From a steamy rain forest to an icy Antarctic penguin habitat, the zoo leads visitors through tropic, temperate and polar regions to encounter 100s of fascinating animals from tiny leafcutter ants to tremendous polar bears. The Tisch Children’s Zoo lets little animal lovers meet gentle creatures up close.
Daily bonuses include keeper talks, feeding and enrichment sessions and guided tours to get the most from the experience.
This zoo isn’t even worth the 1 star. I can’t believe families bring their children here to see what I would call severely neglected and depressed animals. The space for the snow leopard is so small he has no room to even run, just paces back and forth howling in a small cage I would say is maybe a total of 500 sf, if that. The penguin area is even worse, the place is disgustingly dirty with feces covered penguins swimming in filthy water …again, I just can’t believe people actually bring their children here, it’s depressing. They even have seagulls in the penguin exhibit that don’t have room enough to even fly ….it’s just cruel. The zoo should be closed and I’m disgusted in myself for giving them my patronage.
I love Central Park Zoo. There are a few key things that make this zoo great: it’s not too big, it’s conveniently located in the middle of Manhattan, and most importantly, this zoo doesn’t have your typical zoo animals. Now you might be thinking: Why is the fact that this zoo is small a good thing? Well, most zoos I would say are pretty large and take up a large part of your day because you want to see the whole zoo and get your money’s worth. But with the Central Park Zoo, it’s smaller and you can see the entire zoo in about an hour – as long as you don’t see any of the shows and just walk around at your own pace. At a typical zoo, you’d probably see lions or tigers, at the Central Park Zoo they have Snow Leopards. Think about it, when was the last time you saw a snow leopard? If you’re reading this and live in the mountains of Nepal, you don’t count! Rather than Chimpanzees or Lemurs or Spider Monkeys, they have Snow Monkeys. They’re very cute and you don’t see those too often! The penguin exhibit is good. First of all it’s extremely air conditioned – can you guess why? Also, it seems that almost all zoos and aquariums these days have the South African penguins but this zoo has multiple species of penguins from Antarctica. Also, this zoo has a great rain forest exhibit with a free-roaming sloth and lots of exotic birds and a really cool tree-cutter ant exhibit. Also, throughout the zoo’s many exhibits they have many species of exotic ducks!
PARENTS AND CHILDREN YOU MUST COME HERE!This place has a magical feeling when your at the Central Park Zoo. The zoo has different frogs, monkey and you can see the sea lion show. Afterwards, if you have time you can walk around to see the rest of the Central Park. If you have 15 mins you should check out the 4D RIO movie segment. It cost $7 but worth your time and money.
Perhaps the (free) Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago caused me to have unrealistic expectations for this place but I was very disappointed. I thought it was a horrible value. The dissatisfaction started before we even arrived. They have signs in the park that promote skipping the lines by using their smartphone website. However, they only make their highest tier ticket (with the movie) available this way. At the entrance they also have electronic kiosks to buy tickets. Again, they only sell their highest tier ticket. If you want the general admission ticket without the movie then you have to stand in line.I was surprised at how small this zoo is and the very few number of animals that exist. Arguably the top draw, the polar bear died but that was in August 2013 and it hasn’t been replaced. I’m not sure how you maintain the same ticket price when your main draw isn’t there any more and you’ve done nothing in almost a year to replace the value of what was lost.What is left at this zoo was not a good experience. The indoor exhibit with the birds was so hot on the upper floor to almost be intolerable and it was only in the low 80’s outside. The penguins, arguably the next best thing at this zoo was nice but disappointing in how dirty it was. There was thick green muck on the glass at the water line and the glass above the water line was very dirty.This is the only thing that I did in New York in 8 days where I left feeling like I’d been ripped off. I thought this was a horrible value.
I literally grew up coming here with my parents and younger siblings!! Too bad their big celebrity, Gus the polar bear passed away:( I was here recently with family from Cali and they still though the zoo to be every impressive, especially considering the location! My little niece just died over the hot and sticky rainforest exhibit where the birds are literally flying over your head! My nephew ofcourse loved the snow leopard and monkeys (just like me!) The petting zoo is fun for these little ones, just make sure they keep their hands away from their face and they wash up after, the petting zoo animals did seem way fatter and dirtier than how i remembered them from my childhood, hopefully they are healthy!