Turtle Back Zoo

About Turtle Back Zoo

Turtle Back Zoo occupies 20 acres of West Orange, New Jersey's South Mountain Reservation, part of the Essex County park system, one of the oldest county park systems in the country. The zoo takes its name from a nearby rock formation and has operated since 1963, when Essex County built a seasonal children's zoo designed around Hans Christian Andersen's storybook themes. Today it is a year-round facility with a collection that has grown to more than 1,400 animals representing species from every continent except Antarctica, according to the zoo's own history. Attendance reached almost one million visitors for the first time in 2023.

The zoo has been accredited by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums since 2006, and by the Zoological Association of America since 2017. It is managed as part of the Essex County Park System, with the nonprofit Zoological Society of New Jersey, established in 1975, providing fundraising and membership support. After a period of disrepair in the 1990s that nearly led to its closure, the zoo used roughly $20 million raised between 2003 and 2006 to rebuild toward AZA standards, including a new entrance and administrative complex and its first indoor exhibit, the reptile center.

The zoo is organized into regional zones — Wild America, African Adventure, Amazing Asia, and the Australian Walkabout — alongside Essex Farm and a dedicated Reptile House, plus indoor attractions like the Stingray Touch Tank. It sits adjacent to the Richard J. Codey Arena, the former practice home of the NHL's New Jersey Devils, within the larger South Mountain Recreation Complex, which also includes a carousel, a miniature railroad, and a mini-golf course.

History

Turtle Back Zoo opened in 1963 with a collection of 140 animals representing 40 species, run seasonally with exhibits like a giant piggy bank, an ABC house, and a pirates' ship built around Hans Christian Andersen's stories. By 1973 it had grown to 850 animals and 275 species. The Zoological Society of New Jersey was founded in 1975 to help fund and promote the zoo, but the facility fell into disrepair through the following decades and was nearly shut down in 1995.

A master plan adopted in 2000 set out to bring the zoo up to Association of Zoos and Aquariums standards. Between 2003 and 2006, roughly $20 million in funding paid for new facilities, including the Essex County Animal Hospital and an 11,000-square-foot entrance and administrative complex with a 4,000-square-foot reptile center, classrooms, and an auditorium. The zoo received its first AZA accreditation in 2006.

Major exhibits followed over the next two decades: the Reptile Center opened alongside accreditation in 2006; the gibbon habitat that anchors Amazing Asia opened in 2009; Big Cat Country followed in 2011; the Stingray Touch Tank and a renovated sea lion pool opened in 2013; African Adventure, the zoo's three-acre Africa-themed savannah, opened in May 2016; and Island Giants, a new home for the Komodo dragon and American alligator, opened in September 2023. Proposed 2019 additions — an amphitheater, a grizzly bear exhibit, and overnight camping — drew objections from nearby residents over traffic and disruption to the surrounding reservation. The amphitheater plan was scaled back after the backlash and was later put on hold during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Exhibits and habitats

African Adventure, a three-acre savannah-style attraction that opened in 2016, holds a herd of five Masai giraffes alongside ostriches and endangered bongo antelope, with lions and a pack of spotted hyenas added the following year. A connected area called Shores of Africa houses Pink-backed pelicans and a colony of African penguins that swim in an indoor pool with underwater viewing, plus a small nocturnal exhibit for a lesser bushbaby.

Amazing Asia is home to white-cheeked gibbons, red pandas, clouded leopards, a pygmy slow loris, a knobbed hornbill, and an Amur and snow leopard exhibit. Its centerpiece gibbon habitat, an outdoor mesh-tent enclosure that opened in 2009, was renovated in 2022 to give the red pandas and clouded leopards more space; the gibbon habitat itself has undergone further renovation, with a planned reopening in spring 2026.

The Reptile Center, the zoo's first indoor exhibit, opened in 2006 and includes the Eastern hellbender, the Lake Titicaca frog, the caiman lizard, the Reticulated python, and a rare African dwarf crocodile. Island Giants, which opened in 2023, gives the Komodo dragon and American alligator a dedicated home, with three Malayan gharials in an adjoining indoor exhibit, and supports Komodo dragon breeding under a Species Survival Plan alongside Aldabra tortoises. Big Cat Country, opened in 2011, holds cougars and jaguars in a Southwest-themed habitat with rock outcroppings and a waterfall, and doubles as a breeding facility.

Other areas include Wild America, with native birds of prey such as bald eagles, turkey vultures, and Harris's hawks, plus a black bear exhibit; the Australian Walkabout, a walk-through budgerigar aviary surrounded by Bennett's wallabies, kookaburras, and tawny frogmouths; Essex Farm, a petting zoo with goats, ponies, zebu cows, and chickens; and the Stingray Touch Tank, a 1,600-gallon exhibit for cownose rays and epaulette sharks alongside an Indo-Pacific reef tank. A 2018 exhibit houses a mixed flock of American and Chilean flamingos, and a Madagascar-themed habitat for lemurs and radiated tortoises was added in 2025.

The zoo grounds also include a narrow-gauge railroad dating to 1963, an Endangered Species Carousel from 2008, and a 19-hole mini-golf course themed around three African regions.

Animal highlights

Turtle Back Zoo's own materials put its collection at more than 1,400 animals, with at least 15 species listed on the zoo's website — a floor, since the zoo's history describes species from every continent except Antarctica. Species named across its exhibits include the Masai giraffe, jaguar, red panda, Northern white-cheeked gibbon, bald eagle, American alligator, Aldabra tortoise, African penguin, dwarf crocodile, North American river otter, red-necked wallaby, budgerigar, cownose ray, goat, and horse. The Masai giraffe herd is managed as a bachelor group of five males under an AZA Species Survival Plan, reflecting a wild population estimated at fewer than 37,000 individuals. Other notable residents include a breeding pair of lions with cubs born in November 2025, a pack of spotted hyenas, and the zoo's colony of African penguins.

Conservation and programs

Turtle Back Zoo participates in the AZA Wildlife Trafficking Alliance, a coalition of more than 90 companies, nonprofits, and accredited zoos and aquariums working against the illegal wildlife trade. It is also a member of Species360, a global nonprofit that maintains a shared database covering more than 22,000 species held at member institutions. The zoo partners with the nonprofit Sea Turtle Recovery to rehabilitate sick and injured sea turtles at an on-site facility built in 2016, with recovery tanks, life support systems, and an intensive care unit; turtles are released back into the wild once healthy. Giraffes and Komodo dragons are both managed under AZA Species Survival Plans. In 2021, the zoo joined the North American Monarch SAFE program and has tagged more than 800 monarch butterflies to support migration research.

Planning your visit

Turtle Back Zoo is listed as open from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., and the zoo describes itself as open year-round, weather permitting; hours and any closures should be confirmed on the official website before a visit, since the zoo notes it operates rain or shine with no weather refunds.

Parking is available in lots and garages throughout the South Mountain Recreation Complex; a Monday-through-Friday "Park 'n Ride" garage near the main road is not free. Electric vehicle charging stations are located in Parking Deck 2.

The zoo describes its pathways and facilities as generally wheelchair-friendly, with accessible restrooms in most areas; strollers are not permitted on the miniature train or inside part of the seasonal Butterfly Tent. Service animals are welcome under the zoo's policy. A typical visit runs two to two and a half hours, based on the zoo's own estimate. Food is available at the two-floor Savanna Café, plus seasonal stands near African Adventure. All children age 16 and under must be accompanied by an adult chaperone. Tickets are sold at the gate or in advance online; the zoo does not offer refunds, rescheduling, or re-entry once a ticket is used. Confirm current hours and admission on the zoo's official website before you go.