Stone Zoo

About Stone Zoo

Stone Zoo is a medium- to small-sized zoo of about 26 acres in Stoneham, Massachusetts, at 149 Pond St. It has been open since 1905 and is accredited by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums. The zoo is operated by the Commonwealth Zoological Corporation, doing business as Zoo New England, the same organization that runs Franklin Park Zoo in Boston.

The property combines low-lying areas densely developed with smaller exhibits alongside rocky forested hillsides that hold larger habitats built for Species Survival Plan programs. The zoo's website lists at least 165 species. Zoo New England describes its mission around conservation and education, and Stone Zoo's layout groups its exhibits by geography and habitat type — from Yukon Creek's boreal forest to the Caribbean Coast's walk-through aviary — reflecting that broader conservation focus.

History

Stone Zoo was founded in 1905 as the Middlesex Fells Zoo, starting as a small collection of local animals that grew to include more exotic species. A Kiddy Zoo based on Mother Goose stories opened in the 1950s, and in the 1960s the zoo underwent major renovations under director Walter D. Stone, including a large free-flight aviary and the addition of elephants, giraffes, zebras, pygmy hippopotamus, sea lions, and other large animals. On March 14, 1969, following Stone's death in 1968, the zoo was renamed the Walter D. Stone Memorial Zoo.

Through the 1970s and 1980s the zoo bred endangered species including orangutans, kinkajous, siamang, and kudus, and in July 1979 a polar bear named Major arrived and became the zoo's main attraction. On November 12, 1990, state budget cuts forced Stone Zoo to close entirely. Public outcry led the state senate to establish a private nonprofit corporation to manage the zoo, and it reopened on June 6, 1992, though during the transition it fell into disrepair and lost all of its large animals except Major, who remained until his death in 2000. The zoo's quality and attendance declined sharply in this period, and old facilities, including the former giraffe house, were repurposed as an animal education center.

In the early 2000s, Zoo New England launched a fund-raising campaign to reinvigorate both Stone Zoo and Franklin Park Zoo. On September 24, 2005, Stone Zoo celebrated its 100th anniversary, and the grounds were reworked to stay interesting and educational despite the earlier loss of large animals, with many new exhibits created and older ones expanded or upgraded — improvements credited with increasing zoo attendance.

Exhibits and habitats

Stone Zoo's major exhibit areas are organized by region and habitat. North American Wetlands, dating to around 2012, is home to tundra swans and whooping cranes. The Animal Discovery Center, from around 2017, houses corn snakes, dyeing poison dart frogs, eastern box turtles, green and black poison dart frogs, leopard geckos, Panamanian golden frogs, and rosy boas. The Barnyard holds Nigerian dwarf goats, Nubian goats, Southdown sheep, and various chicken breeds, alongside a nature playscape playground.

The Caribbean Coast, opened around 2018, is a 6,000-square-foot walk-through aviary featuring blue and gold macaws, Caribbean flamingos, Barrow's goldeneyes, scaly-sided mergansers, green-winged macaws, Jamaican iguanas, and scarlet ibises; nearby, the Butterfly Oasis displays various butterfly species, and the zoo's bush dog exhibit — the only one of its kind in New England — has bred a pair that had two pups in November 2018.

Himalayan Highlands, from around 1998, houses markhors and snow leopards. The Mexican Gray Wolf Exhibit, also dating to 1998, was long home to a single lone wolf named Roberto, who died in October 2019; by early 2020 the zoo had introduced a sibling pack of six adolescent wolves to the hillside habitat. Treasures of the Sierra Madre, from around 2002, recreates the Sierra Madre mountains and houses Chacoan peccaries, a great horned owl, cougars, Gila monsters, spiny-tailed iguanas, chuckwallas, jaguars, peregrine falcons, pueblan milk snakes, a ringtail, and Seba's short-tailed bats.

Treetops & Riverbeds, from around 2008, is an open-air environment for black-and-white colobus monkeys, North American river otters, and northern white-cheeked gibbons. Windows to the Wild, from around 2003, is home to barn owls, cotton-top tamarins, fennec foxes, Linné's two-toed sloths, long-tailed chinchillas, prehensile-tailed porcupines, and rock hyraxes, with a pair of African spurred tortoises added to the former flamingo grotto in July 2019. Yukon Creek, from around 2000, simulates Canadian boreal forest and houses American black bears, Arctic foxes, bald eagles, Canada lynxes, North American porcupines, and reindeer.

Animal highlights

The zoo's website lists at least 165 species on display — this is a floor, not a total. Beyond the exhibit-area animals named above, the roster includes species such as the western lowland gorilla, red panda, snow leopard, clouded leopard, African wild dog, and spotted hyena, alongside smaller residents like the emperor scorpion, Madagascar hissing cockroach, and giant prickly stick insect. Domestic and farmyard breeds — Dexter cattle, guinea hogs, and a Sardinian dwarf donkey among them — round out the collection alongside more than a dozen bird species, from the hooded crane and saddle-billed stork to the kori bustard and Andean condor.

Conservation and programs

Zoo New England, which operates Stone Zoo, runs an extensive roster of conservation programs spanning local and global work. Locally, its Field Conservation Team works on turtle conservation for species including Blanding's turtle, the eastern box turtle, the spotted turtle, and the diamondback terrapin, along with the eastern hognose snake, the marbled salamander, and the eastern spadefoot toad, plus native pollinator and wildflower conservation and biodiversity projects around Franklin Park in Boston.

Globally, Zoo New England supports conservation work for cross-river gorillas, the hicatee turtle, the Panama Amphibian Rescue and Conservation Project, the northern jaguar, African painted dogs, African penguins, the Mexican gray wolf, Baird's tapir, the short-tailed chinchilla, the European hamster, the Cuban solenodon, migratory birds through BirdsCaribbean, the northern dhole, and the kori bustard and kiwi, along with a Sabin Snow Leopard Grants Program and a graduate scholarship program. The organization also participates in AZA SAFE (Saving Animals From Extinction) and runs programs on wildlife trafficking awareness, tree canopy building for climate resilience, and reducing the risk of zoonotic diseases.

Planning your visit

Stone Zoo's hours are listed as 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Zoo New England sells tickets for either zoo separately, or a membership that covers both Stone Zoo and Franklin Park Zoo for a year, with additional discounts and exclusive previews. Plan-Ahead Pricing means prices vary by date and time, with online booking in advance typically the lowest price and gate prices the highest; a $1.50 processing fee applies per ticket purchased online, and children under two are always free.

Several discount programs are listed: Massachusetts ConnectorCare cardholders receive general admission for $11 per person for up to four people, and Massachusetts EBT and WIC cardholders receive general daytime admission for $7 per person for up to four people, both through 2026, with eligibility verified via ID.me. Groups of 10 or more non-members pay $21.95 per adult and $14.95 per child, with registered nonprofits paying $10 per person; library pass holders get 40% off for up to six guests at the gate. Active-duty military and their immediate family receive 40% off, and AZA-accredited institution members receive 50% off general daytime admission for up to two adults and four children, at the gate only.

For accessibility, Zoo New England states it works to meet WCAG 2.1 Level AA standards on its website and has built the site with standards-compliant code, skip-navigation links, zoomable pages up to 300%, and alternative text on most images. Free public food forests — edible gardens open without admission — sit at the entrances of both Stone Zoo and Franklin Park Zoo's Giraffe entrance. As always, confirm current hours, prices, and any closures on the official website before visiting.