Connecticut's Beardsley Zoo


Connecticut's Beardsley Zoo, located in Bridgeport, Connecticut, is the only Association of Zoos and Aquariums –accredited zoo in the state of Connecticut. The zoo includes one of the few carousels in the state. The zoo has around 500 animals, from over 100 species, and welcomes about 280,000 visitors a year.

History

The Park

In 1878, James W. Beardsley, a wealthy farmer, donated over of hilly, rural land bordering on the Pequonnock River, with a distant view of Long Island Sound, to the city of Bridgeport on the condition that "the city shall accept and keep the same forever as a public park". In 1881, the city contracted Frederick Law Olmsted, famous for creating New York City's Central Park, to create a design for Beardsley Park. Olmsted described the existing land as "pastoral, sylvan and idyllic" and, in 1884, delivered his plan for a simple, rural park for the residents to enjoy:
is thoroughly rural and just such a countryside as a family of good taste and healthy nature would resort to, if seeking a few hours' complete relief from scenes associated with the wear and tear of ordinary town life... It is a better picnic ground than any possessed by the city of New York, after spending twenty million on parks... The object of any public outlay upon it should be to develop and bring out these distinctive local advantages, and make them available to extensive use in the future by large numbers of people.
Olmsted was the principal architect of the site. Architect Joseph W. Northrup designed Island Bridge, a bridge to an island in the park. In 1909, the city erected a statue created by Charles Henry Niehaus in honor of Beardsley at the park's Noble Avenue entrance. Beardsley Park was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1999.

The Zoo

At the time of the park's creation, the city of Bridgeport was home to Phineas T. Barnum and his world-famous circus. Barnum would exercise his animals through the streets of Bridgeport, and people gathered in Beardsley Park to see zebras and camels walking by.
In 1920, Bridgeport Parks Commissioner, Wesley Hayes, began a campaign to create a city zoo within the park. He requested that the citizens of Bridgeport contribute animals to start the zoo. Within the first year, eighteen exotic birds were donated. By 1927, the zoo had acquired a variety of exotic animals, including a camel donated by the Barnum and Bailey Circus.
In 1997, the Connecticut Zoological Society, a nonprofit support group for the zoo, purchased the zoo from the city. The society continues to run the zoo as a private, nonprofit institution with assistance from the state of Connecticut and the city of Bridgeport.
In 2007, the zoo became the first in the Northeast to exhibit Chacoan peccaries. In October 2011, it also became the first zoo in the Northeast to breed the species.
On July 25, 2009, the zoo, in partnership with the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection, held an Exotic Animal Amnesty Day, where people could turn in their exotic pets to the state without fear of prosecution. During the event 135 animals were surrendered, 14 of which were illegal. On March 31, 2012, the zoo and DEEP held another amnesty day, this time only aiming to accept animals which were illegal to own in Connecticut or that were in very bad condition. Seven animals were surrendered, five of them illegal.
In January 2010, the oldest Andean condor in the world, Thaao, died at the zoo after being a resident for 17 years.
On January 22, 2011, an endangered Brazilian ocelot kitten was born at the zoo through oviductal artificial insemination marking the first time that this kind of artificial insemination had successfully worked in an exotic wildcat. The achievement was made with the help of the Cincinnati Zoo's C.R.E.W.
In 2012, Connecticut's Beardsley Zoo celebrated its 90th anniversary. The zoo celebrated its birthday with guest promotions and a temporary summer exhibition of giant tortoises.
In September 2014, the zoo received top honors in the 2014 AZA Education Award for their outstanding education program.
In February 2024, Connecticut’s Beardsley Zoo Arboretum in Bridgeport was awarded a Level 1 Accreditation by The ArbNet Arboretum Accreditation Program and The Morton Arboretum, for achieving particular standards of professional practices deemed important for arboreta and botanic gardens.
In June 2025, the zoo reopened the Rainforest Building and added Evita, a 14-year-old ocelot.
Soaring into the rainforest canopy are two new 10-year-old male Scarlet Ibises, who join the zoo’s existing male ibis to form a vibrant bachelor trio.

