Jungle Island

About Jungle Island

Jungle Island is an eco-adventure park on Watson Island in Miami, Florida, that started life in 1936 as Parrot Jungle, one of the oldest tourist attractions in the Miami area. It has been relaunched and heavily renovated over the decades, most recently after Hurricane Irma damaged the park, and today combines an animal collection with attractions like pop-up waterslides, an outdoor wind tunnel flight experience, zip lines, escape rooms, and a Nerf battle stadium. It is not accredited by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums.

The park has changed names and locations twice. It began as Parrot Jungle on 20 acres of hammock land south of Miami, moved to its current Watson Island site — between downtown Miami and South Beach — in 2003 as Parrot Jungle Island, and took its present name, Jungle Island, in 2007.

History

Parrot Jungle was founded in 1936 by Francis "Franz" and Louise Scherr on leased hammock land at Killian Drive and South Red Road, land the Scherrs took on for $25 (about $580 in 2025 dollars). The idea reportedly grew out of a visit to a rival attraction, Monkey Jungle, whose owner Joe Drummond, tired of Scherr's suggestions, told him to "go start your own jungle." Scherr, who ran a feed and supply store in Homestead, built Parrot Jungle as a winding nature trail cut through coral rock and native hammock land, leaving the surrounding plants undisturbed. The park opened on December 20, 1936, drawing about 100 visitors who each paid 25 cents to see Scherr talk about his birds, trees, and flowers. Since then, more than a million people have visited across its various forms, including famous guests like Winston Churchill, Steven Spielberg, and Jimmy Carter.

Bern Levine bought Parrot Jungle from the Scherr family in 1988. In 2002, the Village of Pinecrest purchased the original site to develop it into Pinecrest Gardens, which opened as a municipal park in March 2003; the original grounds were later added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2011 as the Parrot Jungle Historic District. Meanwhile, the attraction itself relocated to a new waterfront site on Watson Island, opening there on June 28, 2003, as Parrot Jungle Island. The park sold exotic birds on-site until 2004. On June 28, 2007 — four years after the Watson Island opening — the park was renamed Jungle Island.

Exhibits and habitats

As of 2003, the park held about 1,000 varieties of parrots among some 3,000 animals. Its Jungle Theater, marked by distinctive sail-like roof coverings, hosts shows including "Tale of the Tiger," featuring large cats and other wildlife; Hercules, a roughly 900-pound liger (a lion-tiger cross), is housed near the theater. In the Parrot Bowl, the "Winged Wonders" show features birds from around the world, including the Andean condor, a cassowary described as the only trained cassowary in the world, and the king vulture. The Serpentarium, named for Bill Haast's Miami Serpentarium, holds a range of species from African penguins to alligator snapping turtles and boa constrictors to lemurs.

The park also runs a petting zoo where visitors can interact with domestic and exotic animals, including an experience with red kangaroos, and daily keeper talks and animal feedings take place throughout the grounds. The Everglades Habitat recreates the plant and animal life of the Florida Everglades ecosystem. A planned $20 million redesign, announced for late 2017, was intended to add zip lines, swimming facilities, and new restaurants.

Parrot Cove Beach, a separate water park on the property, offers obstacle courses, riptide rapids, slides, and a climbing wall, with capacity generally capped at 60 people at a time for one- to two-hour sessions; the beach section is privately owned by Jungle Island and, per available sources, has been closed since Hurricane Irma.

Animal highlights

A specific current species count isn't available for Jungle Island, but its historical collection, as of 2003, included roughly 1,000 varieties of parrots among about 3,000 animals overall. Named species and individual animals include Hercules the liger, an Andean condor, a trained cassowary, a king vulture, African penguins, alligator snapping turtles, boa constrictors, lemurs, and red kangaroos as part of the petting zoo experience.

Conservation and programs

Jungle Island describes several environmental practices tied to its Watson Island site, developed starting in 2000 with a four-year, environmentally focused landscaping project that minimized fertilizer and pesticide use and used integrated pest management with biological controls instead. The park has purchased carbon credits to offset events and has hosted environmental conferences, including Gateway to Green, Energy Smart Florida, and Earth Miami, with some Earth Miami proceeds designated for the Everglades Foundation.

Planning your visit

Current hours, ticket prices, and parking details for Jungle Island aren't available in the source material for this page. The park has undergone substantial change since Hurricane Irma, including closures and redesign plans, so visit specifics should be confirmed directly with the park before making plans. Given the mix of animal exhibits, shows, and water park attractions on-site, visitors should also check which experiences (such as Parrot Cove Beach) are currently open, since availability has varied in recent years.