Roger Williams Park Zoo - Providence - Rhode Island

Whenever I travel, even for a couple of days, I try to allow enough time to see something in the area. I recently attended a conference in Massachusetts where I arrived late in the day so I would have some time in Providence, RI. The Roger Williams Park Zoo was on the way to the airport, so I decided to stop there. The animals and the fall colors gave me some great subjects to photograph.

Information from Wikipedia:

“The Roger Williams Park Zoo first opened in 1872. It began as a limited collection of small animals, including raccoons, guinea pigs, mouse, squirrels, rabbits, hawks, peacocks and anteaters. The zoo’s first building, the Menagerie, opened in 1890. In the 1900s, the facility began to spread out over the entire park, featuring a variety of animals such as monkeys, hoofstock, bears, and big cats.

In 1978, the zoo closed for two years to embark upon an upgrade project. A children’s nature center was added, as well as a naturalistic polar bear exhibit, a wetlands trail, and a North American bison exhibit. The zoo reopened on June 1, 1980. In the 1980s, a South American Pampas exhibit and a lemur exhibit were built. In 1986, the zoo’s old barn was converted into an animal hospital, education department, and an administrative offices center. As a result, the zoo became the first in New England to receive accreditation from the Association of Zoos and Aquariums.

Another master plan was formulated in the late 2000s, dubbed “The New Zoo”. Almost every area of the zoo will be affected and the changes will be momentous – all aimed at enhancing the visitor’s experience and understanding of the natural world. Capital improvements include renovations on the Plains of Africa exhibit, renaming it Fabric of Africa. The renovated area includes an outdoor elephant enclosure twice as big as the previous one with an immersion pool for bathing. A new veterinary hospital opened in the spring of 2011, helping to ensure continued top-notch healthcare for the zoo’s animal collection. In 2012, Hasbro’s Our Big Backyard, an interactive playspace, was opened. Featuring hands-on educational fun and an interactive tree house, it opened June 4, with a second phase featuring native New England animals completed in 2014. Originally the North American trail was supposed to host the return of the polar bears, but due to the economic downturn the zoo has decided that a new polar bear exhibit was not feasible. In the summer of 2012 the zoo opened new exhibits for takins, red river hogs, and king vultures.

In 2015 a new master plan was unveiled to plan out the next 20 years for the zoo. Phase one includes constructing a new Amazon Rainforest building, to be completed in 2017, and a new Education Center near the zoo’s entrance. The former education building would be renovated into a new reptile exhibit. Phase two plans to improve on the entry area to the zoo and to build a new enclosure for the sea lions and penguins. For phase three the North America exhibit would be reconstructed to feature grizzly bears, moose, and big horn sheep.”