guess I was just there at a weird time (maybe it's a winter thing).

Atropoides picadoi, the only species in the genus

Green-and-Black, Dyeing, Black-legged, Bumblebee, and Splashback Poison Dart Frog were all the species I recorded, in various parts of the building.

Nice to see they still have several cool birds in that aviary!

 

Right?! Quite literally wondered why Dragoncito was not the more widespread common name.

Interesting. I also found it interesting how both the Maleo and curassows were in the middle of well...a petting zoo (well, a goat yard, really). I liked it, I thought it was kinda funny, just seems so out of place .

Good to know, thanks .

Some of them were signed in parts of the building, I do think I saw all of these throughout the day.

I had to go through the painstaking effort with the help of @Great Argus (well really he did most of the work ) to identify the fruitcrow. Personally I had my doubts initially because I hadn't heard of the species being kept at Nashville before or of any records, but the evidence was quite irrefutable.

And of course after I find identification for all the birds, Nashville updates their website to include the fruitcrow!

 

Dragoncito is abronia graminea?

 

Yes.

 

Same as Arboreal.

 

I think the whole Abronia genus are arboreal alligator lizards, but A. graminea is the only captive species I've seen - I'd reckon most references to Arboreal Alligator Lizard would be that one, but no guarantees.

 

It's better late than never to do what I set out to do...no? At least that's what I told myself when packing for this trip .

The idea to go on this trip formulated in early 2022, when I started to look for options to visit zoos during my Spring Break. I had thought about a few surrounding zoos within the state and surrounding states, but ultimately the options came down to visiting Chicago and visiting Brookfield, Lincoln Park, and Shedd, or visiting Nashville. Originally, my dad had only decided to allow me just one overnight stay, so that put Chicago out of the question for me. So the plan was to be to drive to Nashville on Thursday morning, visit the zoo, stay overnight and leave the next day.

However, I decided to probe to see if I could expand my trip just a bit, of course . I participate in my school's competitive show choir (think of it as just singing and dancing, and we compete around the nation). I had some friends from another school near me competing at a national competition in Nashville, and I was aware some very highly regarded names in the show choir world would be competing as well, so I thought it'd be nice to check that out as well when visiting the area. I told my dad about how I'd wanted to attend this competition on Friday morning, and he agreed to fit it in. But of course I had something else I'd wanted to fit in....and that was a visit to the Louisville Zoo. I had thought a return to the zoo was appropriate after my last visit in 2018, to properly see their extensive pigeon collection and visit the parts of the zoo I missed the last time I visited. With that, the trip officially followed this itinerary:

Thursday: Leave to Nashville.
Friday: Go watch the competition and visit the Nashville Zoo.
Saturday: Head to Louisville, visit the zoo, and return home.

Thursday, 24 March 2022:

~4:15 pm (Eastern Time, Dayton)

Here I was, anxiously waiting for my dad to come home from work so we could begin our expedition down South. But of course, I had not prepared a single bit in the days leading up to Thursday, so I had approximately just 40 minutes to pack a few days worth of clothing and prepare my camera. Not so much, is it? But as someone who particularly puts a lot of effort into his outfits, it took a hot minute just to figure out two outfits for the days I'd go . But alas after around an hour, I packed two looks that I thought would be great for the trip , showered, and got everything ready for the road.

~5:30 pm (Eastern Time, Dayton)

We had just began our six hour journey on the road, and I had to think of ways to obviously pass time. I found my solution in singing along to Disney music and listening to Rex Orange County's new album. I also had the fabulous idea of comparing the two potential skylines I'd come across during the drive, so I will share my thoughts on what I had thought.

~6:30 pm (Eastern Time, Cincinnati)


(Photo Credit: Google)

The view I got whilst driving by the city was quite nice as the sun was beginning to set, so that made the buildings a lot prettier. But Cincinnati does have quite a nice skyline, and I'm not knowledgeable at all on architecture, so I won't say much besides the fact that it was very pretty .

~8:00 pm (Eastern Time, Louisville)


(Photo Credit: Google)

The view I got of the buildings when I drove by was very close to the buildings you see on the right, so the dark night sky in combination with the impressive stature of the buildings towering over the highway made for a much better experience than the drive by Cincinnati. I must say that while I do think the Cincinnati skyline looked better in my opinion, the experience driving by the Louisville skyline was far more enjoyable.

~10:30 pm (Central Time, Nashville)

We finally reached our destination, a hotel just a few minutes drive down the street from the Gaylord Opryland and the Grand Ole Opry, where the competition was being held, and where I'd be spectating the next morning. I settled into my room and dozed off in anticipation for the next day's adventures...

 

Friday, 25 March 2022:

~7:00 am (Central Time, Nashville)

I woke up early to prepare for the first group's performance at 8:00 am in the theatre. Not much here, I got dressed and spiffed up, got breakfast, and we were on our way to Opryland.

