Central Park Zoo » Central Park Zoo

Central Park Zoo
31-05-2008

Central Park Zoo Home Page

The Central Park Zoo, in the city of New York, was founded in 1864 and is one of the oldest zoos in the United States. It is run by the Wildlife Conservation Society of New York, which also operates the Bronx Zoo, Prospect Park Zoo, Queens Zoo and New York Aquarium. Almost one million visitors walk through the gates every year.

The Central Park Menagerie was founded in 1864, and over time gradually fell into disrepair. In 1934 almost the entire menagerie was bulldozed, and wooden structures were replaced by brick buildings. Thousands of dollars were spent on rebuilding the establishment, and ten months later the newly named Central Park Zoo opened to the public on December 2nd, 1934. The zoo once again fell into disrepair and was closed in 1983, and remained shut for 5 years as $35 million in renovations were completed. The zoo re-opened to the public on August 8th, 1988.

Here is a link to the Central Park Zoo's map:

http://nyzoosandaquarium.com/media/file/CPZmap08.pdf

The main structure is the sea lion pool, and it is loosely surrounded by a Rain Forest building, a Temperate Territory outdoor section, and the Polar Circle building. The entire zoo is only 6 acres in size, but while small it is regarded as a well-designed set of exhibits. Off to the side is the Tisch Children's Zoo, which was added in 1997.

Polar Circle: polar bears, puffins, chinstrap and gentoo penguins.

Rain Forest: a two-storey building with colobus monkeys, cotton-top and golden-headed tamarins, fruit bats, reptiles and amphibians, free-flying tropical birds and leaf-cutter ants.

Temperate Territory: japanese macaques (snow monkeys), red pandas, etc are all north of the famous sea lion pool.

31-05-2008

The Central Park Zoo (Images of America: New York)

This is a terrific zoo history book that has many black-and-white photos of the Central Park Zoo's past exhibits. It is shocking to see gorillas, tigers, polar bears, lions, etc in tiny concrete cages with iron bars surrounding them.

31-05-2008

Many of us who grew up in NYC remember the monkey house there....before the renovations. Cool (for a child) and odd and stinky .
It all changed when the City of New York turned over management to WCS (Bronx Zoo).

Historically, it is the oldest surviving menagerie/zoo in the US. In 1861 there were pens in Central Park for animals donated by assorted citizens. By 1864 or so, the Arsenal Building housed the animals over winter in the basement. I have an 1866 print of the "Zoological Gardens" which is rather sad, really. The Arsenal is still there..it has become the offices of the NYC Parks Dept.

So, although Philadelphia Zoo incorporated in 1859, there was no property and no animals until 1874. And, of course, Cincinnati Zoo opened the following year. So, while I posted elsewhere that the current Reptile House at Cincinnati is the oldest zoo building in North America, in another sense, the Arsenal beats it (except that the Cincinnati Zoo building was designed and built for the zoo, while the Arsenal was designed and built to be...an arsenal!)

31-05-2008

@Zooplantman: there certainly is a lot of history at the Central Park Zoo, also known as the Central Park Wildlife Center. Have you visited recently, and would you recommend it to zoo fans?

31-05-2008

Hi snow'

I haven't been through it in a year or two, but its too small to change much. The collection is determined by its small space and HUGE visitation (I believe it has the highest annual visitation of any zoo in America. Lincoln Park Zoo may be higher?) It is, though, nicely laid out and what is there is well done. The penguin exhibit is my favorite. If you make it into Manhattan, it's worth an hour. There's plenty to see and do nearby. I think I like Lincoln Park Zoo better, though.

31-05-2008

They are adding a new snow leopard exhibit in the next year or so.

01-06-2008

I popped into Central Park zoo last summer while visiting NYC and spent a very enjoyable hour or two wandering around. In the grand scale of things it is a very small zoo both in size and collection but I thought the zoning was good and they used the space effectivly without trying to cram in to much.
My 5yr old son loved the Tisch childrens zoo and the conservation based puppet show they put on.
Lincoln Park zoo is better, but it's in a totally different league - size wise and collection wise.
I see CPZ as the city center teaser for the Bronx Zoo. "look at how we display and manage this little oasis in the center of Manhatten, great isn't it? But if you want a bigger zoo experience come and see what we do at the Bronx!"

02-06-2008

I'm wondering if anyone here at ZooBeat has recently been to either the Queens Zoo, Prospect Park Zoo, Staten Island Zoo or New York Aquarium? There is absolutely nothing on those institutions here at ZooBeat.

13-09-2008

I was just on the website and on the Central Park Zoo map it has under contruction near the temerate zone. Is this the snow leopard exhibit?

13-09-2008

That temperate zone construction is indeed the snow leopard exhibit, and it is due to open in 2009. The habitat will be quite close to the red pandas.

16-09-2008

I recently posted a review of the Queens Zoo. I'll be going to the Aquarium this coming Friday and the Prospect Park Zoo is on my list to do in the near future.

20-01-2009

I found out that the Colobus Monkeys were replaced by another Black & White primate: Ruffed Lemurs.

The Central Park Zoo Book Blog

20-01-2009

Also here are some pictures and designs of the zoo from 1934.

The Central Park Zoo (Images of America: New York)

20-01-2009

@okapikpr: that is bizarre that the colobus monkeys were replaced, as I seem to remember a handful of those monkeys when I visited in 2008. Perhaps the zoo is capitalizing on the pair of "Madagascar" movies...haha.

Also, that Central Park history book by Joan Scheier is excellent, and I have all 5 in the series. Oklahoma City Zoo, Knoxville Zoo, Oak Park & Montgomery and New York's Zoos & Aquariums are the other 4 titles. All fantastic for historic photos!

21-01-2009

It's a stretch back into the past, but I seem to recall the Central Park colobus were moved to the Bronx Zoo for Congo Gorilla Forest in 1999 (anyone remember seeing them at Central Park since?)

Here is the earliest picture from the Central park Zoo c. 1862 (the Arsenal is still there, making it the oldest zoo building in the US)

Attached Images

Central_Park_Arsenal_1862.jpg (6.5 KB, 6 views)