Zoo New England Trip

MGolka

MGolka

Well-Known Member
5+ year member
Hey all,

This weekend my wife and I will be making a trip to Boston and we have planned to visit both the Franklin Park Zoo and Stone Zoo on Sunday (Stone) and Monday (FPZ). Neither of us have been to Boston before so I'm eager to hear from any locals or those familiar with travel in the area if there is a better way to get to these zoos rather than taking an Uber or Lyft as we will be staying near downtown close to a subway stop.

In regards to the Stone Zoo, I see that the Animal Discovery Center is closed. What would we be missing that is in this building?

I've been monitoring the Franklin Park Zoo news thread and know that the outdoor gorilla habitat is being refurbished. It looked like a little while ago that the hyenas were taken off exhibit due to this construction, is this still the case? It seems the zoo has removed them from the website and map, but not sure how current this is.

Also, I'm probably most interested in seeing the brown kiwi as I've not seen one before and know of only a couple places in the States that have them. Are they usually seen on exhibit? Or is it hit or miss?

Any insight to visiting these zoos would be welcome, one thing we won't have to worry about is the timed entry tickets as I purchased a dual membership as it basically would pay for our visit this weekend so we won't have to worry about travel time to the zoos.
 
I'm hopefully going to a few zoos in new england next month so I'm eager to hear the responses, as well! Is there anything to know about the aquarium?
 
When I visited Franklin Park Zoo in 2016 we did not see the kiwi, and my impression was that it is not usually seen. That is only one anecdote, so hopefully you will have better luck. For me the major draw of that zoo was seeing the pottos in the rain forest exhibit.

We went around Boston on the subway and my memory is that the zoo was not accessible that way, as the park is in a fairly remote part of the city. We drove to the zoo.

The New England Aquarium is excellent if you have time and inclination to visit another animal attraction in addition to the zoos. I didn't get to visit the Stone Zoo.
 
MGolka said:
Hey all,

This weekend my wife and I will be making a trip to Boston and we have planned to visit both the Franklin Park Zoo and Stone Zoo on Sunday (Stone) and Monday (FPZ). Neither of us have been to Boston before so I'm eager to hear from any locals or those familiar with travel in the area if there is a better way to get to these zoos rather than taking an Uber or Lyft as we will be staying near downtown close to a subway stop.

In regards to the Stone Zoo, I see that the Animal Discovery Center is closed. What would we be missing that is in this building?

I've been monitoring the Franklin Park Zoo news thread and know that the outdoor gorilla habitat is being refurbished. It looked like a little while ago that the hyenas were taken off exhibit due to this construction, is this still the case? It seems the zoo has removed them from the website and map, but not sure how current this is.

Also, I'm probably most interested in seeing the brown kiwi as I've not seen one before and know of only a couple places in the States that have them. Are they usually seen on exhibit? Or is it hit or miss?

Any insight to visiting these zoos would be welcome, one thing we won't have to worry about is the timed entry tickets as I purchased a dual membership as it basically would pay for our visit this weekend so we won't have to worry about travel time to the zoos.
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I've only ever seen the kiwi at Franklin Park Zoo once- you're more likely not to see it than see it. I can't answer for transportation, as I live an hour outside Boston so always drive. The Animal Discovery Center at Stone doesn't have much in it, you'd be missing a few species of Amphibian and a reptile or two, but no super rare species. There is a species list on zoonewengland.org than will tell you what species are in it. Both ZooNewEngland facilities are incredible zoos and I really hope you enjoy your visit. If you have any more questions, let me know and I'll try my best to answer them. Are you planning to hit anywhere else on this trip as well (zoos or otherwise)?
 
Neil chace said:
I've only ever seen the kiwi at Franklin Park Zoo once- you're more likely not to see it than see it. I can't answer for transportation, as I live an hour outside Boston so always drive. The Animal Discovery Center at Stone doesn't have much in it, you'd be missing a few species of Amphibian and a reptile or two, but no super rare species. There is a species list on zoonewengland.org than will tell you what species are in it. Both ZooNewEngland facilities are incredible zoos and I really hope you enjoy your visit. If you have any more questions, let me know and I'll try my best to answer them. Are you planning to hit anywhere else on this trip as well (zoos or otherwise)?
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We are planning on going to the New England Aquarium on Tuesday morning as we head back to Omaha on Tuesday night as we have a late flight. We were looking into a whale watch cruise. Being from the middle of the country, we don't get to venture off the coast very often despite my frequent trips to Florida and southern California, I usually stay on land so trying to see a whale you can't in an aquarium is very appealing to us.
 
