Franklin Park Zoo

About Franklin Park Zoo

Franklin Park Zoo covers 72 acres in the northeast portion of Franklin Park, Boston's largest park and the last piece of the city's Emerald Necklace park system. It opened to the public in 1912 and is operated today by Zoo New England, the non-profit that also runs the Stone Zoo in Stoneham, Massachusetts. The zoo has been accredited by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums since 1990, and it lists at least 165 species on its website, spanning mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, fish, and invertebrates.

Franklin Park's original landscape designer, Frederick Law Olmsted, drew up early plans for a naturalistic zoological garden focused on native animals, but the zoo that opened in 1912 followed a different design by Arthur A. Shurtleff that leaned more heavily on exotic species. Management passed from the Boston Parks Department to the Metropolitan District Commission in 1958, then to the non-profit Commonwealth Zoological Corporation in 1991, which was renamed Zoo New England in July 1997.

The zoo today is organized around named exhibit areas rather than a single unified theme: a domed rainforest building, an African-themed grasslands area, an Australian walkthrough trail, a giraffe habitat, a historic bird building, a seasonal butterfly exhibit, a children's zoo and working farm, and a large gorilla habitat. Alongside its role as a family attraction, Zoo New England positions the zoo as part of a broader conservation organization active in New England and internationally.

History

The Franklin Park Zoo officially opened on October 4, 1912, managed by the Boston Parks Department; admission was free, and an estimated two million people visited in 1920 alone. The zoo fell into disrepair through the Depression and World War II, and in 1958 the Metropolitan District Commission took over, installing fences and gates, introducing admission charges, and letting some difficult-to-maintain areas — including the original elephant house and the Bear Dens — deteriorate to the point of separation from the zoo property. The MDC also brought in the zoo's first professionally trained zoologist as director, Walter D. Stone, and added an animal hospital, administrative buildings, and a Children's Zoo that opened in 1962. In 1970, the Boston Zoological Society took on part of the zoo's management, while the state continued funding operations.

A $24 million master plan formulated in 1973 called for replacing an aging area known as "the Greeting" with new exhibits and several domed pavilions built around an African theme; construction began in 1978 but was slowed by funding and political complications. The renovated Children's Zoo reopened on July 1, 1984, at 3 acres, and soon became the zoo's most popular exhibit. After eleven years of construction and a $26 million cost, the African Tropical Forest Pavilion opened on September 9, 1989, and the zoo achieved accreditation from the American Association of Zoological Parks and Aquariums the following year — at the time, the only zoo in the country run by a state government besides its sister Stone Zoo. Attendance jumped to 200,000 after accreditation, though it continued to fluctuate in the years that followed.

Management shifted again in 1991 to the non-profit Commonwealth Zoological Corporation, renamed Zoo New England in July 1997. The late 1990s brought a run of new exhibits: Bongo Congo in 1997, Outback Trail and Butterfly Landing in 1998, and Giraffe Savannah in 1999, even as the zoo weathered budget cuts and dwindling attendance. The 2011 film "Zookeeper," starring Kevin James, was filmed on-site in 2009. More recently, Gorilla Grove — a large outdoor habitat with more than 360,000 cubic feet of climbing structures, a waterfall, and built-in foraging opportunities — opened in 2022, and an African Experience renovation of the old Serengeti Crossing exhibit, adding African penguins and a new savanna area, is set to open in spring or summer 2026.

Exhibits and habitats

The Tropical Forest — known as the African Tropical Forest from 1989 to 1997 — is a 3-acre building under a Teflon-coated dome, designed with streams, moats, and faux-rock structures to mimic a natural rainforest. It houses African painted dogs, Baird's tapirs, a ball python, cotton-top tamarins, De Brazza's monkeys, dwarf crocodiles, fruit bats, giant anteaters, green anacondas, a Kenyan sand boa, Linne's two-toed sloths, pygmy hippos, ring-tailed lemurs, West African pottos, western lowland gorillas, saddle-billed storks, emperor scorpions, and assorted birds, fish, and insects; as of 2025 a male clouded leopard occupies the exhibit's former ocelot enclosure. The building was part of the zoo's 1973 master plan and originally displayed only African rainforest species before Central and South American animals were added in the late 1990s.

Serengeti Crossing, previously called Bongo Congo, is a grasslands exhibit — reconfigured to 1.25 acres in 2018 — home to common ostriches, Hartmann's mountain zebras, white-bearded wildebeest, and wattled cranes. Kalahari Kingdom is a large African-themed habitat currently home to one African lion, viewable through a replica Land Rover, glass, or across a moat, along with African spurred tortoises, Bactrian camels, kori bustards, lowland nyalas, red river hogs, and spotted hyenas; it opened in 1997 as the first lion exhibit at the zoo since the old Lion House closed in the early 1970s.

