Brevard Zoo Has New Baby Animals and Sandcastles

If you haven't been to the Brevard Zoo lately it might be time to visit. The zoo welcomed two new babies over the past month.

On January 26th a new jaguar cub was born at the zoo. The mother and cub are out of the public eye for a few more months but the zoo has been keeping up with the cub on it's facebook.

Then on February 6th the zoo welcomed another baby, this time a Masai giraffe. The calf weighed in at 159 pounds when it was born.

A new temporary exhibit will open at the zoo on February 16th. The Art of Sand exhibit Wild Florida: Past, Present and Future will 13 sculptures by eight international sand sculptors. The exhibit is an additional fee ($5 for adults, $2 for children). The exhibit lasts through May 27.

The press release describes each of the time periods depicted in the exhibit...

"Time periods incorporated into the Art of Sand exhibit include:

Pre-history: 24 million B.C. to 10,000 B.C. Before the dry land of Florida rose from the ocean, the waters were inhabited by a wide range of prehistoric animals such as megladon sharks, dugongs and whales. As the land rose, a range of pre-historic land animals evolved such as wooly mammoths, sabre cats and giant sloths.
Pre-contact natives: 7,000 B.C. to 1,500 A.D. Before European settlement different tribal groups hunted and fished, eating a wide variety of species - alligator, whitetail deer and manatees.
European arrival: 1513 Juan Ponce de Leon and his crew became the first known Europeans to set foot here. The first cattle, horses, chicken, goats and hogs in America arrived on Spanish ships, and even some unwelcome visitors, like the European cockroach and the rat.
Territorial Period: 1821 Florida became a territory. Huge cattle ranches were plentiful and cowboys, riding the distinctive “Cracker” horse, covered the backcountry.
The Modern era: 1940 As Florida’s population grew many native species went into steep decline. Red wolves, extinct in the wild, reside in the Brevard Zoo and other facilities. Alligators, once threatened, are now plentiful throughout much of their historical range."