TL;DRNashville Zoo is fighting a DC BLOX data centre proposed 50 yards from its animals, citing noise risks to endangered clouded leopards.
The Nashville Zoo has launched a campaign to block a 69,000-square-foot AI data centre proposed by Georgia-based DC BLOX on a site roughly 50 yards from the zoo’s animal enclosures. A petition against the project has drawn nearly 300,000 signatures in less than a week. Nashville’s Metro Council is now considering a data centre moratorium, and the mayor has directed his legal department to review the proposal.
The zoo’s primary concern is noise. Southeast Asian clouded leopards, which the zoo breeds as part of a conservation programme, are classified as vulnerable on the IUCN Red List and as endangered under the US Endangered Species Act. The species is notoriously difficult to breed in captivity and is, according to the zoo’s own website, “sensitive to auditory and visual disturbances.” Zookeepers worry that the constant hum of cooling systems and backup generators could stop the animals from reproducing entirely.
“We are vehemently opposed to having a data centre so close to animals,” Nashville Zoo president and CEO Rick Schwartz told NBC News. The zoo houses more than 3,000 animals across its grounds at Grassmere, and the proposed facility at 648 Grassmere Park would sit immediately adjacent to the property.
