{"id":225507,"date":"2026-04-09T22:45:14","date_gmt":"2026-04-09T22:45:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/225507\/"},"modified":"2026-04-09T22:45:14","modified_gmt":"2026-04-09T22:45:14","slug":"zoo-miamis-giraffe-feeding-station-may-be-getting-a-6m-makeover","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/225507\/","title":{"rendered":"Zoo Miami\u2019s giraffe-feeding station may be getting a $6M makeover"},"content":{"rendered":"

Miami-Dade may soon stick its neck out \u2014 to the tune of $6 million \u2014 on a glow-up for a Zoo Miami<\/a> spot that offers up-close culinary encounters with its tallest residents.<\/p>\n

County Commissioners in the Recreation, Tourism and Resiliency Committee<\/a> will consider a resolution<\/a> next week on a proposed $6.2 million contract to renovate the park\u2019s giraffe-feeding station<\/a>, where visitors can feed lettuce to the even-toed ungulates.<\/p>\n

The measure, sponsored by the committee\u2019s Chair, Ren\u00e9 Garc\u00eda, would authorize a construction contract with Quality Construction and Performance<\/a>, a Miami-based company founded in 2004.<\/p>\n

Quality Construction would have 548 days to finish the job, which would entail demolishing and replacing the existing feeding platform and animal holding pens, according to a Sept. 11, 2025, request to advertise from Parks, Recreation and Open Spaces Director Christina White.<\/p>\n

The current platform is made of wood and shows some signs of weathering<\/a> in recent photos.<\/p>\n

Funds for the project would come from the Zoo Miami-specific Countywide Infrastructure Investment Program funds in Miami-Dade\u2019s 2025-26 budget<\/a>, which Commissioners approved in September<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The proposed award to Quality Construction followed a competitive solicitation that opened Feb. 3. Quality Construction won out of six bidders for submitting the lowest responsible offer, a memo from county Chief Utilities and Regulatory Services Officer Roy Coley said.<\/p>\n

Zoo Miami\u2019s popular giraffe-feeding station has been a staple attraction for years, giving visitors the chance to hand-feed the animals from an elevated platform and interact with them at eye level.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s one of a few places at the zoo where direct animal feeding<\/a> is permitted, along with similar rhino, tortoise, camel and parrot-feeding experiences, and it has long been included in membership perks and ticket add-ons.<\/p>\n

The park charges $5 per feed or $12 per lettuce basket.<\/p>\n

While Zoo Miami does not publicly break out attendance for the feeding station alone, Zoo Miami itself draws hundreds of thousands of visitors annually as the largest zoo in Florida.<\/p>\n

If OK\u2019d at the committee\u2019s April 14 meeting, the resolution would still need to receive a majority vote by the full County Commission to win approval.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Miami-Dade may soon stick its neck out \u2014 to the tune of $6 million \u2014 on a glow-up…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":225508,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[101772,101773,101774,123,125,124,24150,101775,11740],"class_list":["post-225507","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-miami","tag-christina-white","tag-giraffe-feeding","tag-giraffes","tag-miami","tag-miami-headlines","tag-miami-news","tag-rene-garcia","tag-roy-coey","tag-zoo-miami"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225507","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=225507"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225507\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/225508"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=225507"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=225507"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=225507"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}