Monkey See, Monkey Do at the Nashville Zoo

Want to know the No. 1 place to go No. 2?

The Nashville Zoo.

Why?

Because the men’s bathroom houses snakes – talk about feeling sized up.

And the women, well, they have primates – nothing like a little monkey business while you do your business.

The Expedition Peru: Trek of the Andean Bear women’s bathroom was named the best loo in the ville in 2019 by Cintas, a company that provides cleaning products, safety equipment and restroom supplies.

“Overall, guests are surprised and excited to see an exhibit in the bathroom,” said James Flaherty, lead keeper of the reptiles.

On a recent weekend, Hannah Apple and Barbara McDonald came out of the women’s room, camera in hand, eager to show their family what they found in the bathroom.

“Oh my God. Monkeys were in the bathroom,” Apple exclaimed.

Apple said seeing five cotton-top tamarins behind glass in the ladies rooms was bananas.

“So creative,” said Apple. “I think, funny enough, women tend to linger in the bathroom and bring children in, so they picked the right audience.”

McDonald said the monkey display, which faces the bathroom stalls, “is kind of the perfect exhibit…They just caught your eye.”

If you are a man and want to see the monkeys, well, you are simply out of luck. The only place to see the tamarins is in the ladies room.

But to be fair, the only place to see the Boelen’s pythons is with the fellas.

A close-up of a Boelen’s python found at the Nashville Zoo/Photo from the Nashville Zoo.

The real kicker though? These serpents slither about just above the urinals. They may or may not scare the hiss right out of you.

As strollers, children and parents file in towards the park’s entrance one Sunday afternoon, some stop for these hidden gems.

Headed towards the men’s bathroom Daniel Spoon asks his daughter “Do you want to go look at the snakes?”

Nodding her head and pointing towards the bathroom door, both Spoon and his daughter went in to see the pythons.

After leaving the bathroom, Spoon said he found the snakes to be hiss-terical.

All three of the Boelen's pythons in the entry village bathroom at the Nashville Zoo. Photo by Luke Ayers.

But some may not find it as tickling.

“There are a few people that see the snakes, go ‘nope’ and leave,” said Flaherty. There’s no arguing with that one.

Some may even ask, in the voice of Indiana Jones himself, “Why does it always have to be snakes?”

The pythons don’t have a particular story on why their habitat resides in the men’s bathroom, said Mallory Immel, a communication specialist for the Nashville Zoo.

But they serve a purpose for the zoo.

“We are testing out different methodologies to hopefully get successful reproduction,” said Flaherty.

For the tamarins monkeying around in the women’s bathroom, the Nashville Zoo created the space to highlight the species.

Cotton-top tamarins monkey around in the women’s bathroom at the Nashville Zoo/Photo by Melody Scott.

“These guys are critically endangered,” said Tatum Davis, a primate staff member at the Nashville Zoo.

Native to Colombia, these tamarins are subject to the causes of deforestation and their value in the pet trade, said Davis.

But why make the bathroom an exhibit?

Immel said finding a special spot helps to protect and educate guests on the species.

And while zoo guests relieve themselves, they can get excited about the conservation of the endangered species.

As far as most people are concerned, the snakes and the monkeys seemingly guarantee a flushing good time, making the experience anything but crappy.

“I think it’s really cool to see the animals,” said Mary Blair, a Nashville Zoo customer after leaving the women’s bathroom.

“I knew they were always going to be in there from the beginning of when it was going to be built, so it wasn’t a shock. But I do feel like some people are definitely surprised.”