Roger Williams Park Zoo

About Roger Williams Park Zoo

Roger Williams Park Zoo sits at 1000 Elmwood Avenue in Providence, Rhode Island, inside the city's Roger Williams Park, and traces its history back to 1872. It is an AZA-accredited nonprofit that describes itself as connecting people with wildlife for more than 150 years. The Zoo covers about 40 acres, with a walking path through the grounds that runs a little more than a mile, mostly wheelchair accessible but including some hills and unpaved terrain; the average length of a visit is three hours.

The Zoo is home to more than 100 different species, with a collection built around named habitat zones that group animals by region and theme rather than by chance. Its published materials describe more than 800 animals in the collection and around 100 listed species, and the Zoo frames every visit as directly supporting its animal care, education, and conservation work in New England and around the world.

History

Roger Williams Park Zoo dates back to 1872, one of the older zoos in the country still operating today. Over more than 150 years, the Zoo has grown from its original grounds into the current 40-acre park with distinct exhibit zones and a mission centered on wildlife conservation and public education, a history the Zoo repeatedly references in its own materials without laying out a detailed year-by-year account in the sources available for this page.

Exhibits and habitats

The Zoo's Africa area, Jambo Junction, lets visitors watch zebras, cheetahs, and red river hogs, and observe elephants swimming in a waterhole and Masai giraffes reaching into the trees, with an option to head into the Textron Elephant & Giraffe Pavilion to catch an elephant bath or training session. The Amazon-themed exhibit is built around a free-flight aviary with scarlet ibis, along with an anaconda and howler monkeys, presented as an all-immersive look at rainforest ecosystems.

Marco Polo's Trail follows the animals the explorer may have encountered crossing deserts and high mountains, including moon bears, red pandas, takin, and a snow leopard exhibit designed so the cats blend into their surroundings. A North America exhibit shows bison, pronghorn, the endangered red wolf, and a bald eagle, along with New England's two venomous snakes, the northern copperhead and timber rattlesnake. The Farmyard, designed to resemble a Rhode Island farm, houses goats, sheep, alpacas, chickens, and a non-domesticated barn owl, and includes a Goat Yard where visitors can feed the goats and sheep.

Penguin Point is a habitat built for the Zoo's colony of Humboldt penguins, native to the rocky shores of Peru and Chile, with viewing both on land and underwater. Hasbro's Our Big Backyard is a nature-play space with an indoor activity area, a "Nature Swap" for trading collected natural items, a water garden, a building zone, and the CVS Health All Kids Can Treehouse. A World of Adaptations exhibit explores physical and behavioral adaptations, such as a wallaby's balancing tail and a gibbon's morning vocalizations. New England's only Komodo dragon is also part of the collection, and a Virtual Reality Experience lets visitors take a motion-seat, headset-based tour alongside wildebeest or gorillas.

Seasonal attractions include the Soaring Eagle Zip Ride, open nightly during the Jack-O-Lantern Spectacular and offering views 115 feet above the Zoo, and the Roger Williams Express Train Ride, running daily from April through September and on weekends in October and November.

Animal highlights

Roger Williams Park Zoo lists more than 100 different species and describes its total collection as more than 800 animals. Species confirmed for this page include the African elephant, Masai giraffe, snow leopard, red panda, red wolf, cheetah, Grant's zebra, bald eagle, Komodo dragon, Aldabra tortoise, and takin, along with Bactrian camel, capybara, giant anteater, and a wide range of birds such as the hyacinth macaw, king vulture, and Bali mynah. New England's only pair of venomous snakes on public exhibit, the northern copperhead and timber rattlesnake, live in the North America area.

The Zoo currently holds three female African elephants — Alice, Ginny, and Kate — in its Fabric of Africa exhibit area, part of its work on elephant conservation and public education. Together, the size and range of the collection make Roger Williams Park Zoo one of the larger zoo collections described in the sources for this page.

Conservation and programs

Conservation runs through much of the Zoo's public-facing work. It participates in 41 AZA Species Survival Plans, cooperative breeding and management programs for endangered and threatened species, including the red wolf, Matschie's tree kangaroo, snow leopard, and wrinkled hornbill. The Zoo also runs several of its own recovery projects: an American Burying Beetle Recovery Program that monitors reintroduced populations and supplements them with captive-raised beetles; an Eastern Box Turtle Breeding Program begun in 2019 with the Rhode Island Division of Fish and Wildlife; a New England Cottontail Rabbit Repopulation Project run with regional partners; Operation Spadefoot Rhode Island, aimed at the state's rarest toad; and a Timber Rattlesnake Recovery Program that receives and holds snakes from endangered New England populations.

Internationally, the Zoo supports Project Selva, working with Indigenous communities in the Amazon Basin of Peru, and participates in AZA's Saving Animals From Extinction program, which is featured at all 229 AZA-accredited institutions. On elephant conservation specifically, the Zoo has contributed an annual $5,000 gift to the International Elephant Foundation, totaling $50,000 to date, and more than $100,000 to the Tarangire Elephant Project in Tanzania, which studies the effects of poaching on African elephant populations. Zoo director of conservation programs Lou Perrotti led a multi-year project, from 2007 to 2012, building rearing facilities for native invertebrates to feed rescued amphibians at Panama's El Valle Amphibian Conservation Center, later extended into the Panama Amphibian Rescue and Conservation Project and, since 2018, a partnership supporting the Chilean Amphibian Conservation Center. The Zoo also participates in the North American Songbird SAFE program. According to the Zoo, 25 cents from every general admission ticket goes directly toward conservation efforts.

Planning your visit

As listed on the Zoo's website, the Zoo is open daily, with hours running 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. (last entry 3:30 p.m.) during spring and summer seasons; tickets are non-transferable and non-refundable, and timed entry windows are one hour long. Discounts are available in several forms: free admission for Providence residents on the first Saturday of each month with valid ID and proof of residency; a 50% discount on daytime admission for active and retired U.S. military veterans and up to three immediate family members with valid ID; half-price admission for AZA reciprocal members, verified in person; half-price admission in January and February; and a discounted $45 Family membership (regularly $169) for Rhode Island EBT program participants.

Parking is free in the Zoo's main lots and along roads within the public park. Strollers rent for $8 (single) or $9 (double), manual wheelchairs for $7, and electronic conveyance vehicles for $28, all available first-come, first-served at the main entrance rental kiosk; designated accessible parking is available in Lots A and B. The Zoo is a certified sensory-inclusive facility, offers free sensory-friendly bags with fidget toys and noise-cancelling headphones, and maintains designated quiet zones, including one near the moon bear habitat. Outside food is allowed, though there are no lockers or secure storage, and picnic tables are provided. Two main food concessions, Nourish 401 and Tuskers Café, operate alongside a pizza stand called Slice, and gift shops include the Discover the Wild Gift Shop and the seasonal Masai Marketplace. A dress code requires shirts and appropriate footwear throughout the park, and children under 16 must be accompanied by a responsible adult.

Confirm current hours, ticket prices, and any seasonal closures on the Zoo's official website before visiting.