Hemmed by sunburst breeze blocks, the cracker-style building off Old 41 in Bonita Springs marks one of the city’s most enduring institutions, the Wonder Gardens. Built in 1936 as a roadside reptile attraction along the Tamiami Trail, the property has spent the better part of a century evolving alongside Southwest Florida—shifting from a spectacle-driven animal park to a refuge for rescued and non-releasable wildlife. Now, as it approaches its 90th anniversary, the ecological center is working toward its most ambitious transformation yet: becoming a nationally accredited, conservation-driven zoo by its centennial.
Growing up in Southwest Florida, our managing editor, Jaynie Bartley, has fond memories of the green space, from talking to the parrots under the parasols to celebrating weddings in the Victorian solarium teahouses.
In its early years, the Wonder Gardens was a classic roadside stop along the Tamiami Trail, where visitors peered into low-walled alligator pits and small cages tucked beneath the banyans. By the mid-2010s, a nonprofit group moved to save the property and the City of Bonita Springs purchased the land, establishing a new structure that prioritized rescued, non-releasable wildlife, education and more natural habitats. The nonprofit wildlife sanctuary enters its next chapter having endured hurricanes, leadership changes and nearly a century of reinvention. “Biking past after Hurricane Irma, the sign was busted up and strewn all over the ground, but you could hear all of the birds squawking back there, as if to say ‘It’s going to be okay,’” Jaynie says.
Photography by Tina Sargeant
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In 2023, after recovering from Hurricane Ian, Wonder Gardens president and CEO Neil Anderson soft-launched a master plan proposing interactive animal exhibits and community gathering spaces, built to honor the regional history and climate. “We need to develop the best version of the Wonder Gardens,” says Neil, who spent 30 years shaping Wisconsin’s NEW Zoo & Adventure Park, which also started as a small roadside institution and is now accredited by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums.
This year, as Neil retires, he leaves behind a blueprint for the next decade of improvements. To build it, he rallied city representatives, board members and Bonita residents, and brought in zoological consultants, grounding the plan in local input and industry expertise. With the city’s backing, the effort began to draw attention at the state level. “It went from ‘Look what they’re doing,’ to ‘Look what we’re doing.’” Neil says. “That’s when you know you have community ownership.”
Photography by Tina Sargeant
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The nonprofit plans a slate of new nature-inspired exhibits as they seek accreditation from the Association of Zoos and Aquariums.
The state provided funding for a $1.3 million indoor events center, with walls of hurricane-proof windows overlooking the Imperial River, slated for fall 2027. Plans also call for expanded back-of-house and a new home for the gardens’ historical artifacts, all designed in an Old Florida vernacular that invites people to linger rather than pass through.
From there, the experience opens up. An elevated boardwalk will weave through the tree canopy, with lookout points over the surrounding wilds. “There are a lot of stories up there,” Neil says.
At ground level, the focus turns to proximity. Recent additions like the Otter Grotto signal a shift toward more immersive habitats, with future exhibits designed to bring visitors closer to the animals themselves. A proposed glass-enclosed alligator and snapping turtle habitat, for instance, reveals details you’d miss from above—the star-shaped pupil of a snapping turtle, the filmy third eyelid that lets an alligator see underwater. The shift isn’t just about adding new features, but providing new ways of seeing a place many thought they already knew. “I imagine my son’s little hands pressed against the glass, watching an alligator float to the surface,” Jaynie says.
Photography by Tina Sargeant