New York City Zoos and Aquarium

By Joan Scheier

Situated within the five boroughs of New York City are five zoos and one aquarium. New York City Zoos and Aquarium chronicles the establishment of the Central Park Zoo, the Bronx Zoo, the Prospect Park Zoo, the Queens Zoo, the Staten Island Zoo, and the New York Aquarium. Popular children's zoos are also featured. The city's first zoo opened in Central Park in the 1850s, while the newest zoo opened in Queens after the 1964 World's Fair. While each one of these facilities has many similarities, they all have their own unique attributes. All of the facilities are focused on education, conservation, and the care of the animals that now reside in natural habitats.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
• Release date: Sep 18, 2012
• ISBN: 9781439632741

Joan Scheier

New York City native Joan Scheier, author of Central Park Zoo, visited all the zoos as a child and led many tours while she served as a city public school librarian for more than 25 years. She is now a wildlife guide at the Central Park Zoo. Her familiarity with the city's history and architecture paired with her love of zoos led to the writing of this book. Her talent as a researcher and writer make this book a loving tribute to her city and its zoos.

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INTRODUCTION

New York City is rich in an enormous variety of cultural institutions including many museums, opera houses, orchestras, dance halls, and theaters. In addition to these treasured institutions, New York City also has five zoos and one aquarium. The Central Park Zoo is both the oldest zoo and one of the newest. Dating back to the 1860s, Central Park Zoo has experienced two major renewals, in 1934 and again in 1988. The Bronx Zoo opened its gates to the public in 1899 while the Prospect Park Zoo and Staten Island Zoo opened in the 1930s through the Works Progress Administration (WPA). The Queens Zoo opened in 1968 in Flushing Meadows, the site of the 1964 Worlds Fair. Meanwhile the New York Aquarium has had three locations. The first was at the tip of Manhattan at Battery Park. The second was on the grounds of the Bronx Zoo during the period that the aquarium’s third and current location at Coney Island was being constructed. Today all of the zoos (except for Staten Island) and the New York Aquarium are managed by the Wildlife Conservation Society, which is headquartered at the Bronx Zoo.

New York City’s zoos have changed dramatically since their earliest days. The bar-less zoo is now the norm, where carefully planned naturalistic habitats are the home for hundreds of species of wildlife living in species-typical social groups. No longer do zoos compete for the largest and most varied collections. Instead, they cooperate in scientifically managed breeding programs, reducing the number of species per zoo so that those remaining have much more space for the naturalistic habitats that are so nurturing to the animals and so enlightening to more than four million visitors per year. The Bronx Zoo and its adjunct zoos and aquarium have become leaders in assisting all zoos realize their emerging role as conservation organizations, aiding their human communities to better understand the action required to save the earth’s wildlife heritage. The International Field Division of the Wildlife Conservation Society, with several hundred conservation projects in over 50 countries around the world, is closely associated with New York City’s zoos in a relationship that both informs and is informed by the zoo’s education, research, and endangered species breeding programs. Zoo staff and field staff alike contribute to the intellectual life of New York City via numerous adjunct appointments in the city’s great colleges and universities.

The one thing that never changes is that animals themselves remain the stars of all zoo experiences. However both the people who care for these beautiful creatures and the enormous public that experiences the fascinating stories they tell, now invest ever more heavily in meticulously detailed care of zoo animals. Beyond state-of-the-art animal hospitals, medical care, and scientifically prepared diets, all the animals from tigers to tiny tropical frogs receive behavioral enrichment on a daily basis. Various hidden treats and toys are all provided with an informed eye for allowing the animals to practice their full repertoire of natural behaviors such as hunting, foraging for fruits, digging, and nest building. Indeed, it is an exciting time to experience everything the modern zoos have to offer. It is also an extremely important time for zoo visitors to support the revolution in caring about animals, not only in zoos, but in the world of nature where human caring ultimately will be the only thing that will stand between solid wildlife conservation and permanent loss.

—Dr. Dan Wharton, Director, Central Park Zoo.

One

THE CENTRAL PARK ZOO

The southeast corner of Central Park has a history of housing animals that is almost as old as the park itself. As early as the 1860s, animals could be found in and around the Arsenal building which is still located at Sixty-fourth Street and Fifth Avenue. The Menagerie, as it was called, began when people started donating animals. It quickly grew into an attraction that drew people to the corner of the park. The Menagerie soon began to actively acquire animals and became a fixture for New Yorkers. In the 1930s, New York City Parks Commissioner Robert Moses formally built the Central Park Zoo on the site according to the best standards at the time and it was a popular destination for many years. By the 1980s, the world of zoos and zookeeping had progressed a great deal since the 1930s and the City of New York asked the New York Zoological Society to take over the running of the zoo, according to best industry practices. The Central Park Zoo reopened in 1988 as a NYZS (since renamed Wildlife Conservation Society) facility and is still going strong in the 21st century.

The zoo is organized into three climactic zones—tropical, temperate, and polar. Each of these zones allows visitors to have a year-round glimpse into the variety of wildlife that lives in those areas and exposes them to the fascinating variety of animal behavior. Through the use of naturalistic habitats one is immersed in a tropical rainforest, or an Antarctic penguin colony, or the foothills of the Himalayas, all in the heart of New York City. However connections to the past remain, in the form of original brick friezes, weathervanes, paving stones, and statues. In addition, two buildings from the zoo of the 1930s remain, the former monkey house is now the Hecksher Zoo School and the former bird house is now the Central Park Zootique gift shop. An addition to the zoo was made in 1998 with the opening of the Tisch Children’s Zoo, which includes a walk-through aviary and a petting zoo featuring domestic animals.

The world has changed a great deal in the nearly 150 years since animals first were exhibited in Central Park. Wildlife and wild places are in increasing danger due to a variety of threats. WCS and the Central Park Zoo hope to educate people of all ages about the natural world and inspire them to protect it. In the heart of one of the densest urban landscapes in the world, we allow people to stop, take a breath, and reconnect to nature. We hope you will too.

—John Rowden, curator of animals, Central Park Zoo

The Arsenal, the brick building on Fifth Avenue and Sixty-fourth Street, is older than the zoo itself. In 1864, an enclosed space was set aside near the Arsenal to give the animals that were donated by private citizens, hunters, circuses, and carnivals a permanent home. As the animal collection grew, it became necessary to construct buildings and enclosures. (Joan Scheier.)

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