Zoo Review: WCS Queens Zoo

Few cities in the United States can boast of two zoos - New York City has five.  Of those, most of the attention goes to the Bronx Zoo - the biggest by far - and the Central Park Zoo, with its location in the heart of Manhattan.  That, unfortunately, leads to the other three often being overlooked by the general public, which is unfortunate.  At a time when many zoos are increasingly copying one another and losing originality, the five New York zoos each have a different feel and character.

I haven't visited all of them (yet) - my most recent trip was to the Queens Zoo, located in Flushing Meadows, on the site of the 1964 World's Fair.

Of the zoos managed by the Wildlife Conservation Society, the Queens Zoo is the only one designed with a (loose) geographic focus - it features animals of the Americas.  I feel like this is a common theme among smaller zoos (see: Salisbury Zoo, Beardsley Zoo, Bergen County Zoo), perhaps to have a convenient answer for why they don't have elephants or giraffes or rhinos that sounds better than "There's no room for them here."  In a sense, it's the most visitor friendly of the WCS zoos - with the exception of a farmyard, located just across from the main entrance, most of the animals can be seen on a roughly circular loop, meaning that you can easily see everything without deviating too much from the trail.

The animals at the zoo may all be from North, Central, and South America, but they aren't arranged in any particular order, so there isn't a whole lot of cohesiveness to the zoo.  What the zoo does have in its favor is that the individual exhibits are wonderful.  All of the smaller WCS zoos received massive overhauls after the Bronx Zoo took over their management in the late 20th century (Queens Zoo was shut down from 1988 through 1992 for renovations), but even before that, it was one of the first facilities built in the entirely barless style of habitats.  Several of the habitats that I visited here rank among my favorites for their respective species.

Upon entering the gate, visitors - depending on which direction the take the circle - pass through a wetlands area, home to bald eagles, sandhill cranes, and an assortment of North American waterfowl, including trumpeter swans.  During the warmer months, American alligators may also be observed here; the zoo does not have any indoor exhibit areas, so if it's too cold for the gators, they cannot be seen.  Small trails looping off to the side feature habitats for Canada lynx, pumas, and great-horned owls.  Towards the center of the zoo is a spacious meadow with a herd of Roosevelt elk.  The big-antlered bull is an especially impressive sight (or sound, if you catch him bellowing).

The most visually stunning feature of the Queens Zoo is its Aviary, converted from a leftover, relocated structure from the World's Fair.  The giant geodesic dome, covered with fine netting, houses a variety of native and exotic birds, but its the parrots that are the most impressive.  Conures, parakeets, and macaws sweep overhead or climb through the branches, while visitors can observe them from multiple vantage points, both from the ground, meandering alongside pools and through underbrush, and from an elevated boardwalk.  I can't imagine the headaches that keepers must face catching up the more delicate birds for the winter (again, this is all outdoors), but I'm glad that they give their birds so many quality months in such a beautiful, spacious aviary.

Continuing back outside, the trail passes by a hillside yard of coyotes, a species which is becoming increasingly prominent in New York City.  Next are the California sea lions, the species that could be said to serve as the unofficial mascot of WCS, as each of the zoos has an exhibit of them.  Training demonstrations highlight the intelligence and adaptability of the pinnipeds, while at the same time providing enrichment and assisting with husbandry.  Beyond the sea lions is the habitat of another species closely associated with WCS (though more the Bronx) - a herd of American bison in a sprawling grassy yard (seriously, how on earth did they get it to stay so grassy!), accompanied by a few pronghorn.  Towards the end of the trail, visitors can enter a viewing blind to gain a peek into perhaps the single best parrot habitat I've ever seen.  Unlike the tropical birds housed seasonally in the Aviary, the thick-billed parrots seen in this exhibit are perfectly at home in whatever weather New York throws at them.

Perhaps because of the lack of indoor exhibits, the number of South American species here is pretty small and mostly limited to species from the cooler parts of the continent - the Andes and Patagonia (it just dawned on me, this was the first traditional zoo I ever visited without a single primate species).  The tiny handful of species featured, however, are at least unique ones, not seen too often in zoos.  Chacoan peccaries and Chilean pudu occupy separate habitats (nice, but not nearly as stunning as the massive bison herd or the elk exhibit.  As a finale, visitors encounter a boulder-studded meadow that houses Andean bears.  The Queens Zoo has had a lot of luck recently in breeding these endangered South American bears, so if you're lucky you may see cubs rolling in the grass or splashing in their shallow pool.

The Queens Zoo has exhibits of such excellent quality that I really wish that there was more to the zoo - surely there are enough North American and cold-hardy South American species to form another loop?  To expand the collection and overdevelop the campus, however, would detract from what makes this zoo so special - that it is one of several small, quiet islands of calm in the country's greatest city, where people can come to appreciate animals.  As with the other small members of the WCS family, the Queens Zoo is a great reminder that wonderful things sometimes come in small packages.

WCS Queens Zoo