5 Star Story: Memphis Zoo Close Encounters

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (WMC) - The award-winning Memphis Zoo, consistently ranked one of the top zoos in the country, is home to more than 3,500 different species of rare and exotic animals.

And now, a new adventure at the Zoo lets you get up close and personal like never before!

Kym takes us for a walk on the wild side to showcase yet another reason we love calling Memphis home.

There is always plenty to see and do during a regular visit, but the zoo’s expanded close encounters program is truly something to roar about.

“Our close encounters are a program for our guests to get an inside look at what animal care and conservation looks like at our zoo,” Guest Engagement Manager, Rebecca Thomas said. “We get to take them behind the scenes and see some of our animals up close.”

Our close encounter started with the zoo’s two white rhinos: Maggie and Kito.

“They’re kind of sweet. We actually kind of compare them to a puppy dog crossed with a tank,” chuckled Africa Section Team Leader Jason Banks.

Puppy, indeed, as Kito seemed truly enjoy my pets and scratches, leaning into them as I reached between the bars of his enclosure.

White rhinos were once considered extinct, but thanks to conservation efforts, they’re at a safer status today than in years past. And their sheer majesty and size can only really be appreciated up close.

“A lot of people are just really impressed with their size because this is a close as you’re gonna get to a rhino,” Banks exclaimed.

From super-sized rhinos to something more petite, like red-ruffed lemur triplets Carme’, Titan, and Puck, along with the more senior black and white lemurs Pepe and Penelope did not disappoint with their “all-seeing eyes” gracefully taking raisins right from my fingertips.

“They’re smart and they’re fun to work with; they’re fun to spend time with and they have really awesome personalities,” Melissa Peterson, team leader of the Primate, Nocturnal and China exhibits, said.

Speaking of personality, the lemur neighbors--Asian small-clawed otters Onkar, Amiri, Tonaka, Ndari and Xia--have plenty. It was such fun to watch as they eagerly used their small nimble fingers to take fish and mealworms straight from my hand, while energetically making their joy known with their delighted squeaks.

“They have definitely been the most popular,” Peterson said. “People definitely love the lemurs but everyone really loves otters.”

Hagrid, Frank, Al and Fred are the zoo’s Galapagos tortoises, which may not be the type of critters you’d consider petting but, not so fast!

“They really enjoy petting the tortoises and it really helps that the tortoises really enjoy being pet, as well as all the free lettuce they get,” said Herpetarium Zookeeper Charlie Darby.

In addition to petting and feeding the tortoises, Darby also imparted a good bit of information during our close encounter, like tortoises can require multi-generational ownership, so research carefully before considering one as a pet.

“People really seem to be interested in how old they can get and how big they can get, and they can get very old, up to 150, and they can get very big, up to 550 pounds,” he added.

How about meeting one of the 17 African black-footed penguins that reside at the Memphis Zoo? On our visit our little hen Millie wasn’t interested in an encounter. But that’s also not completely unexpected.

“Because, while they do live in the zoo they are still a wild animal and we want to offer people them the choice in control in this situation, so they get to choose how much they want to interact with the people versus how much they want don’t want to interact,” detailed Thomas.

Because after all, the whole point of these close encounters is not to invade the animals’ sense of security, but to further the Memphis Zoo’s mission of “creating adventures and saving wildlife.”

“It all ties back to us accomplishing our mission which is to save animals and nature,” Thomas said. “So this money helps to support our conservation work, our research work all around the world so that we can help protect species and their natural habitat.”

Memphis Zoo Close Encounters make us proud to help in the conservation of some really special animals.

Now, there are a number of pricing options and tour dates for the Close Encounters at both zoo member rates and non-member rates.

To book your encounter, or to learn about all the fun things to see and do at the Memphis Zoo, click here.

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