~8:00 am to 1:00 pm (Central Time, Gaylord Opryland Resort and Convention Centre)

Friday morning was the second day of competition. The night before, the middle school and high school women's groups competed, and the high school mixed groups were to face preliminary rounds the next morning. The six top placing groups would proceed to the finals round Saturday morning. From the first performance by a group in Iowa, I was absolutely blown away by the shows that day. Twelve groups performed that day (though I only stayed to watch ten of them), and it really showed the intensity and ability of show choirs all across America. Some of my favorite performances were from schools in Mississippi, California, Illinois, and of course my home state of Ohio . After watching the group I had stopped by to see, my dad and I grabbed lunch at the mall that was on the premises of Opryland, and we were on our way to see what we had come to see.

~2:30 pm (Central Time, Nashville Zoo)

Normally 2:30 pm is a very unconventional time to arrive at a zoo, but I felt comfortable that I'd have enough time considering the fact that zoo closed at 6pm. Nonetheless, I was excited to visit, as I'd heard many positive things about Nashville.

I made sure to visit the famed Boelen's Python exhibit (and not the Cotton-Top Tamarin exhibit) when I arrived, and it sure was an interesting setting to see an animal, a unique concept indeed.



Even in the aftermath of winter, the zoo was very beautifully planted and laid out, and I could see the potential to come as the months warmed. I enjoyed the little path in the entrance plaza where the bird exhibits were located, as I got some nice shots of their Hyacinth Macaws.



After making it past the bird and gibbon exhibits, I headed up to tour the plantation house before it closed for the day. It felt appropriate to acknowledge the tainted history of the property, as I had only learned of the zoo's past on the drive there while conversing with @ThylacineAlive. The conversation around attractions and institutions built on plantations or built by slave labor is an important one, and one we must not forget to acknowledge when in the presence of these spaces.

Continuing on after the house, I went up to their veterinary center, where I got quite the surprise. The area seemed quite new (and I did love the look of the building), and I could see that they were constructing a future Komodo Dragon exhibit in the pathways leading up the hill to the veterinary center, but what really lay as a surprise to me was the nursery.



Pretty cool, right?! I don't think I knew of a banded palm civet being exhibit in their nursery at the time, so it came as quite a shock to see. Unfortunately, even after returning to the nursery at the end of my visit, I could not catch a glimpse of the little bugger . Nevertheless, I'm hopeful there will be more chances in my future .

I had planned to visit the Africa section of the zoo after, yet navigating said section turned out to be quite the impossible challenge in reality.


What I had intended to be my original plan, as seen on this map, was to follow the path I marked in yellow. Walking past the (closed) Lorikeet Landing, go by the Red River Hogs, see the rhinos, see giraffes, see the mixed yard (though now looking at the map, I probably would not have been able to see them regardless of my issue or not), then go down past the meerkats and see the storks (not shown in my snip) and continue onto the Jungle Loop (where the cassowary/kangaroo exhibits are).

This plan did not work. The red-orange highlighted paths, you see those? They didn't exist! It seems that the next phases of their Africa loop are being constructed where that long stretch of red-orange path is (I think the nonexistent path extended down past where the red-orange stops too, actually, down to where the green path is), and so I was not able to travel that path. So what I ended up doing was the green path, after I asked a really nice horticulturist who even offered to take us down to where the meerkats were and direct us onto the right path.

That was my only issue while visiting the Nashville Zoo, and not a horrible one in the slightest. The African loop provided me with some fun images as well .



Continuing on, the Jungle Loop was probably my favorite part of the zoo. The paths were beautifully planted, and the exhibit views were perfect for good photography. Expedition Peru was delightful to visit, and I was happy to see Southern Pudu for the first time in almost three years ! But of course, the main attraction for me was the Maleo, which I'd been wanting to see since I was quite literally a six-year-old fawning over animal lists on zoo websites. Learning of the Maleo on the Bronx Zoo's website so long ago somehow has stuck with me for so long, so finally seeing the Maleo at Nashville was quite the moment for me .



After the Jungle Loop, only the Unseen New World building remained to visit. A very cool looking building both inside and out, I saw many new species while going through. I particularly enjoyed the aquarium at the entrance of the building (do not get me started on the dreaded signage, though), as I fell in love with a species new to me, the Yellow Goatfish. I also loved the aviary, of course. Many of the species in that room were new to me, and all beautiful birds at that.



~7:00 pm (Central Time, Nashville)

After visiting the zoo, we searched for a restaurant near the zoo to dine at. Unfortunately for me, as much as I had wanted to try Nashville Hot Chicken, our religion prevented us from dining on meat during Lenten Fridays, and any vegan chicken joints were either too far for my dad to be willing to drive, or closed. So we settled for a vegan Vietnamese restaurant a few miles out from the zoo. We had low hopes that the restaurant would be authentic before arriving, and unfortunately our nightmares came to life when we arrived . The meal wasn't horrible, at least, it was...edible .

~8:00 pm (Central Time, Nashville)

After that debacle of a dinner, we retired to our hotel and I spent the next few hours decompressing from the events of the day. It was quite a good day indeed, and as I got into bed and drifted away, I was sure to dream of the wild animal adventures of the next day...

The events of Saturday are to be documented on the second part of the trip report: the Louisville thread.