Exhibits and animals

Connecticut's Beardsley Zoo is divided into nine major exhibits:
  1. Rainforest Building: An indoor building featuring several animals from tropical South America, including Brazilian ocelot, black howler, white-faced saki, golden lion tamarin, Goeldi's monkey, Hoffman's two-toed sloth, Brazilian agouti, common vampire bat, scarlet ibis, Yacare caiman, red-tailed boa, Hispaniolan slider, Amazon milk frog and more. In 2015, the zoo installed a green roof to the building. The roof includes a mix of Sedum plants as well as grasses and chives. The roof is designed to absorb 60–70% of the rainwater that would otherwise drain into the sewage system, as well as naturally insulate the building, absorb heat from the sun instead of reflecting it off, and naturally filter water so it can be reused by the zoo.
  2. Predators: A small row of enclosures featuring Amur tigers, and Amur leopards which first arrived in 2013. The zoo plans to build a larger tiger enclosure with glass-window viewing. Former residents include Canada lynx and a rare andean bear named Joaquim.
  3. Alligator Alley: A small trail featuring various animals from the Southeastern United States, including grey fox, North American river otter, bald eagle, sandhill crane, and American alligator. The exhibit also features a small walk-through aviary home to various small birds and turtles. The two foxes were rescue animals born in South Carolina, the cranes rescued in Wisconsin, and the eagles were rescued from Alaska and Florida respectively.
  4. Hoofstock Trail: A long trail which loops around the zoo from Pampas Plains to Predators. The exhibit features animals native to the Great Plains such as plains bison, pronghorn, white-tailed deer, black-tailed prairie dog, turkey vulture, and barred owl. One of the female deer was orphaned on Beardsley Park grounds in 2005, and was initially exhibited in Alligator Alley. The zoo had a Pronghorn fawn born one June 8, 2012.
  5. New England Farmyard: Designed as a small rural farm, the exhibit features a collection of farm animals, mainly of breeds which originated in New England, as well as some wild species that might be found in rural Connecticut. Domestic animals include Dexter cattle, llama, threatened Guinea hog, Cotswold sheep, various goat breeds, a feral cat, domestic rabbit, and various chicken, goose, and duck breeds. Wild animals include North American porcupine, great horned owl, snowy owl, American barn owl, common raven, tundra swan, cackling goose, and diamondback terrapin. The zoo has bred several rare breeds on many occasions, including Guinea hogs almost yearly since 2009.
  6. W.O.L.F: A small exhibit near the zoo's entrance which features a Mexican wolf pair and a red wolf pair. The zoo was home to two timber wolves. They were replaced by the Mexican wolves. The exhibit is designed to look like a trapper's cabin and discusses the work the zoo does with these highly endangered species. The zoo has bred red wolves many times, with the latest birth being of four pups in June 2014, and some of the animals born at the zoo have been reintroduced to the wild. The zoo received three female Mexican wolves in 2013, and hope to one day breed the species for reintroduction back into the wild. "W.O.L.F" stands for Wolf Observation Learning Facility.
  7. Native Reptile House: A small wooden building near the entrance of the New England Farmyard, the exhibit features various species of reptiles and amphibians native to Connecticut. Species include black rat snake, eastern milk snake, eastern garter snake, common snapping turtle, North American wood turtle, spotted turtle, three-toed box turtle, eastern box turtle, American bullfrog, eastern grey treefrog, and pickerel frog.
  8. Professor Beardsley's Research Station: While not always open to the public, the exhibit is used mainly as an education center and is home to several of the zoo's education animals, such as European legless lizard, and bullsnake. The building is also where the zoo raises brook trout to be released into the wild. In June 2015, the zoo added three eastern hellbenders to the exhibit.
  9. Pampas Plains: This new exhibit opened in 2015 and is phase one of the zoo's "South American Adventure". It features a raised walkway to allow for better viewing and is home to maned wolves, giant anteaters, Chacoan peccaries, and greater rheas. An anteater was born at the zoo on February 13, 2016, the first in the zoo's history. On July 30, 2018, another anteater was born. Anteaters and peccaries are seen only when the temperature is in the 50s or warmer.
  10. Natt Family Red Panda Habitat: In October 2015, the zoo became home to a young male western red panda from the Franklin Park Zoo. He was temporary exhibited in the outdoor monkey enclosure outside the Rainforest Building. In October 2018 the zoo officially opened The Natt Family Red Panda Habitat to the public. The new habitat gives the zoo's two red pandas space to roam and play and gives visitors two new viewing areas.
In addition to these exhibit, the zoo is also home to an Andean condor, which can be found by the entrance of the zoo, as well as free-roaming West African helmeted guineafowl and occasionally wild turkeys.
The zoo also has a carousel and one of the largest greenhouses in Connecticut. The Victorian Greenhouse is also home to two agave plants that have grown flower stalks, and are expected to bloom soon as of January 2020. The plants are known as "century plants" because they bloom so rarely, roughly once every 30 years. At the entrance, a pair of brick buildings that once served as trolley barns for the city of Bridgeport now hold administrative offices.