MGolka said:
We are planning on going to the New England Aquarium on Tuesday morning as we head back to Omaha on Tuesday night as we have a late flight. We were looking into a whale watch cruise. Being from the middle of the country, we don't get to venture off the coast very often despite my frequent trips to Florida and southern California, I usually stay on land so trying to see a whale you can't in an aquarium is very appealing to us.
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Nice. I would say that neither ZooNewEngland facility is a whole day zoo, so you'd probably want to do some other stuff as well. Whether that means picking a non-animal attraction that interests you (I highly reccomend the Museum of Fine Arts) or heading outside the city to see more zoos, is up to you. Both Capron Park Zoo and Roger Williams Park Zoo could be accessed via the Commuter Rail from South Station, which has stations in both Providence and Attleboro. There are plenty of other things to do in Boston as well depending on what you are interested in seeing.
 
I'm surprised so many of you have not been able to see / have rarely seen the Kiwis. I have seen them like basically every time I have gone to the zoo, and they are usually very active. You just have to look for a while, since they can be hard to see in the dark and can blend in. But (from my experience, at least) once your eyes adjust to the light, you should be fine.

Because of the route I usually take through the zoo, I typically arrive at the Kiwi exhibit around the middle of the day. Perhaps this timing is why I have been able to see the Kiwis, but the rest of you have had worse luck?

There is also the possibility that I have just been extremely lucky, and that this is all just random. Who knows.
 
Neil chace said:
Nice. I would say that neither ZooNewEngland facility is a whole day zoo, so you'd probably want to do some other stuff as well. Whether that means picking a non-animal attraction that interests you (I highly reccomend the Museum of Fine Arts) or heading outside the city to see more zoos, is up to you. Both Capron Park Zoo and Roger Williams Park Zoo could be accessed via the Commuter Rail from South Station, which has stations in both Providence and Attleboro. There are plenty of other things to do in Boston as well depending on what you are interested in seeing.
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I would recommend the Boston Museum of Science, as they do have animal exhibits as well as other stuff that might suit your fancy
 
Neil chace said:
Nice. I would say that neither ZooNewEngland facility is a whole day zoo, so you'd probably want to do some other stuff as well. Whether that means picking a non-animal attraction that interests you (I highly reccomend the Museum of Fine Arts) or heading outside the city to see more zoos, is up to you. Both Capron Park Zoo and Roger Williams Park Zoo could be accessed via the Commuter Rail from South Station, which has stations in both Providence and Attleboro. There are plenty of other things to do in Boston as well depending on what you are interested in seeing.
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My current plan for my Boston day (hope you don't mind a bit of threadjacking, MGolka!) is Stone and the aquarium. I've seen Kiwi at Bronx, and I'm a carnivore person, so my priority is the bush dogs. I'm not 100% on the aquarium just because I'd have to wear a mask the entire time, and I recently had surgery on the side of my face.
My hopes for the other two days are Roger Williams & Southwick, and Squam Lakes & Maine Wildlife Park. If I can't convince my dad of the latter (he wants to stay within 2 hours of Providence), I'll do Roger Willams & Capron Park one day and Southwick combined with Animal Adventure, maybe, the other day.
On the driving days I'm hoping for Bronx one way, Beardsley and Mystic the other (I did Mystic earlier this year already, just want to see the mammals again).
 
MGolka said:
We are planning on going to the New England Aquarium on Tuesday morning as we head back to Omaha on Tuesday night as we have a late flight. We were looking into a whale watch cruise. Being from the middle of the country, we don't get to venture off the coast very often despite my frequent trips to Florida and southern California, I usually stay on land so trying to see a whale you can't in an aquarium is very appealing to us.
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The Aquarium offers a whale watching cruise daily! Not sure how good it is. There's plenty of other options for that in the area, as well. I'd be doing that if I had a 4th day.
 
