Parrot Jungle Island
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Parrot Jungle Island is an animal theme park in the city of Miami, Florida. It was originally Parrot Jungle until it moved from the village of Pinecrest to its present location on Watson Island in the city of Miami; the original is still open as Pinecrest Gardens.
The theme park's very visible landmark are the sails flying high over the Jungle Theater, an arena where visitors experience encounters with rare wildlife from all over the world. This unique structure has quickly become an icon and is hard to miss when driving on MacArthur Causeway (A1A) between downtown Miami and Miami Beach.
Just on the other side of the theater lives Hercules, the 900-pound liger, a cross between a lion and a tiger.
[edit] History
Photo: Marc Averette
Photo: Marc Averette
Parrot Jungle was a world famous animal theme park south of Miami on twenty acres of property on the corner of Southwest 111th Street (Killian Drive) and Southwest 57th Avenue (Red Road) in the area now known as the village of Pinecrest.
It was founded in 1936 by Franz & Louise Scherr. It was one of the first tourist attractions established in the Miami area and was known as Parrot Jungle and Gardens. The idea for Parrot Jungle began after Scherr, who owned and operated a feed and supply store in Homestead, became intrigued with the idea of building an attraction where birds would “fly free.” To bring his vision to life, he rented twenty acres of hammock land for an annual fee of $25. Parrot Jungle was built as a winding nature trail dug through the coral rock and hammock land, indigenous to the area. All the natural plants were left undisturbed. The entrance was built on Red Road.
The attraction opened on December 20, 1936, to about 100 visitors. Each paid 25 cents admission to see and hear Scherr talk about his birds, trees and flowers. Since 1936, Parrot Jungle attracted over a million visitors and became a world-famous tourist attraction. Among its many famous visitors was Sir Winston Churchill.[1] On December 17, 2002, the Village of Pinecrest purchased the Parrot Jungle with the aim of developing the site as Pinecrest Gardens. On March 8, 2003 the Pinecrest Village Council dedicated Pinecrest Gardens and officially opened it to the public as the Village’s newest municipal park. The actual attraction moved to a new waterfront location on Watson Island between downtown Miami and Miami Beach. It was relaunched as Parrot Jungle Island.
