From today’s Tennessean:
The number of visitors to the Nashville Zoo at Grassmere has jumped 19 percent in a year, and park staff attributes the attendance spike to new animals going on exhibit and folks looking for entertainment closer to home.
More than 250,000 guests visited the zoo from January to May; the zoo celebrated its best April on record with nearly 87,000 visitors. The second-highest attendance day on record came April 11, with nearly 9,000 guests attending the zoo’s annual Easter egg hunt, Eggstravaganzoo.
In March, the zoo introduced two giant anteaters, eight Damara zebras and a pair of white tiger cubs. The tiger cubs will be on exhibit until Monday, when they return to their permanent home in Florida.
The zoo is open 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily with extended hours for members. Admission is $14 with discounts for youth, senior citizens and groups. For more information, go to http://www.nashvillezoo.org/index.asp or call 615-833-1534.
This is great news, as this is a terrific zoo! We (my coauthor and I) have long advocated zoos as a great vacation (or long weekend) alternative to expensive amusement parks or far-away national parks. This news says the public agrees with us.