Rosamond Gifford Zoo
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| Rosamond Gifford Zoo | |
 Main building and entrance to the zoo
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| Date opened | 1914; 1986 |
| Location | Syracuse, New York, USA |
| # of Animals | 600 |
| Accreditations/ Memberships |
AZA |
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The Rosamond Gifford Zoo at Burnet Park is a zoo in Syracuse, New York. It is owned and operated by Onondaga County Parks. The zoo is home to over 600 animals. Highlights include a renowned elephant exhibit, several wildlife trails, a petting zoo, waterfowl ponds, a social animals building, an aviary, and a new penguin exhibit. The zoo also houses a conservation and education center.
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[edit] History
[edit] Origins
The first incarnation of the zoo was a small, four acre affair in Burnet Park owned and operated by the Syracuse Department of Parks and Recreation. After opening in 1914, the zoo's first expansion began in 1916 with the construction of stone exhibits for bears and a waterfowl pond. By 1933, the zoo had doubled in size, and by in 1955 a children's zoo and monkey exhibit had been built.
[edit] Decline
The zoo's decline began in the early 1960s as Syracuse's tax base started to shrink and financial support for the zoo began to erode. In 1974, two teens broke into the zoo and managed to kill and injure about forty animals. The city's financial position and the break in fueled public debate over the future of the zoo. Despite the creation of the Friends of the Burnet Park Zoo in 1970 and a grant received by the city to enlarge the Zoo to eighteen acres, add a boardwalk, a western plains habitat, and construct a new perimeter fence, the City of Syracuse transferred control of the zoo to Onondaga County Parks in 1979.
[edit] Renewal
A study by County Parks staff produced a forty page renovation plan for the zoo which involved shutting down the old zoo and constructing another. The plan was approved by the Onondaga County legislature in 1981. The old zoo was closed in 1982 and the thirteen million dollar project (ten million of which was provided by the county and the rest by the Friends of the Burnet Park Zoo) began in 1983.
The zoo reopened in 1986 and received its accreditation from the Association of Zoos and Aquariums the following year; it was reaccredited a decade later. The zoo initiated a capital campaign in 1998 to fund a new conservation and education center and tiger, penguin, seal, and rainforest exhibits. Following a two million dollar endowment by the Rosamond Gifford Charitable Corporation in 1999, the zoo was renamed the Rosamond Gifford Zoo at Burnet Park.
The next several years saw the introduction of the zoo's first lion cubs in over a decade, as well as the creation of a tiger trail featuring a family of Amur tigers, a social animal exhibit, and a penguin exhibit, which was completed in 2005 and featured eighteen Humboldt penguins. During this period the zoo became the second in the United States to successfully raise red panda triplets.
[edit] External links
Zoo • Public aquarium • Aviary • Menagerie • Tourist attraction
List of zoos • List of aquaria • List of zoo associations
Animals in captivity • Environmental enrichment • Endangered species • Conservation biology • Biodiversity • Endangered species • Extinction • Ex-situ conservation • In-situ conservation • Wildlife conservation • Zoology
