This week’s Golden Eagle Spotlight goes to something instead of someone this week, which is Hattiesburg Zoo, its exhibits and upcoming events. The director of education, reservation and wildlife Jeremy Cumpton shared all the zoo’s fascinating information with us.

Hattiesburg Zoo broke its record for the highest attendance in a single day Thursday, March 17. Over 4,000 guests attended the zoo to check out all of their fascinating exhibits and several attractions.

“It’s always an excitement when we see as many people as we did on that day,” Cumpton said. “I started off here almost nine years ago, and we had very little attendance happening at the time compared to what we have today.”

Hattiesburg Zoo acts as the home to 100 species around the zoo from favorites like giraffes and zebras to rare animals like the chacoan peccary. 

The zoo houses several attractions: a train ride, carousel, petting zoo, ropes course and wallaby walk-about. Another attraction called the sloth experience gets a great deal of attention.

“It sells out in between three to six months in advance, and it’s where people get to go and make the soft diet,” Cumpton said. “They get to feed the sloths, take pictures with the sloths, depending on the sloth’s mood.”

To sign up for the sloth experience, visit the sloth experience tab on the Hattiesburg Zoo’s website.

The zoo will present an Easter egg hunt called Eggz-otic Easter April 16th and a monarch butterfly conservation project later in the spring. Earth Day will bring more events to the zoo April 22nd. 

For more information on things exotic, visit Hattiesburg Zoo’s website or take a trip to the zoo down 17th Avenue.

Watch A’Darius McCormick’s full interview with Cumpton at the Hattiesburg Zoo on the Southern Miss Student Media Center’s Youtube page.