Central Park Zoo

https://centralparkzoo.com/


Opened 1864

City: New York City

Country: USA

State: New York

 

Species 130

 Welcome to the Wildlife Conservation Society's Central Park Zoo and the Tisch Children's Zoo. Here, just a few yards from 5th Ave. you’ll find species ranging from giant Polar Bears to the open-air tropical aviary. A walk around the Zoo’s five plus acres will take you through a variety of habitats, all carefully designed to recreate the natural environment of the animals they house.

Last visit 2014


Central Park Zoo
64th Street & 5th Ave
New York
NY 10021
USA

Phone nr 212-439-6500


Open minimum 10am-4.30pm 

Entrance

• Adult 19,95 $
• Child 14,95 $

Wildlife Conservation Society Membership (includes the Annual entrance to Brooklyn Aquarium, Brooklyn Zoo, Bronx Zoo, New York Zoo and Queens Zoo)

• Adult 115,- $
• Family* 320,- $

*Family Basic Cards are valid for 2 adults and up to 4 children. Check on line for other membership levels

There are several daily feeding shows, for the time please ask at the till station.

Feel free to take as many pictures as you want. If you publicate the pictures online plese mention the Zoos name


History:

The zoo was not part of the original "Greensward" design for Central Park created by Olmsted and Vaux, but a Central Park menagerie near New York's Arsenal, on the edge of Central Park located at Fifth Avenue facing East 64th Street, spontaneously evolved in 1859 from gifts of exotic pets and other animals informally given to the Park; the original animals on display included a bear and some swans. In 1864, a formal zoo received charter confirmation from New York's assembly, making it the United States's second publicly owned zoo, after the Philadelphia Zoo, which was founded in 1859. The new zoo was given permanent quarters behind the Arsenal building in 1875.  A famous hoax at the zoo, called the New York Zoo hoax, is also known as The Central Park Zoo Escape and the Central Park Menagerie Scare of 1874. It was a hoax perpetrated by the New York Herald about a supposed breakout of animals from the Central Park Zoo on November 9, 1874. The article warned that dangerous animals were loose in the city, with casualties of 49 dead and 200 injured. Many readers panicked, even though the end of the story stated "the entire story given above is a pure fabrication." The authors later claimed their intent was merely to draw attention to inadequate safety precautions at the zoo, and claimed to be surprised at the extent of the reaction to their story. In the early 1900s Bill Snyder was hired and he purchased Hattie, the elephant in 1904.Hattie died in 1922. In 1934, to properly house the zoo, neo-Georgian brick and limestone zoo buildings ranged in a quadrangle round the sea lion pool were designed by Aymar Embury II, architect for the Triborough Bridge and the Henry Hudson Bridge (WPA Guide). The famous sea lion pool itself was originally designed by Charles Schmieder. For its day the sea lion pool was considered advanced because the architect actually studied the habits of sea lions and incorporated this knowledge into the design. The zoo's original Children's Zoo opened in 1961, with funded largely in part by Senator Herbert Lehman and his wife Edith. The new zoo featured attractions like a petting area with ducks, rabbits, and chickens; a large fiberglass whale statue dubbed "Whaley" (which acted as the entrance to the small zoo); a Noah's Ark feature; and a medieval castle feature. Pattycake, a female western lowland gorilla, was born at the zoo in 1972, and was thus the first gorilla successfully born in captivity in New York. She would later move to the Bronx Zoo in 1982, where she would remain until her death in 2013. By 1980, the zoo, like Central Park itself, was sadly dilapidated; in that year, responsibility for its management was assumed by the New York Zoological Society, now named the Wildlife Conservation Society. The zoo was closed in the winter of 1983, and demolition began. The redesign of 1983–88 was executed by the architectural firm of Kevin Roche, Dinkeloo. The facility's old-fashioned menagerie cages were replaced more naturalistic exhibits. The zoo reopened to the public on August 8, 1988. The newly renovated zoo had originally been planned to reopen in 1985 at a cost of $14 million; however, the project saw troubled times that delayed the opening for three years. Some of the original buildings, with their low-relief limestone panels of animals, were reused in the redesigning, though the cramped outdoor cages were demolished. Most of the large animals were rehoused in larger, more natural spaces at the Bronx Zoo. The central feature of the original zoo, ranged round the sea lion pool, was retained and the pool redesigned. Since its modernization, the Central Park Zoo, originally available to parkgoers free of charge, charges admission to its enclosed precincts. The Dancing Crane Cafe, however, is still accessible from Central Park itself. With the help of a $4.5 million grant from businessman Laurence A. Tisch, the Children's Zoo was renovated and renamed the Tisch Children's Zoo in 1997. In 2009, the Allison Maher Stern Snow Leopard Exhibit opened, housing three snow leopards from the Bronx Zoo. In 2014 the Grizzly bear enclosure opened