Nashville Zoo at Grassmere — Scott Craig

The Nashville Zoo at Grassmere is a couple of miles from my home, and one of my favorite places to go for a walk or to play with my camera. I usually keep an annual membership so I can do that without paying an arm and a leg for a short walk.

I haven’t been to many other zoos so I don’t have anything to compare our zoo to, but in my opinion it is a quite nice mid-sized zoo. I’m sure it’s not in a league with some of the larger zoos, but they do have a number of exhibits and it is always well-maintained and clean. The animals always appear healthy, well fed, and well cared for.

I’ve tried to photograph most of the animals at the zoo. As with most zoos the animal exhibits do change from time to time. I sometimes visit the zoo and realize that an area is occupied by a different exhibit. So if you visit our zoo in hopes of seeing a specific exhibit it might be worth verifying that the animals are still there.

Education Animals Education animals are not normally on display at the zoo. I assume that, as the name implies, that they are used for educational purposes. I’ve been to several photo opportunities at the zoo in which some of the educational animals were presented for us to photograph. Below are photographs of some of them.
“Archimedes” – Bengal Eagle Owl	“Archimedes” – Bengal Eagle Owl	“Archimedes” – Bengal Eagle Owl	“Archimedes” – Bengal Eagle Owl	“Archimedes” – Bengal Eagle Owl
“Archimedes” – Bengal Eagle Owl	“Archimedes” – Bengal Eagle Owl	“Archimedes” – Bengal Eagle Owl	“Archimedes” – Bengal Eagle Owl	Pygmy Screech Owl
Pygmy Screech Owl	Pygmy Screech Owl	“Charlie” Prehensile Tailed Porcupine	“Charlie” Prehensile Tailed Porcupine	“Vincent” Blue Tonqued Skink
“Vincent” Blue Tonqued Skink	“Maisie” Corn Snake	“Blitz” Eurasian Lynx Cub	“Blitz” Eurasian Lynx Cub	“Blitz” Eurasian Lynx Cub
Skunk	Rabbit	“Billy” African Serval	“Billy” African Serval	“Billy” African Serval
“Billy” African Serval	“Billy” African Serval	“Billy” African Serval	“Billy” African Serval	“Billy” African Serval
“Billy” African Serval	“Billy” African Serval	Harris’s Hawk	Harris’s Hawk	Harris’s Hawk
Harris’s Hawk	Harris’s Hawk	Bengal Eagle Owl	Bengal Eagle Owl

Dinotrek! Dinotrek ran from March, 2012 through July, 2012 at the Nashville Zoo. They constructed 14 animatronic life-sized dinosaurs in a wooded area. They moved, they roared, and some of them even spit water! I decided that I had to see it at least once before it was gone, and I have to admit it was pretty nicely done.