TinoPup said:
My current plan for my Boston day (hope you don't mind a bit of threadjacking, MGolka!) is Stone and the aquarium. I've seen Kiwi at Bronx, and I'm a carnivore person, so my priority is the bush dogs. I'm not 100% on the aquarium just because I'd have to wear a mask the entire time, and I recently had surgery on the side of my face.
My hopes for the other two days are Roger Williams & Southwick, and Squam Lakes & Maine Wildlife Park. If I can't convince my dad of the latter (he wants to stay within 2 hours of Providence), I'll do Roger Willams & Capron Park one day and Southwick combined with Animal Adventure, maybe, the other day.
On the driving days I'm hoping for Bronx one way, Beardsley and Mystic the other (I did Mystic earlier this year already, just want to see the mammals again).
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Sounds like a good plan for a zoo-based trip. Have you looked into Buttonwood Park Zoo? They have a lot of rare waterfowl and some rare primates that might interest you. If it's too far out of your way I get it, but worth looking into if you haven't. All those other facilities you named are incredible, although I've never visited Animal Adventures or Beardsley so can't talk about them. I know @Dyl0526 has been to Animal Adventures and @ThylacineAlive has been to Beardsley so they may be able to answer any specifics on those facilities. As for NEAQ, it's definitely a good aquarium, and you'd certainly enjoy your visit. It can get very crowded in there, so if crowds are something you don't like you you want to consider a different facility. There are a few rare shorebirds if that's something that interests you. I personally prefer the Mystic Aquarium, but that's more personal preference than anything else. If you asked everyone who's visited both, I wouldn't be surprised to see a 50-50 split on which aquarium they prefer.
 
Neil chace said:
Sounds like a good plan for a zoo-based trip. Have you looked into Buttonwood Park Zoo? They have a lot of rare waterfowl and some rare primates that might interest you. If it's too far out of your way I get it, but worth looking into if you haven't. All those other facilities you named are incredible, although I've never visited Animal Adventures or Beardsley so can't talk about them. I know @Dyl0526 has been to Animal Adventures and @ThylacineAlive has been to Beardsley so they may be able to answer any specifics on those facilities. As for NEAQ, it's definitely a good aquarium, and you'd certainly enjoy your visit. It can get very crowded in there, so if crowds are something you don't like you you want to consider a different facility. There are a few rare shorebirds if that's something that interests you. I personally prefer the Mystic Aquarium, but that's more personal preference than anything else. If you asked everyone who's visited both, I wouldn't be surprised to see a 50-50 split on which aquarium they prefer.
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I have, it's on my "secondary" list. I'd like to go but it doesn't have any priority species for me. I'm not really into primates at all - I'm mostly carnivore and ungulates - and I don't yet go out of my way for birds (except if there was a harpy eagle or secretary bird!). That's good to know, though!
Thylo's been to Animal Adventures, as well, and answered a few questions for me. I'd want to do their cat tour thing and see the pale fox.
I really don't like crowds, so I try to get to aquariums, especially, at opening to beat them as best as I can. With my trip to Mystic earlier this year that meant leaving at 4am :D I was looking at photos of NEAQ last night and I'm intrigued by the similarities to National Aquarium in Baltimore (my local big aquarium).

Reasons for my list:
Stone - Bush dogs
NEAQ - pinnipeds
RWPZ - cheetahs (my favorite), takin (haven't seen)
Southwick - cheetahs, vicuna, went there as a kid
Squam Lakes - mink (haven't seen), fisher, mice
MWP - fisher, moose

Other possibilities are capron, buttonwood park, ecotarium, children's museum in hartford (mink), museum of science in boston, and VINS nature center in vermont.
 
TinoPup said:
I'm intrigued by the similarities to National Aquarium in Baltimore (my local big aquarium).
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There's actually a good reason for this. When the National Aquarium in Baltimore, which happens to be my favorite aquarium I've visited, was designed by the same firm that designed the New England Aquarium, and it was intentionally designed in the same style. Here's an interesting article on it: https://www.architectmagazine.com/t...two-aquariums-by-cambridge-seven-associates_o
 
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Neil chace said:
There's actually a good reason for this. When the National Aquarium in Baltimore, which happens to be my favorite aquarium I've visited, was designed by the same firm that designed the New England Aquarium, and it was intentionally designed in the same style. Here's an interesting article on it: https://www.architectmagazine.com/t...two-aquariums-by-cambridge-seven-associates_o
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THANK YOU. I was thinking they must be the same architect, but didn't find anything on them!
 
Thank you to those of you that commented in this thread. My wife and I had a great time this last weekend in Boston.

