The
Central Park Zoo is located in
Central ParkCentral Park is a large public, urban park that occupies over a square mile in the heart of Manhattan in New York City. It is host to approximately twenty-five million visitors each year...
in
New York CityNew York is the most populous city in the United States, and the center of the New York metropolitan area, which is among the most populous urban areas in the world. A leading global city, New York exerts a powerful influence over worldwide commerce, finance, culture, fashion and entertainment...
and run by the
Wildlife Conservation SocietyThe Wildlife Conservation Society , formerly the New York Zoological Society , endeavors to save wildlife and wild lands though careful use of science, conservation around the world, education and through a system of urban wildlife parks...
.
Trellised, vine-clad, glass-roofed
pergolaA pergola is a garden feature forming a shaded walk or passageway of pillars that support cross beams and a sturdy open lattice, upon which woody vines are trained. As a type of gazebo, it may also be an extension of a building, as protection for an open terrace or a link between pavilions. The...
s link the three major exhibit areas—tropic, temperate and arctic— housed in discreet new buildings, of brick trimmed with granite, masked by vines. The zoo is home to an indoor
rainforestRainforests are forests characterized by high rainfall, with definitions setting minimum normal annual rainfall between 1750–2000 mm . The monsoon trough, alternately known as the intertropical convergence zone, plays a significant role in creating Earth's tropical rain forests.From 40 to 75%...
, a
leafcutter antLeafcutter ants are social insects found in warmer regions of the Americas. These unique ants have evolved an advanced agricultural system based on ant-fungus mutualism...
colony, and a chilled penguin house and
Polar BearThe polar bear is a bear native largely within the Arctic circle encompassing the Arctic Ocean, its surrounding seas and surrounding land masses. It is the world's largest carnivore species found on land. It is also the largest bear, together with the omnivore Kodiak bear which is approximately...
pool. It also coordinates breeding programs for some endangered species:
tamarin monkeysThe tamarins are any of the squirrel-sized New World monkeys from the family Callitrichidae, classified as the genus Saguinus. The closely related lion tamarins are in genus Leontopithecus....
,
Wyoming ToadThe Wyoming Toad is an extremely rare amphibian that exists only in captivity and within Mortenson Lake National Wildlife Refuge in the U.S. state of Wyoming. The Wyoming Toad was listed as an endangered species in 1984.-Habitat:The Wyoming toad frequents floodplains and the short grass edges of...
s,
Thick-billed ParrotThe Thick-billed Parrot, Rhynchopsitta pachyrhyncha is an endangered, medium-sized, up to 38cm long, bright green parrot with a large black bill and a red forecrown, shoulder and thighs...
s and
Red PandaThe Red Panda, also called the Firefox or Lesser Panda , is a mostly herbivorous mammal, specialized as a bamboo feeder. It is slightly larger than a domestic cat....
s.
The
Central Park Zoo is located in
Central ParkCentral Park is a large public, urban park that occupies over a square mile in the heart of Manhattan in New York City. It is host to approximately twenty-five million visitors each year...
in
New York CityNew York is the most populous city in the United States, and the center of the New York metropolitan area, which is among the most populous urban areas in the world. A leading global city, New York exerts a powerful influence over worldwide commerce, finance, culture, fashion and entertainment...
and run by the
Wildlife Conservation SocietyThe Wildlife Conservation Society , formerly the New York Zoological Society , endeavors to save wildlife and wild lands though careful use of science, conservation around the world, education and through a system of urban wildlife parks...
.
Areas
Trellised, vine-clad, glass-roofed
pergolaA pergola is a garden feature forming a shaded walk or passageway of pillars that support cross beams and a sturdy open lattice, upon which woody vines are trained. As a type of gazebo, it may also be an extension of a building, as protection for an open terrace or a link between pavilions. The...
s link the three major exhibit areas—tropic, temperate and arctic— housed in discreet new buildings, of brick trimmed with granite, masked by vines. The zoo is home to an indoor
rainforestRainforests are forests characterized by high rainfall, with definitions setting minimum normal annual rainfall between 1750–2000 mm . The monsoon trough, alternately known as the intertropical convergence zone, plays a significant role in creating Earth's tropical rain forests.From 40 to 75%...
