Central Park Zoo
Central Park Zoo logo
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Central area of the Central Park Zoo
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| Date opened | 1864 (menagerie); 1934 (zoo); August 8, 1988 (renovated) |
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| Location | Central Park, New York City, New York, United States |
| Coordinates | 40°46′4″N 73°58′18″W / 40.76778°N 73.97167°WCoordinates: 40°46′4″N 73°58′18″W / 40.76778°N 73.97167°W |
| Land area | 6.5 acres (0.026 km2) |
| Memberships | AZA |
| Website | centralparkzoo |
The Central Park Zoo is a small 6.5-acre (2.6 ha) zoo located in Central Park in New York City. It is part of an integrated system of four zoos and the New York Aquarium managed by the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), and is accredited by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA).
The zoo began in the 1860s as a menagerie, making it the first official zoo to open in New York. The zoo was modified in 1934, with the addition of many new buildings ranged in a quadrangle around the sea lion pool. (The zoo from this era has been commonly known as the "1934 Zoo" or "Robert Moses Zoo".) Finally, the zoo was renovated in the mid-1980s and reopened in 1988, replacing the old-fashioned cages with naturalistic environments.
Trellised, vine-clad, glass-roofed pergolas link the three major exhibit areas—tropic, temperate and polar— housed in discreet new buildings of brick trimmed with granite, masked by vines. The zoo is home to an indoor rain forest, a chilled penguin house and a previously unoccupied polar bear pool now occupied by a pair a grizzly bear siblings. It also coordinates breeding programs for some endangered species: tamarin monkeys, Wyoming toads, thick-billed parrots and red pandas. There are also fruit bats in the rainforest and a large free-flight area for birds. In June 2009, a snow leopard exhibit was opened. The gates of the Children's Zoo by Paul Manship are a notable feature retained from the earlier layout.
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