Outback Trail, opened around 1998, features emus, laughing kookaburras, North Island brown kiwis, red-necked wallabies, tawny frogmouths, and western grey kangaroos, with a seasonal budgerigar aviary for hand-feeding. Giraffe Savannah, opened in 1999, holds a herd of Masai giraffes alongside Somali wild ass. Bird's World, a building dating to the zoo's 1912 opening and renovated in the mid-1970s, presents dozens of bird species across swamp, rainforest, desert, and wetland zones, plus an outdoor flight cage for Andean condors and Steller's sea eagles and additional species including Bali mynahs, boat-billed herons, Gouldian finches, keas, red-crested and violet turacos, sunbitterns, and white-naped cranes. Butterfly Landing is a seasonal outdoor exhibit with more than 1,000 free-flying butterflies among streams and a waterfall.

The Children's Zoo is a three-acre complex with a walk-through aviary of Asian birds, Baikal teals, golden pheasants, hooded cranes, black-tailed prairie dogs, red pandas, and Reeve's muntjacs, alongside Franklin Farm, a barn and paddock area with Black Welsh Mountain sheep, Dexter cattle, Guinea hogs, Morgan horses, Nigerian dwarf goats, and heritage-breed chickens. Gorilla Grove, opened in 2022, gives the resident gorilla troop more than 360,000 cubic feet to explore, including climbing structures, a waterfall, and foraging opportunities built into the terrain.

Animal highlights

Franklin Park Zoo lists at least 165 species on its website. Large mammals include western lowland gorillas, an African lion, snow leopards, a jaguar, Mexican gray wolves, African wild dogs, and Masai giraffes, alongside smaller mammals such as red pandas, ring-tailed lemurs, cotton-top tamarins, fennec foxes, and bush dogs. Its bird collection spans Andean condors, Steller's sea eagles, bald eagles, Caribbean flamingos, Bali mynas, whooping and white-naped cranes, and free-flying budgerigars in a walkthrough aviary. Reptiles and amphibians on view include green anacondas, a Gila monster, a Jamaican iguana, dyeing poison dart frogs, and West African dwarf crocodiles, and invertebrate exhibits feature Madagascar hissing cockroaches, an emperor scorpion, and a giant prickly stick insect. The zoo's Franklin Farm area adds domestic breeds, including Dexter cattle, Guinea hogs, Morgan horses, and Nigerian dwarf goats.

Conservation and programs

Zoo New England runs a Conservation Society that visitors can join for free to receive updates on local and global wildlife work, invitations to field days and lectures, and volunteer, internship, and job opportunities. The organization lists a wide range of active field programs, including work on Blanding's turtles, eastern box turtles, spotted turtles, diamondback terrapins, eastern hognose snakes, and New England cottontails close to home, alongside international projects such as cross-river gorilla conservation, the Panama Amphibian Rescue and Conservation Project, African painted dog and African penguin conservation, Mexican gray wolf conservation, Baird's tapir conservation, and the Sabin Snow Leopard Grants Program. Zoo New England also participates in AZA SAFE (Saving Animals From Extinction) and runs a graduate scholarship program tied to its conservation work.

School programs run both at the zoo and in classrooms, and the zoo hosts a Jr. Zookeeper Club at its sister Stone Zoo. On the sustainability side, Zoo New England maintains free public food forests at the entrances of both Franklin Park Zoo and Stone Zoo, describing them as edible gardens meant to strengthen community food access without requiring admission.

Planning your visit

As listed on the zoo's website, hours are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., with the seasonal evening lantern event Boston Lights running 6 to 10:30 p.m. during its run. The zoo uses Plan-Ahead Pricing, meaning admission prices vary by date and time and booking online in advance typically costs less than paying at the gate; a $1.50 processing fee applies per ticket purchased online, and children under two are always free. Several discount programs are listed, including reduced rates for Massachusetts ConnectorCare, EBT, and WIC cardholders, discounts for active-duty military and their families, discounts for teachers who are MTA, BTU, or AFT-MA members, and discounted admission for staff of AZA-accredited institutions. On the first and second Sunday of each month through December 2026, the zoo offers free admission for Boston students in grades K-12 or Pre-K along with two family members.

A 10,000-square-foot playground with rubberized ground cover is open year-round, and motorized ScooterPal rentals — styled as a rhino, lion, giraffe, bear, or leopard — are available at the Admissions booth for daytime use, weather and crowd conditions permitting. Because prices, hours, and special events change throughout the year, visitors should confirm current details on Zoo New England's official website before a visit.