The Queens Zoo (formerly the Flushing Meadows Zoo and Queens Wildlife Center) is an zoo at Flushing Meadows–Corona Park in Queens, New York City, between Grand Central Parkway and 111th Street. The zoo is managed by the Wildlife Conservation Society and is accredited by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA). Built along with the Queens Zoo is a children's zoo, which was originally called the Heckscher Children's Farm.
New York City parks commissioner Robert Moses had wanted to add a zoo to Flushing Meadows–Corona Park after the 1964 New York World's Fair. Plans for the zoo were first announced in 1964 as part of the Queens Botanical Garden, but construction for the zoo did not begin until August 20, 1966. The Heckscher Children's Farm, the first part of the new zoo, opened on February 28, 1968, and the rest of the Flushing Meadows Zoo opened on October 26, 1968. The New York City Department of Parks and Recreation contracted Wildlife Conservation Society to operate the zoo in 1988. The zoo was closed for renovations for four years, reopening in 1992; it added numerous animals and exhibits after it reopened. The Queens Zoo was nearly shuttered in 2003 due to budget cuts.
The zoo is home to more than 75 species that are native to the Americas. Unlike contemporary zoos, the Queens Zoo did not put animals in cages except when necessary; since the zoo's habitats are open-air, it focuses mostly on animals native to the Americas. The main zoo (now the zoo's wild side), on the eastern portion of the site, contains landscape features such as a marsh and artificially warmed rocks. The domestic side of the zoo, originally the Heckscher Children's Farm, includes domesticated animals. The zoo's aviary is a geodesic dome designed by Thomas C. Howard of Synergetics, Inc. and used during the 1964 fair.
History The zoo is part of Flushing Meadows–Corona Park in the New York City borough of Queens. The park's site was part of the 1939–1940 New York World's Fair grounds, and the land saw little development during the next quarter-century. The site of the zoo was part of the Transportation Zone during the 1964–1965 New York World's Fair, when the Chrysler Pavilion and Lowenbrau beer garden occupied the zoo's site. By the 1960s, Queens was the only New York City borough without a zoo.; Even before the 1964 World's Fair opened, New York City parks commissioner Robert Moses had wanted to add a zoo to Flushing Meadows–Corona Park. The zoo was part of Moses's plans for a system of parks in Queens.
Planning Moses announced plans for the Queens Zoo in February 1964, when he indicated that it would be built as part of an expansion of the Queens Botanical Garden, on the eastern side of Flushing Meadows. In contrast to existing zoos where animals were kept in cages, the zoo was to have an open-air layout where animals could roam. The zoo would have covered either or . That March, Mayor Robert F. Wagner Jr. requested that the New York City Council revise the City Administrative Code to permit the zoo's construction, and New York state legislators introduced bills to allow the Queens Botanical Garden Society to operate the zoo. The City Council signaled its support for the state legislation,; but plans for the zoo were stymied because of opposition to Moses's plans for Flushing Meadows. The zoo was supposed to have been funded using profits from the 1964 fair, but the exposition proved highly unprofitable.
Before the fair closed, there was talk of converting the fair's geodesic dome into an aviary for the proposed zoo. Moses's successor, Newbold Morris, announced plans in October 1965 to spend $1.5 million on the Queens Zoo. Morris recommended that the Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority (TBTA) fund the restoration of the nearby New York City Pavilion, allowing the city government to divert funds for the City Pavilion's restoration to the zoo's construction. Ultimately, the TBTA agreed to provide $1.2 million for the zoo in February 1966, which was later increased to $1.92 million. This funding was made possible by a provision that allowed the TBTA to spend money on parks along certain highways. The zoo was planned to cover , and the Heckscher Foundation for Children agreed to donate $120,000 for a children's zoo within the Queens Zoo. Preliminary plans were being drawn up by early 1966.; By that July, the city government was planning to construct the zoo on the site of the fair's former transportation area, west of the Grand Central Parkway, rather than next to the Queens Botanical Garden.
Moses attended the zoo's groundbreaking ceremony on August 20, 1966, and the children's zoo partially opened that September. Later that year, the TBTA announced more detailed plans for the zoo, which included a concession building and an aviary within the fair's geodesic dome. The agency also planned to award a $2 million contract for the zoo's operation. The TBTA awarded $2.82 million in construction contracts for the final sections of the zoo in June 1967, and the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation (NYC Parks) took over the land the same month.; At that point, the children's zoo was planned to be completed in late 1967, followed by the rest of the zoo early the next year. Ultimately, the zoo cost $3.5 million to construct.
