History[edit]

Front entrance to the park.

The entrance from the original location, where Pinecrest Gardens is now located.

Parrot Jungle was a zoological park south of Miami on 22 acres (89,000 m2) of property
at Killian Drive and South Red Road.

Sir Winston Churchill with a Sulphur Crested Cockatoo and a Military Macawat Miami's Parrot Jungle in 1946.

Originally founded in 1936 by Franz & Louise Scherr, Parrot Jungle was one of the first tourist
attractions established in the Miami area.[citation needed] The idea for Parrot Jungle began after
Scherr, who owned and operated a feed and supply store inHomestead, became intrigued with
the idea of building an attraction where birds would "fly free". Scherr leased 22 acres
(89,000 m2) of hammock land for an annual fee of $25. Parrot Jungle was built as a winding

nature trail dug through the coral rock and hammock land, indigenous to the area. All the
natural plants were left undisturbed. The entrance was built on Red Road.
The attraction opened on December 20, 1936, to about 100 visitors. Each paid 25 cents
admission to see and hear Scherr talk about his birds, trees and flowers. Since 1936, over a
million visitors have visited Parrot Jungle.[2] Among its many famous visitors was Sir Winston
Churchill,[2][3] film director Steven Spielberg, and former US President Jimmy Carter.[2] On
December 17, 2002, the Village of Pinecrest purchased the Parrot Jungle with the aim of
developing the site as Pinecrest Gardens. On March 8, 2003 the Pinecrest Village Council
dedicated Pinecrest Gardens and officially opened it to the public as the Village's newest
municipal park, without the animals that had made the park famous. The actual attraction
moved to a new waterfront location on Watson Island between Downtown Miami and South
Beach. It opened on June 28, 2003 as Parrot Jungle Island.
On June 28, 2007, four years after the park first opened at its bayfront location, Jungle Island
became the official name.