Busch Gardens Tampa Bay is the ultimate family adventure park offering an array of fascinating attractions based on exotic encounters with the African continent.  A unique blend of thrilling rides, one of the country’s premier zoos featuring more than 2,700 animals, live shows, restaurants, shops and games, Busch Gardens Tampa Bay provides unrivaled “real” excitement for guests of every age.

Guests at Busch Gardens Tampa will be amazed with a close-up look at some of the African continent’s most exotic animals. The Edge of Africa safari will charm and educate visitors with its hippopotamuses, hyenas, baboons and Nile crocodile, among others.

View the latest animal updates from the Busch Gardens, Discovery Cove, and SeaWorld Adventure Parks!

Busch Gardens Tampa Bay welcomes a new member to its hippopotamus family with the birth of a female calf Friday, December 14, 2001.  Delighted guests joined excited zoo keepers and veterinary staff to see the new baby born on the park's Edge of Africa habitat. The baby's mother, Cleo, delivered the new calf in the water in guest view at 10:30 a.m.  The baby, the first hippo born at Busch Gardens, is nursing, swimming and bonding with its mother. Hippo cows give birth to a single calf, usually weighing between 60 and 110 pounds. Gestation lasts eight months and birth typically takes place in the water. Hippos can swim as soon as they are born and can nurse underwater. By the end of the first year, a baby hippo will weight approximately 550 pounds. When fully grown, hippos weigh between 3,000 and 7,000 pounds. Cleo weighs approximately 3,500 pounds and is 16 years old. The calf's father, five-year-old Kiboko, is part of an ongoing study at Busch Gardens of hippo vocalizations and acoustics. Dr. William Barklow of Framingham State College leads the study with the help of Busch Gardens' zoo keepers who conduct daily hearing tests on the massive animals.

Encounter the swift-flowing white water of the Congo River Rapids. Spin through a geyser, face an ominous waterfall and other thrilling obstacles in a 12-person raft. You must be at least 42" to ride this ride.

Come try Kumba, one of the world's best roller coasters! After the blood-curling thrill of an initial 135 foot drop, you will plunge from 110 feet into a diving loop, feel a full 3 seconds of absolute weightlessness while spiraling 360 degrees, and tear through one of the world's largest vertical loops.

	Experience the twists of the Python. This thrilling roller coaster will make you scream through a double spiraling corkscrew and an intense 70-foot plunge -- just for starters!

Cool off on Stanley Falls. Our Log Flume whisks your whole family through a splashing trip ending in a 40-foot drop that's sure to get you soaked!

	Take a fascinating journey into the world of rare, majestic and remarkable raptors, from eagles to free-flying falcons -- the Birds of Prey have returned in their newest, most incredible presentation yet!

The enhanced Serengeti Plain features hundreds of exotic African animals that can be seen from the Serengeti Express Railway, Skyride, Serengeti Safari and various walkways, within naturalistic environments featuring rolling landscapes, elevated terrain and lush vegetation. The enhanced Serengeti blends portions of the Plain’s eastern and western habitats into its southern acreage adjacent to the Edge of Africa animal attraction, creating one seamless, 29-acre environment. Additions to the new environment include expansive berms, the largest of which is four acres; tiered and open landscapes covered with native and African grasses, scrub trees and shrubs; rock outcroppings and bluffs replicating natural formations; and naturalistic creek beds and mud banks. More than 150 species of vegetation are represented. In addition to landscape enhancements, a new behind-the-scenes 3,600-square-foot giraffe barn has been constructed and connected to a 10,000-square-foot habitat designed for additional animal care. The habitat also features an off-view 6,000-square-foot hoofstock habitat.

	Enter the lush forest where gorillas and chimpanzees can be viewed in the naturalistic habitat of Myombe Reserve. Tour the Great Ape Domain amid waterfalls and through shrouds of mist and fog to get an up close look at these majestic primates.

Endangered Black Rhinoceros born at Busch Gardens Tampa Bay

Typical to newborn calves, the baby rhino is already walking and nursing comfortably with Jumatano. The newborn is the first black rhino born in the park since Jumatano's birth five years ago, which makes the new male calf a third generation rhino at Busch Gardens.

This rhino birth is part of an American Zoo & Aquarium Association (AZA) approved Species Survival Plan, a program developed among accredited zoological institutions to conserve endangered species such as the black rhino.  A rhino calf commonly nurses up to two years, and its horn formation usually becomes visible after one year. When fully grown, rhinos are the third-largest land animals, weighing up to one and a half tons.

China Girl Update

In a prime example of how innovative partnering, space technology, and good timing can advance discoveries in marine biology, University of Central Florida (UCF) and Hubbs-SeaWorld Research Institute (HSWRI) marine biologists have succeeded in attaching a satellite transmitter to track the migration of a leatherback turtle after nesting in the Archie Carr National Wildlife Refuge. This is an historic event for the Archie Carr Refuge and an important step to understand the migration patterns of endangered leatherback turtles after they leave the nesting beaches of the Refuge and begin their long journey in the Atlantic Ocean.

Hubbs-SeaWorld Research Institute Senior Scientist, Dr. Scott Eckert continues to track an endangered leatherback turtle as she continues her migration up the Atlantic coastline from Florida, "China Girl", an endangered leatherback sea turtle, too break to rest and feed off the coast of Virginia and the Nation's Capitol. It appears that she found an area of cooler water that may have provided her favorite food source, jellyfish.  China Girl is on the move north again. She is now off the coast of Maryland and moving northward to Delaware. Her pace appears to be accelerating. Dr. Eckert is hopeful that she will pick up the pace toward her northern feeding grounds in Nova Scotia. She continues to hug the coastline as she has done, since she left Florida. A large number of Leatherbacks have sighted in Nova Scotia for about the last 2 weeks. Unfortunately, for the endangered leatherback, reports of strandings have also increased there this year as well.

• Your own adventure guide
• Front row boarding at the Gwazi, Montu, and Kumba roller coasters with no wait (subject to ride availability)
• Edge of Africa and Myombe Reserve tours guided by zoo staff
• Serengeti Safari flatbed truck tour of our Serengeti Plain

Do you have what it takes to work with animals or to become a zookeeper?
Join the Busch Gardens Terratrekker team for unforgettable experiences in our Zoological facilities as well as in the great outdoors.

Assist zookeepers as together you provide daily care for endangered species, feed finicky creatures, meet some of the world's most interesting wildlife and examine the mysteries behind animal behavior.

Terratrekkers is also about having lots of incredible Florida fun in the sun. You'll enjoy a coastal field trip, ride our five world-class roller coasters, and dive into the lazy lagoons of Adventure Island water-park.

 

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