, a
leafcutter antLeafcutter ants are social insects found in warmer regions of the Americas. These unique ants have evolved an advanced agricultural system based on ant-fungus mutualism...
colony, and a chilled penguin house and
Polar BearThe polar bear is a bear native largely within the Arctic circle encompassing the Arctic Ocean, its surrounding seas and surrounding land masses. It is the world's largest carnivore species found on land. It is also the largest bear, together with the omnivore Kodiak bear which is approximately...
pool. It also coordinates breeding programs for some endangered species:
tamarin monkeysThe tamarins are any of the squirrel-sized New World monkeys from the family Callitrichidae, classified as the genus Saguinus. The closely related lion tamarins are in genus Leontopithecus....
,
Wyoming ToadThe Wyoming Toad is an extremely rare amphibian that exists only in captivity and within Mortenson Lake National Wildlife Refuge in the U.S. state of Wyoming. The Wyoming Toad was listed as an endangered species in 1984.-Habitat:The Wyoming toad frequents floodplains and the short grass edges of...
s,
Thick-billed ParrotThe Thick-billed Parrot, Rhynchopsitta pachyrhyncha is an endangered, medium-sized, up to 38cm long, bright green parrot with a large black bill and a red forecrown, shoulder and thighs...
s and
Red PandaThe Red Panda, also called the Firefox or Lesser Panda , is a mostly herbivorous mammal, specialized as a bamboo feeder. It is slightly larger than a domestic cat....
s. There are also
Fruit batsFruit Bats is an American folk rock band originally from Chicago, but now based in Seattle.Fruit Bats were formed in 1999 by guitarist, pianist and singer Eric Johnson, the band's main songwriter and only constant member...
in the
rainforestRainforests are forests characterized by high rainfall, with definitions setting minimum normal annual rainfall between 1750–2000 mm . The monsoon trough, alternately known as the intertropical convergence zone, plays a significant role in creating Earth's tropical rain forests.From 40 to 75%...
and an
AnteaterAnteaters are the four mammal species of the suborder Vermilingua commonly known for eating ants and termites. Together with the sloths, they compose the order Pilosa...
exhibit. In June 2009, a
snow leopardThe snow leopard , sometimes known as ounce, is a moderately large cat native to the mountain ranges of Central Asia...
exhibit was opened, making it one of the few zoos to present this rare species to the public. .
Art
The Zoo owns a number of important works of art, notably:
- Gates of the Children's Zoo by Paul Manship
Paul Howard Manship was a prominent American sculptor of the 20th century.Paul Manship began his art studies at the St. Paul School of Art in Minnesota. From there he moved to Philadelphia and continued his education at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts...
History
The zoo was not part of the original "Greensward" design for Central Park created by
OlmstedFrederick Law Olmsted was an American journalist, landscape designer and father of American landscape architecture, famous for designing many well-known urban parks, including Central Park and Prospect Park in New York City...
and
VauxCalvert Vaux , was an architect and landscape designer. He is best remembered as the co-designer , of New York's Central Park....
, but a Central Park menagerie near
New York's arsenalThe Arsenal is a symmetrical brick building with modestly Gothic Revival details, located in Central Park, New York, centered on 64th Street off Fifth Avenue...
, 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 it the United States's second publicly owned zoo, after the
Philadelphia ZooThe Philadelphia Zoo, located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on the west bank of the Schuylkill River, was the first zoo in the United States. Chartered by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania on March 21, 1859, its opening was delayed by the American Civil War until July 1, 1874...
, founded in 1859. The new zoo was given permanent quarters behind the Arsenal building in 1870.
In the early 1900s
Bill SnyderBill Snyder was the head keeper at the Central Park Zoo. The New York Times said: "As every one familiar with Zoo affairs knows that Snyder has had experiences beside which those of other keepers pale to insignificance, his opinion carries weight" and "his original observations on hitherto...
was hired and he purchased
Hattie, the elephantHattie was an elephant in the New York City's Central Park Zoo that in 1904 was described as the "most intelligent of all elephants". In 1911 she was described as "nearly human".-History:...
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 IIAymar Embury II was an American architect. He is best known for commissions from the City of New York from the 1930s through to the 1950s. In this period, Embury frequently worked with Robert Moses in the latter's various city and state capacities, especially, early on, in Moses capacity of Parks...
