The Anteaters Have Been Here Since 2001. Most of Nashville Has Never Seen One.
Nashville Zoo has been running one of the most significant giant anteater programs in the world from a patch of ground the public never gets to see. Since 2001, nineteen of them have been born in the zoo's off-exhibit breeding area. It is the largest collection of giant anteaters in the United States, and for most of a quarter century it has been essentially invisible to the people whose city it sits in.
That changed on Sept. 4.
The zoo opened a new South American multi-species habitat just past Flamingo Lagoon, on the ground where the tapir exhibit used to be, and the anteaters are moving into it. So are the zoo's first capybaras.
Andouille and Brie
The capybaras are pups, they are named Andouille and Brie, and they were among the animals on display when the gates opened on day one. Capybaras are the largest rodents on earth, semi-aquatic, famously unbothered, and they have spent the last several years becoming an internet phenomenon — which means a nontrivial number of Nashville households are going to make this trip specifically for them.
They share the habitat with two crested screamers, also out on opening day, plus three common rhea and a giant anteater being phased in more slowly. That pacing is deliberate. Moving a large animal into a new enclosure is not a matter of opening a gate; the acclimation is done gradually so the animals settle rather than simply relocate.
Built for animals that live together
The point of the exhibit is in the word “multi-species.” Rather than giving each animal its own box, the zoo expanded and redesigned the space so compatible species share it — which is closer to how a South American grassland actually works, and considerably more interesting to look at.
The design leans into that. There are artificial termite mounds, which sound like set dressing and are not: anteaters and other foragers use them, and the mounds give the animals a reason to move, dig and work for food rather than wait beside a bowl. Enrichment and diet items, fruit and insects among them, are added daily. The planting was chosen to emulate open grassland, and the pool was modified so it serves both the capybaras and the anteater. The bridge over the habitat was remodeled with glass panels, which improves both accessibility and the odds you actually see something.
Rick Schwartz, the zoo's president and CEO, has made the reasoning plain: housing compatible species together produces a more dynamic experience for the animals as well as the guests. That is the modern argument for how a zoo should be built, and this is Nashville putting it into practice on a piece of ground it already had.
What it is worth knowing before you go
The habitat sits right after Flamingo Lagoon, so it lands early in a normal loop through the grounds rather than at the far end when the four-year-old is done negotiating.
Go with the understanding that the rhea and the anteater are arriving on their own schedule. If the anteater is the reason you came, it is worth a look at the zoo's own updates before you drive over — the phase-in is the whole point of doing this properly, and it means the exhibit you see in October will not be the exhibit that opened in September.
Planning the rest of the fall? Our guide to Cheekwood Harvest and Boo at the Zoo covers the two seasonal traditions worth building a weekend around.
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