I love going to zoos. Any trip to any city I’ve ever been on always involved a stop at the zoo if there was one. So, when Mom, Jay, and I spent a week out in Titusville, the half an hour drive south to visit the Brevard Zoo was an absolute must.
We arrived early on a Sunday afternoon, and found the parking lot bustling. We had to park in the grass, but the line for tickets wasn’t bad by any means. (I couldn’t buy them in advance if I wanted my discount from being a pass member at a reciprocal zoo.) In less than ten minutes, we had our admission tickets and three spots booked on the 2:00 pm kayak tour.
That’s right, kayak tour. The Brevard Zoo is the only zoo in Florida where you can kayak around the zoo.
We went into the park and I looked for a map, but couldn’t find one. Mom went into the guest services area to ask for one, but the lady somewhat grumpily showed her the map on a sign, and told her to take a picture of it. I understand they’re trying to be green, and that it keeps costs down, but I’m of the opinion if the Knoxville Zoo can have paper maps, so can everyone else. (The Knoxville Zoo has a bin at the exit to recycle the maps.) I like paper maps.
So, I took a picture of the sign, and we headed on. The Brevard Zoo is admittedly an easy zoo to navigate; it’s a giant circle.
We started with the Caribbean Trail, which Jay loved because it was pirate themed. There were a series of treasure chests that had questions on them, and when you opened them, it would reveal the answer. This was a well themed area, but only had a handful of animals.
The next section was Wild Florida, which is of course dedicated to the wildlife naturally found here. I found it mildly hilarious, because there was natural Florida wildlife that wasn’t supposed to be there, and there was even a sign for it!
The best part was for $.25, you could feed the deer! It was a little odd because we were on a boardwalk, and I had to bend down to reach the deer, but it ate out of my hand and licked me! We worked our way around, and were startled by a zipline overhead. Jay commented on how close they were to the animals, and I pointed out how quiet the system was. If the person hadn’t been yelling, we might not have noticed them.
I then dragged him to the otter exhibit, where they were zooming around in the water and being extremely cute.
Okay, this one got out of the water.
There were also a few animals hanging out that were definitely not from Florida, but they were there because their exhibit area was being refurbished, like the anteater exhibit, for example.
This was also on the boardwalk, for some reason.
At the back of the Wild Florida section was a dock where you could take kayaks out on the lake, without a tour guide, but no one was staffing it. It was extremely pretty, but it also looks just like the lake across from where I currently live.
The next area would have been La Selva, which is the area they’re currently redoing. I look forward to going back when its open!
In the middle of the zoo is their singular place for food and the only bathrooms we could find. Their souvenir cups weren’t very cute, so we just got waters.
The Lands of Change: Australia and Beyond area was awesome. As soon as we walked in, we saw a sign for a dingo training, but it was at the same time as our kayak tour, and we never saw the dingoes anywhere else. They have an area where you can walk in with the kangaroos, but you can’t pet them, so I’m curious what the point of letting you inside the exhibit is. I did get to take my picture with one though!
It was getting close to the time for our kayak tour, so we made our way through Expedition Africa without stopping to look at anything, since the kayak logo seemed to be at the back of the map. I figured we could look on our way back out.
We were about fifteen minutes early so we hung out and talked to one of the volunteers, a retired gentleman named Tim. Luckily for us, there was some sort of scheduling mix up, so he wound up being our kayak guide too!
There were about nine people, the three of us plus another family, that had five or six. After a brief safety overview, they took us down to get life jackets and get in our kayaks. Mom and I went together, and Jay wound up in a kayak by himself. (Jay and I wanted to go together, but neither one of us thought leaving Mom by herself was a good idea.)
Mom and I ended up being the first kayak out after Tim, and Jay wound up being the last. To my shock and surprise, Tim proceeded to paddle backwards the entire time and talk about the zoo, without any sort of microphone. Makes my days on the Jungle Cruise look like nothing!
Sadly, because it was the heat of the day, a lot of the animals were hiding from the sun. We only saw one lemur on Lemur Island, and no rhinos on the first part of our excursion. Jay managed to paddle around the other family to catch up with us part way through, so that made things more enjoyable.
This is a photo I took of Lemur Island, just not from the kayaks.
Apparently, you can’t get too close to Lemur Island, because the lemurs will try to hop on your kayak to get a ride, but I fail to see how this is a bad thing.
I was attempting to test my new Go Pro on the kayak tour since there was no way my real camera was going anywhere near the water, but because we bought it second hand, we didn’t have any of the straps to attach it. After I dropped it the first time, thankfully in my lap instead of the water, I gave it to Mom to hold while I did most of the paddling.
We passed the giraffe building, which is built to withstand up to a category four hurricane, so that’s pretty neat. Then we got to the giraffe area, and the whole tower (a group of giraffes is called a tower) was waiting for us. After the giraffes, some Impalas were waiting for us. (These would be 1994 Impalas, as opposed to the 1971 Impalas you find at the Jungle Cruise.)
The very last exhibit held two Klipspringers, which are an adorable, tiny species of antelope. They were smaller than our husky!
We rounded the last turn and found ourselves back at the beach where we started, and I was grateful because my arms were tired! I got the feeling we went faster than normal because some gray clouds were moving in, which meant more paddling, but I could be wrong. Also, I was paddling for two people since I made Mom hold the camera.
We headed back up to the Expedition Africa area to look at the animals we had missed. We never found the cheetahs, but there were rhinos, zebras, and we got another look at the cute little Klipspringers. We also got a good look at Lemur Island and all the Momos.
Our final stop of the day was the Paws On kids play area. There was a splash pad and a petting zoo that we avoided, but inside the building was an interactive area where kids could pretend to be a vet. I resisted temptation, but it was adorable. This was also where they had small reptiles and smaller mammals like chinchilla and guinea pigs.
I’m looking at the cute furry things; Jay’s looking at the creepy crawly things. For us, that is a pretty standard day.
The Brevard Zoo is a fairly standard zoo in terms of walking around looking at the animals. What really sets it apart and makes it worth the drive are the extras they offer. The kayaking is wonderful and fun, and I can’t wait to go back to try the ziplines.
Cost: Standard admission to the zoo is $19.95 per person. It’s 50% with a membership at a reciprocal zoo. The kayaking is $9.95 per person.
Value: 10/10, can’t wait to go again.
Duration: The kayaking tour was about half an hour, but I also think we were moving quickly because of the weather moving in. We were there about two hours.
Add Ons: The kayaking was technically an add on. They also have a few behind the scenes tours with the lemurs and the rhinos, and you can feed the giraffes. The ziplining starts at $34.95.
