Jungle Island

Jungle Island is an animal theme park in the city of Miami, Florida. It was originally Parrot Jungle until it moved from the village of Pinecrest to its present location on Watson Island in the city of Miami and renamed as Parrot Jungle Island, and renamed again in June 2007 to Jungle Island; the original location is still open as Pinecrest Gardens.

The theme park's very visible landmark are the sails flying high over the Jungle Theater, an arena where visitors experience encounters with rare wildlife from all over the world. This unique structure has quickly become an icon and is hard to miss when driving on MacArthur Causeway (A1A) between downtown Miami and Miami Beach.

Just on the other side of the theater lives Hercules, the 900-pound liger, a cross between a lion and a tiger.

History

Parrot Jungle was a world famous animal theme park south of Miami on twenty acres of property on the corner of Southwest 111th Street (Killian Drive) and Southwest 57th Avenue (Red Road) in the area now known as the village of Pinecrest.

It was founded in 1936 by Franz & Louise Scherr. It was one of the first tourist attractions established in the Miami area and was known as Parrot Jungle and Gardens. The idea for Parrot Jungle began after Scherr, who owned and operated a feed and supply store in Homestead, became intrigued with the idea of building an attraction where birds would “fly free.” To bring his vision to life, he rented twenty acres of hammock land for an annual fee of $25. Parrot Jungle was built as a winding nature trail dug through the coral rock and hammock land, indigenous to the area. All the natural plants were left undisturbed. The entrance was built on Red Road.

The attraction opened on December 20, 1936, to about 100 visitors. Each paid 25 cents admission to see and hear Scherr talk about his birds, trees and flowers. Since 1936, Parrot Jungle attracted over a million visitors and became a world-famous tourist attraction. Among its many famous visitors was Sir Winston Churchill. [ [http://pinecrest-fl.gov/history.htm Village of Pinecrest 'Village History'] ] On December 17, 2002, the Village of Pinecrest purchased the Parrot Jungle with the aim of developing the site as Pinecrest Gardens. On March 8, 2003 the Pinecrest Village Council dedicated Pinecrest Gardens and officially opened it to the public as the Village’s newest municipal park. The actual attraction moved to a new waterfront location on Watson Island between downtown Miami and Miami Beach. It opened its doors on June 28, 2003 as Parrot Jungle Island.

Parrot Jungle Island's logo was an evolving one. The word 'Parrot' became increasingly smaller, and the word 'Island' larger. The park's owners did not want to abandon the tradition of the Parrot Jungle name, but recognized that it limited the public's view of what the park offered. Even though it was home to orangutans, tigers, crocodiles and many other animals, local residents and tourists alike assumed that the park only had parrots. It became evident that with 'Parrot' in the park's name, it would be impossible to change people's perception of the park. To that end, majority owner Dr. Bern Levine, tested the name "Jungle Island" on cruise ship brochures and saw the attendance from those ships quadruple. On June 28, 2007, exactly four years after the park first opened at its waterside location, Jungle Island became the official name. To celebrate the change, the park is inviting guests to bring in old photos of their families at the old Parrot Jungle park to be added to their 'Wall of Fame.' In exchange, the guests will receive a free photograph of their family with animals from Jungle Island.

Trivia

Several scenes of were filmed at Parrot Jungle.

The flamingo scenes in the opening theme of the television show Miami Vice were filmed at Parrot Jungle.

External links

* [http://www.jungleisland.com Official Website]
* [http://pinecrest-fl.gov/history.htm Village of Pinecrest 'Village History']

References