The gardens were created by
Edward Avery McIlhenny, second son of
Edmund McIlhenny, the inventor of
Tabasco sauce. One of Jungle Gardens' primary attractions is a bird sanctuary called
Bird City. It provides roosts for
snowy egrets and other wildfowl species. In 1895 McIlhenny raised eight egrets in captivity on the island, and released them in the fall for migration. They returned the next spring with other egrets, and have continued to do so over generations. Today thousands of egrets inhabit the island from early spring to late summer. Numerous
American alligators,
Louisiana black bears, and
white-tailed deer also inhabit the island, in addition to
coypu,
North American river otters,
muskrats,
snakes, and other wild animals. The gardens are planted with
azaleas,
Japanese camellias,
hydrangeas, Louisiana
irises,
palms,
papyrus sedges,
bamboo, and
wisteria. Four miles of gravel roads are lined with
live oak trees and
Spanish moss. There are also many walking paths.
Buddha temple A glass temple set within a
Chinese garden, houses a Chinese
Buddha from circa 1100 AD given to McIlhenny in 1936 by two friends. According to the story, in the 1920s a Chinese warlord from a feuding territory sent the Buddha statue to New York City and it sat in a warehouse storage until its shipment to Louisiana. McIlhenny built an Asian-influenced garden setting for the statue on one of the seven "Hills of Knowledge" including a pond, arched bridge and glass-enclosed shrine.
Owen J. T. Southwell was the architect that designed the Buddha shrine structure. ==See also==