As native New Englander of a certain age...Benson’s Wild Animal Park in Hudson, New Hampshire was pretty exciting when I was a kid. Closed since the mid-1980’s I believe.
Squam Lake in New Hampshire and The Maine Game Farm in Maine, exhibit native species.
Some zoos I remember have been closed since the very early 1980’s or late 1970’s. From back in an era when many small cities had small (sometimes not very pleasant by our standards) zoos. Mohegan Park Zoo in Norwich, CT. New London Zoo also in Connecticut. The Houlton Game Farm in Maine.
I can remember Buttonwood Park being a very small (and free zoo) a few blocks from my uncle’s house.
Massachusetts seems to have kept it’s small zoos. I think Forest Park in Springfield is the only one that closed down for a significant number of years before being reopened. In the 1970’s my grandparents lived in Bristol, CT and we visited Forest Park when it was a traditional brick and steel zoo with bears and big cats.
I took my niece there in 2003. It was a pleasant little zoo then...but I think it’s actually gone a bit downhill.
Franklin Park and Beardsley I don’t think ever closed down, but both Stone Zoo and Roger Williams Park closed for a few years while they renovated themselves.
For a couple years Zoological Attraction in New England meant two institutions: The Mystic Aquarium and The New England Aquarium. When I was a kid living in Groton, CT, Mystic displayed Bottle-nosed Dolphins, Dall Porpoise, Beluga Whales, California Sea Lions, Stellar Sea Lions, Northern Fur Seals, Harbor Seals, and a Walrus.
As for today, I think the Beardsley Zoo is being underrated here. I’d say it’s the third (maybe fourth depending upon your opinion of Franklin Park’s Rainforest Building) best Zoo in New England.
Taken together as Zoo New England, Stone and Franklin Park still probably fall behind Roger Williams and maybe even Southwicks.
Dividing up Zoo New England and only ranking the collections I’ve visited, I’d rate New England’s Zoos thus:
1) Roger Williams Park Zoo: first time I ever saw Lions. Vastly improved since 1978. AZA accredited. The Polar Bear Exhibit in 1990 was pretty good.
2) Southwick’s Zoo: first visited in 1992, last in 2005. Good collection, so-so but improving exhibits?
3) Beardsley Zoo: Nice Wolf exhibits. Love the comparison of the Red Wolves and Grey Wolves. They should exhibit Coyotes too. The Carousel is THE Zoo Carousel (in my opinion—although San Antonio’s is nice...but not nearly the first in the “modern zoo age”. That would be Beardsley).
4) Buttonwood Park Zoo. The last great small city zoo in New England.
5) Stone Zoo. Points for exhibiting a natural prey species for the Snow Leopard. Big points.
6) Franklin Park Zoo. Boston could do better.
7) York’s Wild Kingdom. A lot of animals. Expensive. I last visited when I was staying with my Step-Dad and his wife in Sanford, Maine. Maybe it was the family dynamic...but three visits between 1991-1996 and the place never really appealed to me. But it has been 22 years now so who knows.
8) Forest Park Zoo. The very first Zoo I ever visited as a child. Winter 1976, my Uncle (a couple years older than me) convinced me they could not play hockey on the park pond because of the Hammerhead Sharks living beneath the thin icy surface. Jaws had come out the year before and was still being shown in theaters as a second or third run feature. We were obessed with it.
