This zoo is located on over 15 acres in a F.L. Olmstead designed park in Rochester, NY. The zoo is a traditional northern zoo with a large main animal building and several outdoor exhibits trailing from it. The Main Zoo Building was the zoo's first major exhibit, built in the 1930s, allowing the zoo to house a variety of exotic animals. In the US, the zoo is well known for its Polar Bear breeding program. Seneca Park Zoo Zoo Map: Seneca Park Zoo 2007 Annual Report: http://www.senecaparkzoo.org/SPZ_07AnnualReport.pdf
Over the last ten years, the zoo has been in legal wrangling over the expansion plans (mainly concerned about a new parking lot) shown in their most recent masterplan. In 1999, the zoo's footprint consisted of 12 acres with their hope to expand to a total of 35 acres (Seneca Park totals 297 acres). This debate stalled the construction of any new exhibit, including a 2.5 acre elephant complex. However, the zoo's elephant AI breeding program that resulted in a pregnancy (ended in a stillbirth) required the zoo to drastically and quickly change its plans to build a new elephant exhibit (smaller than originally planned) to accomidate the new elephant calf. Thus resulting in a new and smaller african exhibit with elephants, baboons, and yet to be built lion exhibit. Timeline of Zoo Expansion Debate: http://www.landmarksociety.org/section.html?id=1&uid=25&pageId=91 Map of Land Involved: Preservation
Two new elephants could join Lilac, Genny C at zoo | democratandchronicle.com | Democrat and Chronicle Really? Even though the new elephant exhibit was built with some haste, they knew what the AZA Elephant Standards were. You would think when a zoo builds a new exhibit, they would plan for the future... Now it will cost more to add in the new improvements, then it would have if they had just built in the stalls while the building was actually under construction.
I couldn't agree with you more. I saw their new exhibit when it opened in 2006 and didn't even think it made the AZA minimum for space let alone have the minimum amount of elephants. When I found out they rushed the exhibit for the baby it all made sense. The area that the new Africa section (elephants, lions, baboons) was being built on could have been a used entirely as an elephant exhibit and would have been a great elephant exhibit for such a small zoo. The current outside area can't be more than 1/2 acre- 1 acre with no clear viewing area (It has pillars with steel cables and hot wire going between so your view is always obsrtucted by cables or the pillars).The only grass in the exhibit is surrounded by hot wire. They do have a lot of enrichment including logs, termite mounds, brushes to rub themselves on and have added a pool since my visit. It disappoints me that they put themselves in this situation. Having said that, they desperately needed to get out of their old enclosure (the current white rhino exhibit).
Seneca Park Zoo Review Last time I visited was in 2007 and always enjoyed visiting this zoo: Seneca Park Zoo in Rochester, NY is a small zoo that consists of a main building with several outdoor exhibits. The main building is quite old and has a main hallway with an aviary. The first exhibit you encounter as you enter the zoo is a small enclosure with spur thigh tortoise on the right. As you enter the main building there are a few small enclosures with glt, agouti, pancake tortoise, red bishops, black capped weavers and in 2007 had a small reptile collection with neotropical rattlesnake, madagascar tree boa and panama golden frog. Next is the aviary. It is a small, well planted aviary but has a lot of brick and concrete that takes away from having a rainforest "feel" to it. The collection is not location specific and has a mix of species. I remember roseate spoonbill, hooded pita, emerald starling, guinea fowl and a few bali mynahs (one of my favorite birds). After leaving the aviary I go to the main hallway. The hallway has two sections and the first is separated with most of the primates on one side and a mix of south american animals on the other with smaller terrariums in the middle. The primates have indoor and outdoor enclosures but both are small and are mainly steel bars and concrete. Same with the other side but minus the outdoor enclosures. The primates include bornean orangutans (the only ones in NY), white handed gibbon, b/w ruffed lemur and black handed spider monkey. The other side has a mix species exhibit with iguana, glt, two toed sloth and agouti, king vultures, coati, brazilian ocelot and maybe one other exhibit but I cannot recall what was there. The terrariums in the middle contained 3 toed amphiuma, african bullfrog and a huge beaded lizard (nearly 40 years old!). The second section of the hallway has meerkats and the indoor white rhino enclosure. The meerkat enclosure is average with a large viewing window and the inside rhino enclosure is very small and all concrete. It looks dismal. After leaving the main hallway I always walk around the outside of the building which has american alligators, outside primate enclosures, redtail hawk, amur tiger (when I was there last it had the zoos male amur tiger, it will house the visiting male white tiger this summer) and the outside white rhino. Most of these exhibits are small and consist of chain link fence, concrete and brick but have a lot of enrichment items and when I visited showed no stereotypic behavior. As you continue towards the back of the zoo the next exhibit you encounter is the bald eagle and river otter