Central Park Zoo
Encyclopedia
The Central Park Zoo is a small 6.5 acres (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.
s 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 rainforest
, a leafcutter ant
colony, and a chilled penguin
house and polar bear
pool. It also coordinates breeding programs for some endangered species: tamarin monkeys
, Wyoming toad
s, thick-billed parrot
s and red panda
s. There are also fruit bats
in the rainforest
and an anteater
exhibit. In June 2009, a snow leopard
exhibit was opened, making it one of the few zoos to present this rare species to the public. . The gates of the Children's Zoo by Paul Manship
are a notable feature retained from the earlier layout.
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 1870.
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.
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, Dinkeloo
. The facility's old-fashioned menagerie
cages were abandoned for more natural 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.
's Mr. Popper's Penguins
(1938), in J.D. Salinger's classic novel The Catcher in the Rye
(1951), and in the animated films Madagascar
(2005), The Wild
(2006) and Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa (2008), Mr. Popper's Penguins (2011) as well as in the Madagascar animated series, The Penguins of Madagascar
. The zoo is the setting of the 1967 Simon and Garfunkel
song At the Zoo
. It was also mentioned in Truman Capote
s novella Summer Crossing
.
Zoo
A zoological garden, zoological park, menagerie, or zoo is a facility in which animals are confined within enclosures, displayed to the public, and in which they may also be bred....
located in Central Park
Central Park
Central Park is a public park in the center of Manhattan in New York City, United States. The park initially opened in 1857, on of city-owned land. In 1858, Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux won a design competition to improve and expand the park with a plan they entitled the Greensward Plan...
in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
. It is part of an integrated system of four zoos and the New York Aquarium
New York Aquarium
The New York Aquarium is the oldest continually operating aquarium in the United States, having opened in Castle Garden in Battery Park, Manhattan in 1896. Since 1957, it has been located on the boardwalk in Coney Island, Brooklyn. The aquarium is managed by the Wildlife Conservation Society as...
managed by the Wildlife Conservation Society
Wildlife Conservation Society
The Wildlife Conservation Society based at the Bronx Zoo was founded in 1895 as the New York Zoological Society and currently manages some of wild places around the world, with over 500 field conservation projects in 60 countries, and 200 scientists on staff...
(WCS), and is accredited by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums
Association of Zoos and Aquariums
The Association of Zoos and Aquariums was founded in 1924 and is a nonprofit organization dedicated to the advancement of zoos and public aquariums in the areas of conservation, education, science, and recreation.The AZA headquarters is located in Silver...
(AZA).
The zoo began in the 1860s as a menagerie
Menagerie
A menagerie is/was a form of keeping common and exotic animals in captivity that preceded the modern zoological garden. The term was first used in seventeenth century France in reference to the management of household or domestic stock. Later, it came to be used primarily in reference to...
, 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
Robert Moses
Robert Moses was the "master builder" of mid-20th century New York City, Long Island, Rockland County, and Westchester County, New York. As the shaper of a modern city, he is sometimes compared to Baron Haussmann of Second Empire Paris, and is one of the most polarizing figures in the history of...
Zoo".) Finally, the zoo was renovated in the mid-1980s and reopened in 1988, replacing the old-fashioned cages with naturalistic environments.
Areas
Trellised, vine-clad, glass-roofed pergolaPergola
A pergola, arbor or arbour is a garden feature forming a shaded walkway, passageway or sitting area of vertical posts or pillars that usually support cross-beams and a sturdy open lattice, often upon which woody vines are trained...
s 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 rainforest
Rainforest
Rainforests are forests characterized by high rainfall, with definitions based on a minimum normal annual rainfall of 1750-2000 mm...
, a leafcutter ant
Leafcutter ant
Leafcutter ants, a non-generic name, are any of 47 species of leaf-chewing ants belonging to the two genera Atta and Acromyrmex.These species of tropical, fungus-growing ants are all endemic to South, Central America, Mexico and parts of the southern United States.The Acromyrmex and Atta ants have...
colony, and a chilled penguin
Penguin
Penguins are a group of aquatic, flightless birds living almost exclusively in the southern hemisphere, especially in Antarctica. Highly adapted for life in the water, penguins have countershaded dark and white plumage, and their wings have become flippers...
house and polar bear
Polar Bear
The 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 land carnivore and also the largest bear, together with the omnivorous Kodiak Bear, which is approximately the same size...
pool. It also coordinates breeding programs for some endangered species: tamarin monkeys
Tamarin
The tamarins are squirrel-sized New World monkeys from the family Callitrichidae in the genus Saguinus. They are closely related to the lion tamarins in the genus Leontopithecus.- Range :...
, Wyoming toad
Wyoming Toad
The Wyoming Toad or Baxter's 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, and listed as extinct in the wild since 1991...
s, thick-billed parrot
Thick-billed Parrot
The Thick-billed Parrot, Rhynchopsitta pachyrhyncha is an endangered, medium-sized, up to 38 cm long, bright green parrot with a large black bill and a red forecrown, shoulder and thighs...
s and red panda
Red Panda
The red panda , is a small arboreal mammal native to the eastern Himalayas and southwestern China. It is the only species of the genus Ailurus. Slightly larger than a domestic cat, it has reddish-brown fur, a long, shaggy tail, and a waddling gait due to its shorter front legs...
s. There are also fruit bats
Fruit Bats
Fruit Bats is an American rock band formed in 1997 in Chicago. Noted as an early entrant into the folk-rock boom of the early 2000s, the group has had many personnel changes but revolves around singer/songwriter Eric D. Johnson.-History:In 2000, Eric D...
in the rainforest
Rainforest
Rainforests are forests characterized by high rainfall, with definitions based on a minimum normal annual rainfall of 1750-2000 mm...
and an anteater
Anteater
Anteaters, also known as antbear, 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 leopard
Snow Leopard
The snow leopard is a moderately large cat native to the mountain ranges of South Asia and Central Asia...
exhibit was opened, making it one of the few zoos to present this rare species to the public. . The gates of the Children's Zoo by Paul Manship
Paul Manship
Paul Howard Manship was an American sculptor.-Life: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...
are a notable feature retained from the earlier layout.
