Santa Fe College Teaching Zoo

About Santa Fe College Teaching Zoo

The Santa Fe College Teaching Zoo is a 10-acre zoo of forested land on the main campus of Santa Fe College in Gainesville, Florida. It is the only college zookeeper training facility in the United States, and it has been accredited by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums since 2000, undergoing reaccreditation every five years. The zoo is home to over 200 individual animals representing more than 70 species, spanning mammals, reptiles, amphibians, insects, and birds.

Ten full-time staff members coordinate the zoo, which is maintained day to day by roughly 100 students enrolled in the college's Zoo Animal Technology program. Guided tours led by those students are available when scheduled in advance, and visitors can also take a self-guided walk along the zoo's quarter-mile trail through the wooded grounds. Since it opened, the zoo has become a well-known destination for both local residents and tourists, and it welcomed its one-millionth visitor in the years after opening.

History

The Santa Fe College Teaching Zoo was established in 1970 and opened to the public in 1972, built on 10 acres of forested land on the west side of what was then Santa Fe Community College's new Northwest Campus. The zoo has been continuously accredited by the AZA since 2000, going through the association's five-year reaccreditation process ever since. The college itself was founded by the Florida State Legislature in 1965 as Santa Fe Junior College, and its main campus grew up around the zoo on 115 acres of wooded land gifted by Haufler Brothers, Inc. In the years since it opened, the zoo has grown into a well-established Gainesville attraction, and at one point a first-time visitor arriving at the gates became the millionth person to enter the zoo.

Exhibits and habitats

The zoo's animals live along a quarter-mile trail through naturally shaded, wooded grounds, lined with mulch and built to be stroller- and wheelchair-accessible. Species visitors can see along the path include bald eagles, white-throated capuchin monkeys, American alligators, and a Matschie's tree-kangaroo, among the more than 70 species housed across the zoo's mammal, bird, reptile, amphibian, and insect collections.

Elsewhere on the Santa Fe College campus, the Jean Klein Rock Cycle Garden — a geology exhibit rather than an animal habitat — displays more than twenty large boulders collected from sites around the United States, arranged to walk visitors through the igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic rock cycle. Construction began in 2003 and the garden opened to the public in 2006; it's dedicated to the memory of Jean Klein, a longtime Santa Fe College geology professor.

Animal highlights

The Teaching Zoo lists at least 70 species on its website, with more than 200 individual animals across its mammal, bird, reptile, amphibian, and insect collections. The zoo describes its collection as a mix of native and exotic species, on display in a naturally shaded, wooded environment. Named species mentioned by the zoo include bald eagles, white-throated capuchin monkeys, American alligators, white-handed gibbons, and Matschie's tree-kangaroos. The zoo participates in AZA Species Survival Plan programs for several of its residents, including white-handed gibbons, Matschie's tree-kangaroo, Asian small-clawed otter, red ruffed lemur, Guam rail, Perdido Key beach mouse, and ocelot.

Conservation and programs

As a Zoo Animal Technology Program, the Teaching Zoo trains students across five semesters in animal husbandry, breeding, nutrition, medical care, physiology, taxonomic relationships, conservation, enclosure construction, and zoo sanitation, combining classwork with hands-on work as keepers in the zoo. Students in the program are known as Zooies, and the college hosts a student chapter of the American Association of Zoo Keepers; the two-year degree program had more than 200 students enrolled at last count, with plans for a four-year degree track.

Beyond training its own students, the zoo directs 50 cents from every admission ticket toward wildlife conservation, and since 2010 it has donated funds to partner organizations working to conserve wild animals and wild places. Its named partnerships include the Tree Kangaroo Conservation Program, which supports habitat conservation and community livelihoods in Papua New Guinea; the Turtle Survival Alliance, focused on turtle conservation through living collections and recovery programs; and the Alachua Conservation Trust, which the zoo supports through two local initiatives — helping fund the purchase of protected land along the Lower Santa Fe River, and helping bus roughly 1,000 fourth-graders a year from underserved Alachua and Putnam county schools to Little Orange Creek Nature Park for wetland and wildlife education. The zoo also participates in Species Survival Plan breeding programs and reintroduction work for species including the Florida grasshopper sparrow.

Planning your visit

As listed on the zoo's website, the Santa Fe College Teaching Zoo is open daily from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., with last entry at 2:30 p.m. The zoo hosts community events throughout the year, including "Party for the Planet," celebrating Earth Day, and "Boo at the Zoo," a Halloween festival that closes the zoo early on its scheduled date so students can transform it into themed areas for the evening.

The zoo's quarter-mile trail is stroller- and wheelchair-accessible, though the zoo does not offer stroller or wheelchair rentals on site. Service animals meeting the ADA definition are welcome; other pets are not permitted. The zoo has partnered with KultureCity to support guests with sensory needs, offering sensory bags with fidget tools and noise-canceling headphones, weighted lap pads, and a designated Quiet Area at the zoo's northeast corner; the zoo is described as quietest between 1 and 3 p.m. The zoo participates in the Museums for All program, offering $3 admission for up to four people to guests presenting an EBT card. A gift shop near the main entrance sells apparel and stuffed animals, with proceeds supporting the zoo's operating budget; the zoo does not currently operate a concession stand for hot or cold food, though food trucks appear on site during some events, and guests are welcome to bring their own food and drinks. Confirm current hours and admission rates on the zoo's official website before visiting.