Animals & Pets

The Palm Beach Zoo has announced their special events and promotions that they added to their January calendar.

January’s Schedule:

Early Explorers: Feathered Friends for children ages 3-4 years old: This Saturday, January 12th, the Palm Beach Zoo is hosting an early explorer workshop designed for preschool aged children. The workshop includes an interactive educational experience that features stories, games, crafts, visits to animal habitats, and up-close animal encounters throughout the Zoo or their nature area. One adult is required to attend with each child. Pre-registration is required, and each child will receive a snack. The event is from 10 am to 11:30 am. Click here for more details.

Cub Club: Animal Appetites for children 2 years old:

Every year the Palm Beach International Equestrian Center in Wellington hosts its Winter Equestrian Festival. The festival is the world’s premier equestrian event. The festival offers competitions for professional equestrians, adult, junior, and children amateur in 70 unique divisions.

The competition and festival runs for 12 weeks and participants range in age from 2 years to 70 years old with more than 6,000 horses and more than a half a billion dollars in prices. The festival is the longest and largest running horse show that only sees the best riders of their class from more than 42 countries.

The show’s week start on Wednesday and end on Sunday, with the major competitions featured on Saturday nights in the International Arena. The festival starts

Hog Hammock Trail in West Palm Beach is a new trail composed of crushed concrete and with intermittent boardwalks. The area is a combination of restored and natural wetland communities including cabbage palm hammocks, mesic pine flatwoods, forested wetlands and cypress domes. Restrooms and water are available at the parking lot. The trail is perfect for a leisurely hike, especially while it’s nice and cool outside, or as a way to get some fresh air and spend part of your weekend outdoors.

After walking or jogging the Hammock Trail you may want to head over to the Cypress Boardwalk which is about one mile away. Cypress is a mile-long boardwalk extending through marsh and cypress swamp. The boardwalk has lots of opportunities for viewing Florida’s flora

Located in Burt Aaronson South County Regional Park just west of Boca Raton, Daggerwing Nature Center is run by the Palm Beach County Parks and Recreation Department. The nature center offers a wide variety of programs and events of adults and children of all ages. All programs are by reservation only, and reservations can be made by either calling 561-629-8760 or visiting the nature center. The following programs and events are currently taking place:

Animal Feedings

From 3:15-3:30pm every day you can have a chance to feed some of the animals that call the nature center home. All ages are welcome to feed the animals and no revervations are required. 

Animal Keeper For a Day

Have you ever wondered what it's like to be an animal keeper? Well,

Check out The Manatee Lagoon this Thursday, December 13, in West Palm Beach where Manatee Masters will guide you on a walking tour of Manatee Lagoon’s exhibits and will provide insight on all things manatee as well as information about the area’s Lagoon ecosystem. The tour can last anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour.

Manatee Lagoon provides engaging opportunities to learn about the unique Florida manatee. The Lagoon’s exhibits offer insight into South Florida’s coastal ecosystem. On cold days, like the ones we’ve had recently, the Center is the ideal spot to view wild manatee herds basking in warm-water outflows from Florida Power & Light Company’s adjacent Riviera Beach Next Generation Clean Energy Center.

Admissions to the Manatee Lagoon are

The Loggerhead Marinelife Center in Juno Beach is releasing Gavin the sea turtle back into the ocean this week. 

The large sub-adult loggerhead turtle was found in the intracoastal near Dubois Park in Jupiter with a hook attached to his skin near his front right flipper. The initial tests showed that the turtle suffered from starvation and anemia. The Marinelife staff administered vitamins, fluids and antibiotics to the injured sea turtle and nursed Gavin backed to health. The turtle will be fitted for a satellite transmitter to follow his movements after his release back into the ocean, along with other turtles that were previously release.

The release will be this Thursday, December 13th starting at 10:30 am with pre-release procedures. The release

Manatees roam the waters of southeast Florida from April through October -- but when things get a bit chilly, they head to places like freshwater Florida springs, where the temperatures remain constant throughout the year.

It may not seem warm when you jump into a freshwater spring, but the water temperatures remain around 70 degrees, which is perfect for manatees in Florida who need that kind of warmth to survive.

Seeing a large number of Florida manatees in one place is an amazing experience, but just remember these gentle sea cows are there for survival.

Manatee Lagoon

Attracting manatees in the wintertime, Manatee Lagoon, An FPL Eco-Discover Center in West Palm Beach has seen up to 800 manatees during a cold snap. Here visitors will find

Florida, particularly South Florida, is famous for its wildlife. For those of you living in West Palm Beach who love the water, here are a couple of places you might want to visit.  

Manatee Lagoon

Manatee Lagoon is Florida Power & Light’s new eco-discovery center. This is your chance to see the manatees up close where they bask in the warm-water outflows from the power plant. The center includes exhibits, a boardwalk, picnic area, pavilion, cafe and gift shop. Even better, admission is free! 600 N. Flagler Dr., West Palm Beach. 561-626-2833 For a sneak preview, check out the Manatee Cam on their website VisitManateeLagoon.com

Loggerhead Marinelife Center

You’ll fall in love with sea turtles! Loggerhead Marinelife Center promotes sea turtle

We love our dogs in South Florida – and South Florida, for that matter, is a great place to have a dog, its great year-round weather makes it the perfect environment. For those of you who live in Palm Beach, here are a few great parks to bring your dog.

Pooch Pines

This park, designed for off-leash recreation, is fenced and features several areas, including a wash station, shade, benches, and fountains.

Pooch Pines Dog Park Address: Eshleman Trail, West Palm Beach, FL 33413

Cinquez Park

Cinquez Park is located immediately north of the intersection on Indiantown Road and Center Street at 2183 West Indiantown Road in Jupiter, Florida. In 2008. Cinquez is a new park, the construction of which was finished just this year. It’s Jupiter’s first

Riverbend Park, is a state-owned park located at 9060 Indiantown Road, Jupiter.  Just one mile west of Florida's Turnpike in west Jupiter on the south side of Indiantown Road. Palm Beach County offers opportunities for horse enthusiasts and riders of all levels. Riverbend Park offers quiet trails through the woods to competitive show facilities.

Southeast Florida is known for sunny beaches not known as horse country. The diversity of palm Beach County allows you to take a step back in time when the only mode of transportation was to saddle up. Most visitors to the Sunshine State keep themselves so busy sunning and swimming that they never dream that riding trails are only a hoof-beat away.

The long-distance trails at Riverbend Park connect