Unspecified/General

In the southern Dorchester neighbourhood of Boston about four miles south of downtown, the Franklin Park Zoo is the largest of the two zoos operated by the Zoo New England public-private partnership and the principal zoo of the broader Greater Boston area. The 72-acre zoo opened in October 1912 on a portion of the celebrated Franklin Park, the largest park in the Boston park system and itself part of the famous Emerald Necklace chain of parks designed by the great landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted during the 1880s. The original early-twentieth-century zoo housed a small collection of native and exotic animals in the small cage-and-paddock enclosures typical of the period. The zoo entered a period of long decline through the middle decades of the twentieth century, with the deteriorating Depression-era and post-war facilities reaching such a state by the 1980s that the City of Boston nearly shuttered the zoo entirely. The 1990 transfer of zoo operations from the City of Boston to the newly created Zoo New England nonprofit partnership marked the beginning of an ongoing modernisation programme that has transformed the zoo over the intervening three decades. The zoo today houses some 220 individual species of mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians and invertebrates arranged across several major themed zones. The standout enclosure is the celebrated Tropical Forest pavilion, a 73,000-square-foot enclosed indoor rainforest opened in 1989 and substantially renovated in 2018. The pavilion houses a large troop of Western lowland gorillas (the celebrated centrepiece of the zoo's collection), three pygmy hippopotamuses, several species of small monkey and a substantial collection of free-flying tropical birds in a carefully recreated central African rainforest landscape. The Outback Trail (covering Australian wildlife including kangaroos, emus and the celebrated cassowary) and the Serengeti Crossing (covering African plains wildlife including zebras, wildebeest, ostriches and warthogs) represent the most extensive outdoor habitats. The smaller Bird's World pavilion (a 1912 original building meticulously restored in 1996) houses an exceptional collection of small tropical birds. A small children's petting zoo, the Franklin Farm, completes the offering. The zoo is open daily year-round at modest admission prices, with discounted online ticket pricing available.

Type: Tourist Attraction

Address: 1 Franklin Park Road, Boston, MA, United States

Telephone: 617-541-5466

Website: zoonewengland.org/franklin-park-zoo

Opening Date: 04/10/1912