Prospect Park Zoo

City-Kid Review:

Can we stay?
It’s going to rain.
That’s okay.

Prospect Park Zoo is one of the smaller city zoos, but it doesn’t feel like it.
At all.
The landscaping works in a similar manner to Dr. Who’s Tardis – it feels much bigger on the inside than it  appears on the outside.

There are several indoor exhibits and a really fun children’s zoo which is mainly farm animals, especially the cuddly ones. There is plenty of space to play, opportunities to feed the animals and even a place to pose with a wooden cow. They seem to have a lot of luck with their breeding so there are often baby animals to see, as well. What could be better than a baby sheep? A lamb.

We had a fun – and slightly unnerving – experience in the ‘animal lifestyles’ hall, with the Hamadryus Baboons. A mama baboon, had sat herself up next to the glass with her baby occasionally nursing on her engorged and dangling teats. City Kid, another child and another adult all got up close, separated only by the glass, to ‘ooh’ and ‘ah’ at the cuteness of the natural moment. I took a step closer. A tiny step. The mama baboon lets the bewildered baby drop to the ground, opens her toothsome mouth, makes direct eye-contact with me, probably simultaneously making a bone-chilling screeching noise, which I can only assume but could not hear through the glass. Other baboons stopped and stared in her, then my, direction. I, merely being merely human, stepped back. She closed her mouth, victorious, picked up her relieved child who latched back on.

Slowly, I stepped forward again. Surely, it was a mistake? Me? A life-long vegetarian and animal lover?
Moi?
Surely, she couldn’t be singling out me for her fear and child-protection? No way. As I confidently stepped forward again, she came towards me even more aggressively, pening her mouth wide, exposing enormously sharp canines.  This time, three teenage baboons surrounded her, making eye contact with me and letting her know they were there for Grand Dame. She maintained eye contact with me as the teenagers hustled between her and myself. She backed up, returned to nursing her bewildered-but-safe baby as her teenage baboon bouncers glared at me.
I had firmly been put into my place.
By baboons.

We highly recommend.

Need to Knows:

This is a wonderful thing to do with your City Kid.
Adults: $8, children: $5, seniors: $6, children under 2: free
Admission is included in the Family Zoos Plus Membership. You can get free general membership, which includes entry to this zoo, with your NYC-ID card, but you need to get this at the Bronx Zoo.
Prospect Park Zoo is open 365 days a year.

Location: Inside the Children’s Corner of Prospect Park; 450 Flatbush Avenue in Brooklyn. Nearest subway is Prospect Park Station, on the  Q, B or Franklin Avenue S.

They have a basic cafeteria with a few prepared sandwiches and packaged snacks.  There is a large outdoor area with chairs and tables if you have your own food.

Their spring/summer/fall hours are 10am-5pm on weekdays and 10am-5.30pm on weekends and holidays. In the winter they close at 4.30pm.

Top-Tip

Prospect Park Zoo is deceptively plentiful, so leave plenty of time to see everything. If you are there at the end of the day, you’ll catch zookeepers feeding various animals, outside of the scheduled sea lion feeds, etc. It’s fun.

If you have time, catch a ride on the nearby Prospect Park Carousel.

Do you have any thoughts, observations or questions about Prospect Park Zoo? Please let me know in the comments section.

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