I love going to the zoo and i'm from new england. I've been wondering what is the best zoo is here and I can't decide. I need some opinions. I hope we can decide together
The two best options in my opinion are Southwick’s Zoo and Roger Williams Zoo, which are both in Massachusetts.
Roger Williams Park Zoo easily. New England has plenty of nice zoos, but most of them are small or more native based in regards to their collection. Heres a few reasons why. First of all, they have a nice collection of crowd pleasers: Asiatic Black Bear, Elephant, Zebra, Giraffe, Harbor Seal, Cheetah, American Bison, Snow Leopard, Red Panda They also have some rarer species Babirusa, Asiatic Black Bear, Wrinkled hornbill, tree kangaroo, red wolf and more. They have a pretty good exhibit quality. The zoo is due to open a rainforest building later this summer with species like Giant Otter Also in the plans are a new sea lion/seal exhibit, reptile house including Komodo dragon and tigers. I last visited in 2014, but would love to go back. Especially when the rainforest complex opens.
Love Rodger williams and southwick's. I go to southwick's a lot because it's the closes to me but I think they can improve on a few things
Stone zoo is also pretty cool it doesn't have any crowd pleasers but it does have some pretty rare animals like jaguars and markhor
I just found out that their is a 3rd facility in new england that holds elephants I knew about buttonwood and rodger williams does anybody know about the 3rd one
Living in New England and having been to all the major zoos in New England multiply times, I loved seeing this thread. That being said "best" is subjective and all depends on what one is looking for. First a few comments on previous posts. Roger Williams is in Rhode Island not Massachusetts While about half the zoos could be considered small, I would say none are mostly native based. Buttonwood used to be North American only but that has now changed. The 3rd zoo with elephants I was going to say was Southwick's. They are not listed on the website, so not sure if they are still there. Tomorrow I will comment further about my opinion of New England zoos.
The other elephants in New England are owned by Commerford Petting Zoo. They are a traveling petting zoo but can be seen at a few fairs in the area
I would disagree that the Stone Zoo doesn't have any crowd pleasers. They have bears, wolves, gibbons, otters, monkeys and 3 species of big cats. The Jaguar I believe are the only ones in New England with the closest being Philadelphia. I recently visited there and some of the species I was excited to see were the Bushdogs, Jamaican Iguana (lifer), and Chacoan Peccary.
Like anybody I have my favorite animals but what I like to see at a zoo is something different. An animal nobody else has or at least not in the region. I would enjoy more seeing a rare mouse species for example or even a common one I hadn't seen before then see a Snow Leopard or Red Panda for the 500th time, beautiful as those animals are ( and I still enjoy seeing). Both of which are at over half of New England zoos. Roger Williams is a great zoo and the one closest to me. I am greatly looking forward to the opening of the new rainforest and some very cool new species for the zoo and me. But for me I find RWPZ often gets species that lots of other zoos have,even nearby ones. Now I understand not everyone goes to lots of zoos and that just this year I have been to the zoo more than some people in their lifetime. Sorry if I am all over the place, best is a matter of opinion especially after reading the San Diego thread. For me if I had to rank them I guess I would agree that Roger Williams is probably the best overall zoo in New England but they could be dethroned someday by Buttonwood if they stick to their master plan. so my listing would be 1. Roger Williams 2. Buttonwood ( might not be better yet than FPZ or Southwick's yet, but a personal favorite) 3. Franklin Park 4. Southwick's 5. Tie between Stone and Capron 6. Beardsley 7. York's Wild Kingdom (too much old style zoo in my opinion) 8. Lupa's ( but tbh I have never been, but I saw on their website they have a Tayra!) 9. Forest Park (probably the worst zoo I have ever been too, hopefully they are trying to update it)
I've yet to visit all the collections in New England (there are a surprising number of them!) but I think Roger Williams Park Zoo is pretty easily the best. It's not perfect and you could probably do another zoo the same day with it but it's improving greatly and I'm really looking forward to seeing the new rainforest building. I personally think Connecticut's Beardsley Zoo is underrated, they have a pretty great line-up of odd species (three wolf species, Brazilian Ocelot, Pronghorn, Chacoan Peccary, Grey Fox, Greater Sandhill Crane, and a slew of native herps not commonly kept) and some very nice enclosures with them working on improving the outdated ones. I visited both Franklin Park and Stone last Spring and I think I preferred Stone. Both are nice and the indoor rainforest at FPZ is pretty good, but I think Stone had the overall better enclosures (including possibly the best wolf enclosures I've seen) and was more organized. @Birdlover how is the new Caribbean exhibit? I really want to get back up there to see it! Have not been to Southwick's yet but hope to before too long. I haven't heard too many great things about them, though, tbh. If you're also looking for aquariums you can't go wrong with Mystic Aquarium. I've yet to visit the New England Aquarium yet, though. ~Thylo
I'm happy someone else has said something about that statement. I don't see how you can say Stone Zoo doesn't have crowd pleasers. Bush Dogs are rare in the United States, they also are an active species from what I see. They have several species of monkeys, including Tamarins and Spider Monkeys, species that are active. White-Cheeked Gibbons are also somewhat rare. Snow Leopards and Jaguars are also extremely interesting to see, if someone who travels to zoos a lot would know that the chances of seeing species active is to get there earlier in the morning, so it would be easy to see them out and about. Species like Otters are also crowd pleasers, when I go to zoos with them it always seems like they are a crowd favorite.
Nice to see that you and I can COMPLETELY AGREE on something! Roger Williams Park Zoo is by far the best zoo in New England, and it was the only one we fully reviewed in our book.
I haven't seen anything about buttonwoods master plan can i have some info on it ( it isn't my favorite but i would love to know what's happening ). southwick's has a lot of drama because of the way they treated their elephant poorly and made her preform in shows but they have been cleaning up their act ever since it died from what I can tell. They have turned her old exhibit/ show area to a decent exhibit for the only rhinos ( from what I can tell ) in new england
Having grown up, 20+ years, with Stone zoo being my home zoo, I agree with your opinions. Stone is a small but excellent zoo. Can't wait to see the new Caribbean addition. However, Southwicks is head and shoulders above both Roger Williams and any other New England zoo that exists. Like Stone, it has grown and developed immensely over the last two decades. The enclosures and collection (anybody like Vicuana?) have far surpassed any other zoological facility in the area, AZA or not. FPZ is still a disappointing major city zoo, especially for Boston. Buttonwood, Stone, Capron and Beardsley are great but don't have the size, collection or exhibits that can compete. And, from my point of view, RWP's one species I like seeing, will be phase out in the long run, African Elephants. Almost all other species there can be seen at other zoos in New England that have more eye pleasing enclosures. For my money, I'd go to Southwick before visiting any other facility within the six states. Also, not too long ago, York made a run at being one of the best but money and ownership never saw this come to fruition.
I didn't know that RWPZ was phasing out their elephants I hope they go to a zoo in new england. If they were to go some where I think it would be interesting if they go to york because even though I live 2 hours from it I try to go their once a year because I have a lot of memories seeing elephants their and it would be interesting to see them have them again.
