Wild Play at the Bronx Zoo Children’s Zoo

The long awaited opening of the Bronx Zoo Children’s Zoo arrived on May 30, 2015. I was super excited for my wildlings to get to re-enjoy the Children’s Zoo attractions. We’ve made lots of beautiful memories at the Bronx Zoo—our membership has paid off dividends as it is our go-to park when we want a relaxing yet adventurous day. This year I signed Elias up for Zoo Camp which was an amazing experience for him and I will blog about it in another post. For now, I wanted to share some features of the exciting new and improved Children’s Zoo.

I always like to make a stop at the Children’s Zoo first thing upon our arrival. We usually get there early enough that we can enjoy the exhibits with minimal crowds plus it’s directly off the parking garage entrance and BX9 bus stop entrance on Southern Blvd, which are our usual travel choices.

The Children’s Zoo admission is $5 per person if you purchase individual attraction tickets or make it on the free-admission Wednesday. Otherwise, if you will be experiencing the park throughout the day your best bet for savings is purchasing the full-experience tickets. Don’t rule out purchasing a membership package as well, especially if you are planning on making more than one visit to the zoo.

The Children’s Zoo’s new signage and fun illustrations were the first notable upgrades to the area—totally kid friendly with large print and informative snippets.

We loved some of our old favorites: the prairie dogs that were having fun and keeping Selena entertained as she tried to keep up with their fast pace and hijinks. Monkey Island was a new highlight of the Children’s Zoo; squirrel monkey mommas climbed around the vines with their babies in tow—so cute! The pink flamingos were a sight to see nearby within the spruced-up marsh.

Selena enjoyed some active play with the spider web rope climb, the wood bridge over the pond, and the tree house slide. Hands down her favorite was the wood bridge over the marsh—we had to manage the line that formed behind her because she refused to come ashore.

The petting zoo was completely revamped and even more fun with a red tractor and plenty of animals to feed and pet. We are looking forward to our next zoo experience!