That brought back many memories. I worked as a zookeeper there back in the late 70's. What you thought was a bear cage was the Aoudad (mountain sheep) enclosure. The enclosure at the start of the video was where the chimps were kept and the enclosure at the end looked liked the cat enclosure where they kept the Lions,Tigers and Jaguars.
This was very interesting to watch, but sad to think about the animals that lived there. I love sandhill cranes, they cut through my yard all the time to get to a drainage ditch near my house. It's so cool to look out the window and see giant birds walking by.💚
I think I have a picture of me sitting on that ‘alligator’ as a child. So many memories of going to Crandon Park zoo. My favorite was standing on the bridge and watching the manatee swim under in the man-made ‘river’. I remember hurricane Betsy too. Thanks for the memories!
I love Sandhill cranes, they fly overhead here every spring in huge groups, calling the whole time. There is a nesting pair by my favorite donut shop and I see them every Sunday.
Just ran into this video! love this place! I go there every so often just to walk, relax, and see and listen to nature. My dad showed me this place for the first time when I was a child..been going ever since! He talked to me about when it was a zoo. He went as a child. It was a free zoo. I also see the Sandhill Crane all the time..love it! I have never ran into a crocodile there in all these years! Years back there was a lot more wildlife..tons of iguanas and I mean tons and a lot more variety of birds, even a turkey. A real nice hidden gem. In the beginning of the video there is a trail and a fenced off area..that area fenced off is so cool and worth seeing..just saying 😂 I crossed over just for 5 min and it is so cool what's back there. Anyway, love the videos and material you guys put out! ❤
Loved going to that place as a toddler, especially riding the small steam train they had which circled around the perimeter of the zoo. I might still have home movies of it. Wonder if the train tracks are still visible. I remember the snake exhibit just past the entrance to the right and even back then feeling bad about some of the animals in those small cages but there was nothing else to compare it too so I guess most people didn't think much of it as far as how particularly horrible it was. You're right though, eventually they moved to the open air Metro Zoo and that's when it thankfully closed down, if I recall correctly.
Hey, you two, Animal care has "come so far" from that zoo thanks to guys like you making videos demonstrating appropriate animal keeping and talking up how wonderful animals are. Thanks guys, your films are great.
Awesome video! Very interesting to see an old zoo, only ever seen pictures of them. Does anyone know what was in the big cage that had the picnic tables in it?
Really cool video you 2. 👍 Like to see more walking tours of various abandoned or rural areas whenever you get the chance. Thank you for your dedication to animals!
I am 58 years old and grew up in Miami. I remember going to the Crandon Park zoo when I was a kid and being quite upset about it. Other people did not seem to be as upset as I was.
My granny used to work in an arboretum, originally built in the early 1800s by the Habsburgs (Austria’s royal family of the time). It included, alongside other buildings, a menagerie. It wasn’t great in terms of animal care, because 1800s, and been empty since at least world war 2 if not 1, but its bear cave was the single coolest thing in my childhood. We used to climb inside and scare scare each other through rails, collect leaves the wind blew into the bear pool or climb on top of the whole structure and have a view of the whole area. It all vibrates with history and it’s so beautiful. You guys should come to Europe sometime.
Thanks for showing. Finding myself watching more and more of your Vlogs and have now subscribed. I can see why you love the State of Florida with it's vast amount of "Life" there. I shall do my best to introduce others to your world.
I liked this video ALOT. and I LOVE YOU TUBE!!!!!!!!!!!!! This is my only plant form that I watch videos and comment. I love finding new ones to subscribed to. Thnaks for the awesome video.
I lived in Ft Lauderdale in the 70s and 80s Crandon Park Zoo was Great and right on the beach! It was always clean and if I remember right they had a petting Zoo also. The animals never looked skinny or abused but the mindset Years ago was different too.
What's also interesting is that this is a section open to the public within a quite famous public park in Miami Dade (Crandon Park "south beach" section), it's on an island and is feet from the beach. There are still alligators, american crocs, iguanas, many birds, etc).
This is very interesting to watch. I fault hurt for the animals that lived there. I dont understand how can anyone hurt and treat a animal bad or put them in a place that is poor condition. It hurts my heart for them. Thank you for sharing!!
Sounds like FL had a lot of pop up “zoos” back in the day. I don’t care for how regulated everything is becoming but given human history it a good thing to have a checks and balance system in place to keep up the accountability. Thank you for sharing.
What are the differences (color, prey preferences, aggression)between the American Crocodile vs say the Nile Crocodile or other prominent Crocodiles around the world.
There's an active Zoo Miami employee who has worked for the zoo for over 50 years. He has great stories of the Crandon Park Zoo. Supposedly there are 3 active Zoo Miami employees whom also worked at Crandon Park.
Please forgive me but why do you just let species that do not belong in Florida live when you see one and have the chance to remove it from where it does not belong? Not talking about animals like the monkeys that are contained but these iguanas, pythons and such? I know you are animal lovers (so am I) but this allowing invasive species to keep thriving at the expense of native species has to stop.
There's guys like this that are paid to hunt them down. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-U8fVXxRzbsY.html But there's just way too many that are everywhere to ever get rid of all of them. But I get what you mean. I absolutely love cats & currently literally have my Micah snuggled in my arms. But there are just some, quite a few, places where cats don't belong. Because they are prolific serial killers. It's why mine are indoor only. It's also why there's certain places I wouldn't want to live because no cats allowed & I agree with it. I'm also not against hunting truly feral cats in the Australian outback. Nor am I against hunting iguanas. Although I prefer cats I still like iguanas.
