Today’s zoo trip was to the Stone Zoo in Stoneham. The facility is managed by the same organization as Franklin Park and one membership gets us into both. It’s a funny little zoo and I ended up liking it a lot. It’s on the small side and set across from a residential neighborhood on one end and what I assume to be a reservoir on the other. We all agreed it would be amusing to look out our living room window and see a snow leopard across the street or Mexican wolves – both of which faced homes.
The animal enclosures are set throughout a very wooded area with streams and wooden walkways. One section is entitled “Treasures of the Sierra Madre” and consists of animal enclosures with an “old timey” gold mine aesthetic. Picture a jaguar in an abandoned mining camp and lizards resting in the store display windows of a deserted mining town. It’s totally weird and a little rundown, but charming all the same.
The enclosures let you get very close to some pretty fantastic animals: Mexican wolves, coyotes, a mountain lion, jaguar, arctic foxes, brown bear, and a lot of others. And the wolf enclosure was the best of the three I’ve seen when compared to the Denver Zoo and the Wolf Hollow sanctuary in Ipswitch. As with Franklin Park, I’m looking forward to returning in the spring to see the animals that weren’t on display today as well as playgrounds and other attractions.
Karina Coombs 