We enjoyed both zoos and I feel they complement each other well. We were able to see everything we wanted to see including the bush dogs and the brown kiwi. I did post something into the FPZ news thread with a picture of the gorilla construction, but also asked some questions about the history of the place. Another pretty interesting thing we got to witness in the Butterfly House at Franklin Park Zoo was a praying mantis devouring one of the butterflies in there. I'm not normally interested in insects, but I found this quite awesome. Made sure I got a photo of it.

I found the design of the New England Aquarium pretty cool with the circular tank in the middle and the multiple levels that ascend/descend around it. I was a little surprised that this aquarium lacked any big sharks. Really the only tank that would be large enough to hold them would be the Giant Ocean Tank in the center, but it seems the focus is on local species since they pump water up from the Harbor. My favorites here were the fur seals and watching the Mandarin Dragonet, such an interesting fish.

The whale watch was a ton of fun. Saw at least four whales (1 Minke, 3 Humpback) and a couple Blue Sharks. An unexpected highlight though was seeing an Ocean Sunfish (mola mola)! It was fascinating to watch this fish so close to the surface and got some great photos of it as well.
 
Glad you enjoyed your visits.

The new england aquarium used to have tiger sharks and a nurse shark in the giant ocean tank, but they no longer do. I think I heard that they no longer have sharks because they found that it is bad for the sharks' skeletal structure for them to constantly swim in circles around the mock-coral in the middle of the tank, but I am not 100% sure. Someone else may be able to offer more insight into this. Either way, I wish the aquarium could create a new habitat, to hold larger sharks once again.
 
TinoPup said:
I have, it's on my "secondary" list. I'd like to go but it doesn't have any priority species for me. I'm not really into primates at all - I'm mostly carnivore and ungulates - and I don't yet go out of my way for birds (except if there was a harpy eagle or secretary bird!). That's good to know, though!
Thylo's been to Animal Adventures, as well, and answered a few questions for me. I'd want to do their cat tour thing and see the pale fox.
I really don't like crowds, so I try to get to aquariums, especially, at opening to beat them as best as I can. With my trip to Mystic earlier this year that meant leaving at 4am :D I was looking at photos of NEAQ last night and I'm intrigued by the similarities to National Aquarium in Baltimore (my local big aquarium).

Reasons for my list:
Stone - Bush dogs
NEAQ - pinnipeds
RWPZ - cheetahs (my favorite), takin (haven't seen)
Southwick - cheetahs, vicuna, went there as a kid
Squam Lakes - mink (haven't seen), fisher, mice
MWP - fisher, moose

Other possibilities are capron, buttonwood park, ecotarium, children's museum in hartford (mink), museum of science in boston, and VINS nature center in vermont.
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It probably wouldn't be too hard to look for mink in the wild in you wanted too.
 
MGolka said:
Thank you to those of you that commented in this thread. My wife and I had a great time this last weekend in Boston.

We enjoyed both zoos and I feel they complement each other well. We were able to see everything we wanted to see including the bush dogs and the brown kiwi. I did post something into the FPZ news thread with a picture of the gorilla construction, but also asked some questions about the history of the place. Another pretty interesting thing we got to witness in the Butterfly House at Franklin Park Zoo was a praying mantis devouring one of the butterflies in there. I'm not normally interested in insects, but I found this quite awesome. Made sure I got a photo of it.

I found the design of the New England Aquarium pretty cool with the circular tank in the middle and the multiple levels that ascend/descend around it. I was a little surprised that this aquarium lacked any big sharks. Really the only tank that would be large enough to hold them would be the Giant Ocean Tank in the center, but it seems the focus is on local species since they pump water up from the Harbor. My favorites here were the fur seals and watching the Mandarin Dragonet, such an interesting fish.

The whale watch was a ton of fun. Saw at least four whales (1 Minke, 3 Humpback) and a couple Blue Sharks. An unexpected highlight though was seeing an Ocean Sunfish (mola mola)! It was fascinating to watch this fish so close to the surface and got some great photos of it as well.
Click to expand...

Glad you had a fantastic trip! Did you do the whale watching with the Aquarium, or a different tour?
 
TinoPup said:
Glad you had a fantastic trip! Did you do the whale watching with the Aquarium, or a different tour?
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Did the one thru the Aquarium. Once there I saw there were a bunch of other options, but I thought ours was good. We took the 3:30 cruise and it was pretty neat by the time you got back to Boston it was dusk and the skyline looks great.
 
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