Free-range peacocks and iguanas
On what was originally the largest coconut plantation in the country, Crandon Park was established in 1947, seven years after the Matheson Family donated in excess of 800 acres to Dade County for a public green space. A year after the park was built, a traveling circus rolled through town and went out of business, leaving one goat, two black bears, and three monkeys stranded. The animals were purchased for $270, and on the northern third of Key Biscayne, Miami’s first zoo was born.
Crandon Park had become one of the nation’s premier zoos by the mid-1960s, with more than a thousand animals representing upwards of 350 species, including rare Asian elephants, white tigers, and an Indian rhino. But upon facing the wrath of Hurricane Betsy in 1965, the zoo’s days were soon numbered. More than 250 animals perished when the storm surge flooded the beachfront park, and talks about relocating the zoo to a safer location in South Miami began. Fifteen years later, the Crandon Park zoo was closed, and its remaining residents were moved to what would become Zoo Miami.
Info
Address 6747 Crandon Boulevard, Key Biscayne, FL 33149, +1 305.361.5421, www.miamidade.gov/parks/crandon | Hours Daily sunrise–sunset | Tip See what’s come of the old Crandon Park Zoo at Zoo Miami (12400 SW 152 Street), located in South Miami near Kendall. One of the only free-range zoos in the country, the exhibits here are completely cageless.
Although the zoo animals have left Key Biscayne, the grounds, just steps from one of the most tranquil beaches in South Florida, are still there. Instead of lions and tigers pacing captive within their cages, wild peacocks strut around freely, showing off their electric blue bodies and opulent feathers, conspicuously stalking visitors for food. Iguanas, relatives of the lizards that didn’t make the move to the new zoo, have colonized what is now Crandon Park Gardens. Get close enough to one and watch it scurry over the barren walking paths once packed with Miami’s children. Animal enclosures, still painted with tropical murals from decades ago, sit empty within mazes of palms and shrubs. The bars are gone, but the structures remain as an aide-mémoire to the days of yore.
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