Yesterday My Fella and I went to the Alamaba Gulf Coast Zoo, The Little Zoo That Could.
From wikipedia: In July 1997 Hurricane Danny hit Gulf Shores. Then in 1998, Hurricane Georges hit, causing more flood damage. The zoo evacuated all of its animals in both cases, transporting them 15 miles (24km) inland to higher ground and becoming the first zoo to have a full scale evacuation during a hurricane. These expensive evacuations, and the repairs following the hurricanes, almost caused the zoo to close in 1999, but fund raising efforts were successful in raising enough money to keep it open. Hurricane Ivan in 2004, caused $500,000 in damage, forcing another evacuation and closing the zoo for 14 months. Several animals were not caught during this evacuation, and were lost. More evacuations resulted from Dennis and Katrina in 2005, but the zoo was able to reopen fairly quickly in October 2005.
After bouncing back from so many fatal hurricanes, the zoo was aptly nicknamed The Little Zoo That Could. And now a local family has donated 25 acres of Alabama land for a new zoo site which is set to open in 2012. The site is further inland and hopefully out of reach of the many hurricanes that hit this area.
Shots from our visit are below. Hover over each pic for a description.
Gonna wrap up the zoo tour for now cause it's exhausting coming up with all these witty picture descriptions :)
But come back for the next post, featuring:
- prickly porcupines
- leaping lemurs
- yawning lions with huge fangs
- a happy fat alligator
- and two very hungry Bengal tigers
After all those damaging hurricanes the zoo is still in existence, must be some very strong willed people living in Bama!
Posted by: Don | November 18, 2011 at 09:09 PM