, architect for the
Triborough BridgeThe Robert F. Kennedy Bridge, formerly named Triborough Bridge, is a complex of three bridges connecting the New York City boroughs of the Bronx, Manhattan, and Queens on Long Island, using what were two islands, Ward's Island and Randall's Island as intermediate rights-of-way between the water...
and the
Henry Hudson BridgeThe Henry Hudson Bridge is a steel arch toll bridge in New York City across the Spuyten Duyvil Creek, a tidal strait. It connects the Spuyten Duyvil section of The Bronx with the northern end of Manhattan to the south. On the Manhattan side, it touches Inwood Hill Park...
(
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.
Redesign
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 which is now 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, DinkelooKevin Roche is an award-winning twentieth-century Irish-born American architect. He is famous for his creative work with glass....
. The old-fashioned
menagerieMenagerie is the term for a historical form of keeping calm and exotic animals in human captivity and therefore a predecessor of the modern zoological garden. The term was foremost used in seventeenth century France originally for the management of the household or domestic stock, but later...
cages were abandoned for more natural exhibits. The costs of the renovations, which had been originally budgeted at $22 million, reached a total of $35 million. The zoo reopened to the public on August 8, 1988.
Some of the original buildings, with their low-relief limestone panels of animals, were reused in the redesigning, though the cramped outdoor cages were swept away. Most of the large animals were rehoused in larger, more natural spaces at the
Bronx ZooThe Bronx Zoo is a zoo located within the Bronx Park, in The Bronx borough of New York City. The largest metropolitan zoo in the United States, the Bronx Zoo comprises of park lands and naturalistic habitats, through which the Bronx River flows...
. 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, traditionally available to parkgoers free of charge, charges admission to its enclosed precincts.
The zoo in popular culture
The Central Park Zoo was featured in
Robert LawsonRobert Lawson was an American author and illustrator of children's books, some of which are widely known. During World War I, he also served as a camouflage artist.-Background:...
's
Mr. Popper's PenguinsMr. Popper's Penguins is a children's book written by Richard & Florence Atwater, originally published in 1938. It tells the story of a poor house painter named Mr. Popper and his family, who live in the small town of Stillwater in the 1930s...
(1938), in J.D. Salinger's classic novel
The Catcher in the RyeThe Catcher in the Rye is a 1951 novel by J. D. Salinger. Originally published for adults, the novel has become a common part of high school and college curricula throughout the English-speaking world; it has also been translated into almost all of the world's major languages.Around 250,000 copies...
(1951), and in the animated films
MadagascarMadagascar is a 2005 computer-animated film produced by DreamWorks Animation, and released in movie theaters on May 27, 2005. The film tells the story of four Central Park Zoo animals who have spent their lives in blissful captivity and are unexpectedly shipped back to Africa, getting shipwrecked...
(2005),
The WildThe Wild is a computer-animated film directed by Steve 'Spaz' Williams, produced by Clint Goldman, assistant produced by Jim Burton and C.O.R.E. Feature Animation, and was released by Walt Disney Pictures on April 14, 2006, in the United States.-Plot:...
(2006) and
Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa (2008), as well as in the
Madagascar animated series,
The Penguins of MadagascarThe Penguins of Madagascar is an American CGI animated television series airing on Nickelodeon, starring the penguins from the 2005 film, Madagascar, which the TV series is based on...
. The zoo is the setting of the 1967
Simon and GarfunkelSimon & Garfunkel is an American singer-songwriter duo consisting of Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel. They formed the group "Tom and Jerry" in 1957, and had their first taste of success with the minor hit "Hey, Schoolgirl". As Simon and Garfunkel, the duo rose to fame in 1965, backed by the hit single...
song
At the Zoo"At the Zoo" was one of Simon's and Garfunkel's single releases in 1967.The song is one of Paul Simon's many tributes to his hometown of New York City...
.
Further reading
- WPA Guide to New York City 1939, reprinted 1982, p 352
- Roy Rosenzweig and Elizabeth Blackmar, The Park and the People 1992
- Clinton H. Keeling, Skyscrapers and Sealions. Clam Publications, Guildford (Surrey), 2002.
- Joan Scheier, The Central Park Zoo. Arcadia Publishing, Portsmouth (New Hampshire), 2002.
External links