City operation
Opening and early years
The first animals began moving into the Heckscher Children's Farm in February 1968, and Moses dedicated the children's farm on February 28 of that year. Moses opened the rest of the Flushing Meadows Zoo on October 26, 1968. The children's farm was initially free to enter, as was the rest of the zoo. The zoo also had pony rides and a carousel, for which an additional fee was charged. Tatiana Gillette-Infante, a former debutante, was hired as the Flushing Meadows Zoo's first supervisor. Soon after the zoo opened, there were reports of people cutting fences, abusing the zoo's birds, and stealing animals from the children's farm for joyrides. In addition, the zoo frequently experienced blackouts, as the park's underground electrical ducts ran through marshland. The zoo recorded 100 blackouts in its first three years, some of which had lasted as long as five days. These issues prompted Gillette-Infante to request that the city hire more zookeepers.
By the early 1970s, Gillette-Infante alleged that the city government was neglecting the zoo. She temporarily closed the aviary in October 1970 due to staffing shortages, and she closed the entire zoo the following June for similar reasons. Gillette-Infante also wanted the city government to upgrade the zoo's electrical system, and NYC Parks added a secondary power supply to the zoo in 1970. The aviary temporarily closed in May 1971 because visitors frequently attacked the birds and because the aviary's paths kept collapsing. Due to a lack of city funding, City Council member Thomas Manton warned in 1971 that the zoo might have to scale back its activities or even close altogether. The city government began regularly checking up on the zoo's animals in 1972, and Gillette-Infante wanted the city to add an animal clinic and a quarantine facility for newly arrived animals. As part of a planned United States Bicentennial celebration at Flushing Meadows–Corona Park, there were proposals to renovate the zoo.
Mid- and late 1970s The Flushing Meadows Zoo continued to experience maintenance, funding, and staffing issues during the mid-1970s, and electricity was still inconsistent. The lack of money and staff forced the zoo to postpone a planned renovation of the aviary in early 1973. There were discussions about reopening the zoo's aviary in mid-1973, though the aviary remained closed over the following months. The zoo's insect house was also shuttered. Security at the zoo was increased in 1974 following several incidents at the Prospect Park and Central Park zoos. Additional policemen were stationed in the surrounding area, and the zoo began employing curatorial staff 24 hours a day.; Shirley Weinstein of the Mid-Queens Community Council alleged that the zoo was being neglected; at the time, the zoo had over 100 animals. Gillette-Infante recalled that local residents often left unwanted pets there in the 1970s.
NYC Parks commissioned the naturalist Roger A. Caras in 1974 to study conditions in the city's three municipal zoos at Flushing Meadows, Central Park, and Prospect Park.; Though Caras found fewer problems at the Flushing Meadows Zoo than the two other zoos, he recommended that all three zoos be taken over by the New York Zoological Society. City parks commissioner Edwin L. Weisl also supported the takeover,; and he preferred that the zoos be closed if the Zoological Society could not take over operations. By the beginning of 1975, the city was negotiating to transfer operation of the zoos to the Zoological Society. Protestors wanted the zoos to be closed entirely, and the Society for Animal Rights sued in April 1975 to compel the city to close the three municipal zoos. The city government also sold off some of the zoos' animals, citing overcrowding.; A state-government report questioned whether the city government, which was in the midst of a major fiscal crisis, should be using its limited funds to maintain the Flushing Meadows Zoo and the city's other small zoos. The aviary remained closed during the late 1970s, and the zoo's last seals died in 1976.
The zoo's opponents continued to advocate for its closure. Tony Carding of the World Federation for the Protection of Animals wrote that, while the zoo was "a more humane and potentially educational attempt at exposing captive wild animals to public view", the site had high amounts of noise pollution. A groundhog pen was added to the zoo in 1978. The same year, U.S. Congressman Benjamin Rosenthal proposed adding the surrounding park to the Gateway National Recreation Area, allowing the National Park Service to take over the zoo's operation, but this legislation was not successful. By the following year, the zoo had only five exhibits, and it suffered from a lack of funds and staff. The seal pool was completely empty, and the zoo as a whole did not have many North American animals. Further contributing to its unpopularity, the Flushing Meadows Zoo closed at 4 p.m. each day, and the city government was not planning any major renovations.
WCS operation
1980s takeover agreement
By 1980, the city government was again negotiating to hand over control of the three municipal zoos to the New York Zoological Society. The society had wanted to take over only the Central Park Zoo, but the city government insisted that the group also take control of the two other zoos. Mayor Ed Koch and the New York Zoological Society signed a fifty-year agreement in April 1980, wherein the Central Park, Prospect Park, and Flushing Meadows zoos would be administered by the Society.; As part of the takeover, the Society planned to implement an admission fee, and it would spend $4.5 million renovating the zoo and adding animals. Queens borough president Donald Manes requested that the city provide $2 million for the zoo's renovation in its budget for fiscal year 1981. Negotiations continued for another year and a half, and the New York City Council and Board of Estimate had to approve the admission fees as well. The zoo received four sea lions in 1981, and it also received a lion cub despite having no lion enclosure.