exhibit. Both exhibits have great info on both of these native species and relates them to the Rochester area. The exhibits are above average and have both Northern and Southern bald eagles. Across from the eagles/otters is a small yard that has red necked wallaby. As you continue on you run into a number of large predator exhibits. On your left are a mother/son pair of spotted hyena in a good sized, well vegetated exhibit with a sibling pair of eurasian arctic wolves in the same type of exhibit next to them. These are the only eurasian arctic wolves in the country. Across from them are two balen cages: one with canadian lynx and one with amur leopards. I was surprised to see the leopards in such a small enclosure. It could be the worst exhibit I have seen for these critically endangered cats. To the right is a butterfly garden that looked like it had not been maintained and looked barren. To the left of the lynx is a yard that was used to house a visiting animal each summer. In the past it had baboons, black bears, lions, white tigers and warthogs. When I was there in 2007 it had the zoos juvenile amur tigers that were born a few years prior. To the right of the wolves and across from the tiger cubs is the cougar exhibit. It is a newer exhibit which allows visitors to climb into tubes and pop their heads up into the cougar exhibit (like most prairie dog exhibits). It is a nice exhibit and I saw many visitors at this exhibit. Unfortunately one of the zoos cougars died recently. The rest of the zoo is the newer than the first half of the zoo. The first exhibit is the African penguin colony. It is a good exhibit which has one of the largest colonies in the country. Both times I visited there were at least two chicks. Next is the Rocky Coast exhibit. The highlight is the polar bears and sea lions. Both have naturalistic and good sized exhibits. There is elevated viewing as well as under water viewing into both exhibits. The sea lion show was fun to watch as well (I never watch these types of shows either). One interesting aspect of this exhibit is the sea lion exhibit looks like it is connected to the former reindeer exhibit which is cool to think you can see reindeer and sea lions nearly next to each other even though its separated by a small barrier. The interesting aspect is the reindeer have since been replaced with emus. So now you can see emus and sea lions together like they would naturally occur in the wild There is also a small but nice snowy owl exhibit near the bears. The last part of this zoo is the still developing Ngoragora Reserve. It currently has an african elephant and olive baboon exhibit. The baboon exhibit was not complete when I was at the zoo last so I cannot comment. However, the elephant exhibit is not very large and was completed hastily because one of the elephants was pregnant (resulted in a stillbirth). To me its adequate for two elephants (the new exhibit was originally going to be 2.5 acres) but as most of us know the AZA requires at least three and they are now having problems with this issue. The two female elephants, Genny C. and Lilac, were housed in the current rhino enclosure which is very small. Overall, Seneca Park zoo has a good collection of animals but most are housed in small, unaturalistic enclosures. They have the potential to be a great zoo but need more funding to redo most of the zoo (especially the main building enclosures). If your in the area its worth checking out. I will post some pictures soon.
An interesting thread about one of my home zoos. I had no idea the elephant exhibit was quickly built and reduced in size due to Genny C's pregnancy. I've never really had a problem with the exhibit. True it could afford to be bigger and it's not one of the best in the country, but a huge step from their previous exhibit. Though I do question their motives now to add on to the barn so they can house a bull. I should reread the article because I think they mentioned maybe upgrading the outside exhibit as well. I would hope there would be an expansion because for two elephants it's fine, to add a bull, then it might be a little small. But I must say, SPZ has taken steps to improve the elephants welfare. There are always enrichment items all over their yard and last time I was there, there was shiny material on their fence - a place to see their reflections. Bagels are hidden for them every morning and they always get a walk around the zoo before visitors arrive (enrichment for the other animals too watching them). A zookeeper also visited a zoo I believe in Belgium and brought back the idea of having sand on the floor inside the barn to make it more comfortable for the elephants. I was tempted to write a review about the zoo at one point, but the one above pretty much sums it up. Some changes since their visit, due to old age of animals -- no more coati, agouti, Amur leopard, one of the lynxes, and just this week one of the arctic wolves passed away. I'm hoping they get some younger animals soon as they have many in their collection that are quite old. Also, where the white tiger is, that is where the pair of snow leopard cubs are now. I've also found it interesting the Emu being in "Rocky Coasts", but it was always amusing narrating the sea lion show and seeing them pop their heads up next door to watch. It really looks like they could hop over and get into the pool, but they never have. I'm visiting friends there next week and I get quarter newsletters so I can update anyone who might be interested in this small zoo!
