Zoo Miami's Earth Day celebration Party for the Planet will be held Saturday & Sunday April 16 & 17 from 10 a.m. - 4 p.m. The Tropical Flowering Tree Society will be hosting the world's largest flowering tree annual plant show and sale.  There will also be fun “green” activities and entertainment for the entire family as well as animal enrichment with recycled items and/or natural materials like newspapers, cardboard tubes, bamboo, old tires, fire hoses, and more.   

During Party for the Planet, guests can come in free of charge if they turn in a cellphone as part of our ECO-CELL phone recycling program. Not only will each person donating a cellphone enter the zoo for free on these two days, but they will also help save gorillas! Cell phones include coltan, a mineral extracted in the deep forests of Congo in central Africa, home to the world's endangered lowland gorillas. Fueled by the worldwide cell phone boom, Congo's out-of-control coltan mining business has in recent years led to a dramatic reduction of animal habitat and the rampant slaughter of great apes for the illegal bush-meat trade. By turning in your cell phone, we can hopefully reduce the need for additional coltan … and help protect the gorillas.  

Earth Day Animal Enrichment Activities:

Watch as some of our animals tear into their Earth Day treats. Wild animals spend a large portion of their time searching for and consuming food. Here at the zoo their diets are provided and easily accessible. Therefore, keepers use enrichment like the paper maché items filled with treats, to promote natural foraging behaviors.

11 a.m. - Orangutans and white-cheeked gibbons

11:30 a.m. - Giraffes

12 p.m. -  Flooded Forest Aviary at Amazon and Beyond

1:45 p.m. - Chimpanzees

2 p.m. - Gorillas

3 p.m. - Giant tortoises (Sat.)

3 p.m. - Golden frogs in the Atlantic Forest at Amazon and Beyond (Sun.)

3 p.m. - African elephants