History
The zoo was not part of the original "Greensward" design for Central Park created by OlmstedFrederick Law Olmsted
Frederick Law Olmsted was an American journalist, social critic, public administrator, and landscape designer. He is popularly considered to be the father of American landscape architecture, although many scholars have bestowed that title upon Andrew Jackson Downing...
and Vaux
Calvert Vaux
Calvert 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 arsenal
Arsenal (Central Park)
The 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 the United States's second publicly owned zoo, after the Philadelphia Zoo
Philadelphia Zoo
The 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...
, which was founded in 1859. The new zoo was given permanent quarters behind the Arsenal building in 1870.
In the early 1900s Bill Snyder
Bill Snyder (animal trainer)
Bill 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 elephant
Hattie (elephant)
Hattie 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 II
Aymar Embury II
Aymar 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 Bridge
Triborough Bridge
The Robert F. Kennedy ' Bridge, formerly known as the Triborough Bridge , is a complex of three separate bridges in New York City, United States...
and the Henry Hudson Bridge
Henry Hudson Bridge
The Henry Hudson Bridge is a steel arch toll bridge in New York City across the Spuyten Duyvil Creek. 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. The bridge was designed by David B. Steinman...
(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.
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, Dinkeloo
Kevin Roche
Kevin Roche is an Irish-American architect known for his creative work with glass.Born in Dublin, Roche spent his formative years in Mitchelstown, Co. Cork before he graduated from University College Dublin in 1945. He then worked with Michael Scott from 1945-1946...
. The facility's old-fashioned menagerie
Menagerie
A menagerie is/was a form of keeping common and exotic animals in captivity that preceded the modern zoological garden. The term was first used in seventeenth century France in reference to the management of household or domestic stock. Later, it came to be used primarily in reference to...
cages were abandoned for more natural 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
Bronx Zoo
The Bronx Zoo is located in the Bronx borough of New York City, within Bronx Park. It is the largest metropolitan zoo in the United States, comprising 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, 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.
The zoo in popular culture
The Central Park Zoo was featured in Robert LawsonRobert Lawson (author)
Robert Lawson was an American author and illustrator of children's books. During World War I, he also served as a camouflage artist.-Background:Born in New York City, Lawson spent his early life in Montclair, New Jersey...
's Mr. Popper's Penguins
Mr. Popper's Penguins
Mr. Popper's Penguins is a children's book written by Richard and 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 Rye
The Catcher in the Rye
The Catcher in the Rye is a 1951 novel by J. D. Salinger. Originally published for adults, it has since become popular with adolescent readers for its themes of teenage confusion, angst, alienation, language, and rebellion. It has been translated into almost all of the world's major...
(1951), and in the animated films Madagascar
Madagascar (2005 film)
Madagascar 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 Wild
The Wild
The Wild is a 2006 computer-animated film directed by Steve "Spaz" Williams, produced by Clint Goldman, assistant produced by Jim Burton and C.O.R.E...
(2006) and Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa (2008), Mr. Popper's Penguins (2011) as well as in the Madagascar animated series, The Penguins of Madagascar
The Penguins of Madagascar
The Penguins of Madagascar is an American CGI animated television series airing on Nickelodeon. It stars nine characters from the DreamWorks Animation animated film Madagascar: The penguins Skipper , Kowalski , Private , and Rico ; the lemurs King Julien , Maurice , and Mort...
. The zoo is the setting of the 1967 Simon and Garfunkel
Simon and Garfunkel
Simon & Garfunkel are an American duo consisting of singer-songwriter Paul Simon and singer Art Garfunkel. They formed the group Tom & Jerry in 1957 and had their first success with the minor hit "Hey, Schoolgirl". As Simon & Garfunkel, the duo rose to fame in 1965, largely on the strength of the...
song At the Zoo
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. The narrative tells the story of a trip to the Central Park Zoo; when the singer reaches the zoo, he anthropomorphizes the animals in various...
. It was also mentioned in Truman Capote
Truman Capote
Truman Streckfus Persons , known as Truman Capote , was an American author, many of whose short stories, novels, plays, and nonfiction are recognized literary classics, including the novella Breakfast at Tiffany's and the true crime novel In Cold Blood , which he labeled a "nonfiction novel." At...
s novella Summer Crossing
Summer Crossing
Summer Crossing is Truman Capote's first novel, written during the 1940s. Capote eventually cast it aside and it was thought to be lost for over 50 years, but was eventually published in 2005.- Conception and critical reception:...
.
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
- Central Park Zoo Website
- Images of America: The Central Park Zoo, photographs and text
- The NY City zoos
- Kevin Roche, John Dinkeloo and Associates: Central Park Zoo: photographs at time of completion