Stone Zoo

Stone Zoo is a medium-small sized zoo (around 26 acres) in Stoneham, Massachusetts, United States, by the Spot Pond reservoir. It is operated by Zoo New England, which also operates the Franklin Park Zoo in Boston. (That the Stone Zoo is located in Stoneham is purely a coincidence which has nothing to do with its name.)

The zoo was founded in 1905 as the Middlesex Fells Zoo and on March 14, 1969 was renamed the Walter D Stone Memorial Zoo in honor of Walter D. Stone, a former zoo director. [ [url] http://www.stonezoo.org/ [/url] ]

It was once a very popular zoo in the 1970s and 1980s featuring elephants, giraffes, zebras, a pygmy hippopotamus, sea lions, lions, tigers, a polar bear, a large house of birds and many other exhibits. During a fiscal crisis in 1990 the State of Massachusetts cut all funding and shut the zoo down. Due to a public outcry, the state senate helped set up a non-profit cooporation to manage the zoo, with the help of fund raising, donations, etc. During this transition period the zoo lost all of its large animals, and the grounds were not kept up properly. The zoo rapidly declined in quality, and then in attendance. Old facilities were put to new uses, such as using the giraffe house as an animal education center.

In the early 2000's Zoo New England began a fund-raising campaign to reinvigorate both the Stone Zoo and the Franklin Park Zoo. A variety of fund-raisers were carried out, and a variety of plans for improvements to the zoo were drawn up. Surveys were made of zoo visitors about the various plans, and Zoo New England has been using the results of these surveys to direct their improvement and renovation plans.

The current layout aims to use the whole grounds to be interesting and educational, without featuring as many large animals as a major zoo. Since 2000 a number of significant improvements have been made, such as:

* Birds of Prey outdoor wild bird demonstrations (spring and summer only)

* Meerkats

* The river otter exhibit has been upgraded

* A new black bear exhibit, featuring two black bears, has been built on the site of the old polar bear exhibit.

* Annual holiday light exhibit, ZooLights, with thousands of lights and Christmas displays. It runs from Thanksgiving through Christmastime

Since this time the grounds of the zoo have been greatly improved; attendance is up. Funds are already being raised for a series of new improvements and exhibitions.

Exhibit areas

* Yukon Creek - simulates the Canadian north woods. Gray fox, bald eagles, lynx, reindeer, etc.

* Himalayan Highlands - Yak, snow leopards, Markhor goats, cranes.

* Treasures of the Sierra Madre - Jaguar, coyotes, cougars, Gila monsters, etc.

* Windows to the Wild - Meerkats, flamingos, African-crested porcupines, Emperor tamarins, etc.

* Barnyard - sheep, goats, pygmy zebu. This section also features a playground.

There are two bathrooms, one food area, and one gift shop.

On September 24, 2005 Stone Zoo celebrated its 100 year anniversary.

External links

* [http://www.stonezoo.org/ Stone Zoo official site]

References