{"id":181096,"date":"2026-03-06T19:13:20","date_gmt":"2026-03-06T19:13:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/181096\/"},"modified":"2026-03-06T19:13:20","modified_gmt":"2026-03-06T19:13:20","slug":"grand-opening-of-manatee-river-habitat-at-jacksonville-zoo-and-botanical-gardens-104-5-wokv","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/181096\/","title":{"rendered":"Grand opening of Manatee River Habitat at Jacksonville Zoo and Botanical Gardens \u2013 104.5 WOKV"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 dbPNdY body-paragraph\">Jacksonville, Fl \u2014 The Jacksonville Zoo and Botanical Gardens is opening the J. Wayne and Delores Barr Weaver Manatee River and VyStar Skyscape today. <\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 dbPNdY body-paragraph\">The habitat operates as a federally permitted critical care facility. <\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 dbPNdY body-paragraph\">REZOOVENATION will revitalize nearly every part of the Zoo, starting with the J. Wayne and Delores Barr Weaver Manatee River habitat and the immersive VyStar SkyScape entrance.<\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 dbPNdY body-paragraph\">Dozens of people lined up outside the zoo as early at 4:00 am to be part of a behind the scenes experience. <\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 dbPNdY body-paragraph\">JMN is live at the Jacksonville Zoo &amp; Botanical Gardens with Dr. Jeff Ettling, President of the Jacksonville Zoo &amp; Botanical Gardens. While crowds celebrate the opening of the new VyStar Skyscape Entrance and J. Wayne &amp; Delores Weaver Manatee River, he emphasizes that the mission is conservation.<\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 dbPNdY body-paragraph\">Wildlife Wanderer Curtis Dvorak explains the new features of the 330,000 gallon manatee river and habitat. <\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 dbPNdY body-paragraph\">\u25b6 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wokv.com\/on-demand\/morning-news-podcast\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.wokv.com\/on-demand\/morning-news-podcast\/\">Listen to Jacksonville\u2019s Morning News Interviews<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 dbPNdY body-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.wokv.com\/fp\/download-free-wokv-app\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.wokv.com\/fp\/download-free-wokv-app\/\">Click here<\/a> to download our free news, weather and traffic app. And <a href=\"https:\/\/membercenter.wokv.com\/newsletters\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/membercenter.wokv.com\/newsletters\">click here<\/a> to subscribe to our daily 3 Big Things newsletter.<\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 dbPNdY body-paragraph\">JMN is live at the Jacksonville Zoo &amp; Botanical Gardens with Kena Herrera, a 23-yo environmental science student at UNF. She was at the Zoo before 4am today, and was STILL the 2nd person in line! She recognized that this is a once-in-a-lifetime ecology experience to be part of the Manatee River rehabilitation &amp; habitat debut.<\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 dbPNdY body-paragraph\">JMN is live at the Jacksonville Zoo &amp; Botanical Gardens, with Carolyn LaRose, Jacksonville Zoo &amp; Botanical Gardens Board Member. She shares the Board\u2019s (and the general public\u2019s) excitement about today\u2019s debut of the Manatee River rehabilitation and habitat exhibit, as hundreds have shown up hours before the Zoo even opens.<\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 dbPNdY body-paragraph\">Action News Jax\u2019s State &amp; Local Government Reporter Jake Stofan updates the latest from the current Florida Legislative Session, with attention focusing on the Rodman Reservoir and Kirkpatrick Dam on the Ocklawaha River. There is also some concern over SJC (sub)urban development. After the current session concludes, there will be a Special Legislative Session coming up specifically to address property tax reform.<\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 dbPNdY body-paragraph\">JMN is live at the Jacksonville Zoo &amp; Botanical Gardens with Mayor Donna Deegan, as she celebrates the new Manatee River exhibit, and the research and conversation resources that make this one of the best Zoos in the nation &#8212; that\u2019s not just hyperbole, it\u2019s recognized by USA Today! Hundreds of families have turned out for this morning\u2019s premiere opening, highlighting Jacksonville\u2019s commitment to innovation.<\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 dbPNdY body-paragraph\">JMN is live at the Jacksonville Zoo &amp; Botanical Gardens with Derek Mock from the Education Department of the Jax Zoo. He helps guests learn about rescue and rehabilitation mission of the Manatee River facility, in cooperation with MRRP (Manatee Rescue &amp; Rehabilitation Partnership) and FWC. The goal is to rescue, rehab, and release manatees back into the wild &#8212; but to allow guests to learn about and appreciate these gentle giants in the process.<\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 dbPNdY body-paragraph\">As the Israel\/US vs Iran conflict continues, gas prices have creeped up this week following the operations &#8212; and are likely to get higher, and stay there, for the duration. Jessica Rosenthal reports:<\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 dbPNdY body-paragraph body-copyright\">\u00a92026 Cox Media Group<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jacksonville, Fl \u2014 The Jacksonville Zoo and Botanical Gardens is opening the J. Wayne and Delores Barr Weaver&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":181097,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[796,794,28,116,118,117,795,349],"class_list":{"0":"post-181096","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-jacksonville","8":"tag-796","9":"tag-duval","10":"tag-florida","11":"tag-jacksonville","12":"tag-jacksonville-headlines","13":"tag-jacksonville-news","14":"tag-ne-florida","15":"tag-northeast-florida"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181096","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=181096"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181096\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/181097"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=181096"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=181096"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=181096"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}