Buttonwood Park Zoological Society

Excellent zoo. The habitats are well maintained. The price of admission is very affordable. They even have a section filled with different farm animals. The carousel has many different types of animals and its only two dollars. They also have a train ride that goes around the whole zoo. The best part is that they keep updating.

I am just not super impressed with this zoo. I’m really not. I get it that this is a small zoo, and it was fine for the two year olds that we brought. But the zoo itself is severely lacking. Weirdly average animals reside in small spaces. I live in Westport, I can see farm animals if I just leave my house. Way too much space was allowed for the farm animals. But it’s cheap, and something different to do with kids. Thank god the elephants are gone at least.

Buttonwood Park Zoo is a nice way to spend an afternoon with young kids. The zoo is small enough for the kids to see some animals but not so large it’s overwhelming. After some time in the zoo the kiddies can burn off some energy in the playground. There’s also a large pond. I find the kids usually get a charge to see the frogs, turtles and an assortment of other beasts as well in a natural environment.
To address the small enclosures. The elephants have been at this zoo for many years. I wonder if moving the elephants to another zoo would be a great idea. Presently the elephant exhibit is under construction. The city is making it enclosure bigger. Most of the animals at the zoo are rescues that are unable to be released back to the wild. Please look into the zoo’s mission before getting to harsh. The staff does a good job with the animals and keeping the zoo clean. I see the staff daily with the animals (live close by) providing stimulation.

Isn’t one of the largest zoos we’ve been too, but still okay. It would take about 45 minutes to walk around and see everything. The enclosures are pretty small as some have said, and close together. Also they are filled with an excessive amount of ‘hiding places’, so it’s hard to see any of the animals anyway. The indoor reptile/​amphibian exhibit is probably the best one there, as everything is open and properly labeled. Not a bad way to kill and afternoon for around 6 $ a person.

This is a beautiful small zoo. The animals are out and very active in the afternoons and on sunny cool fall and winter days. The staff is professional and I like the food as well. The gift shop has awesome stuff and pass from the library are available. My favorite are the big cats and the Eagles.

We did a day trip here today and I was super impressed. Sure the zoo isn’t huge but it’s very clean and the pricing is great all around. Matter a fact I liked New Bedford in general. I always hear the bad wrap of NB. Some decent resturaunt awesome old homes and this place.

Who gets tired of these cute animals? No one.
However, I felt that there were not many animals for each species. I saw one cougar, one bobcat, one eagle without their companions:(
Anyways, doesn’t hurt to go if you are around. But I wouldn’t return.

I heard a few good feedback and recommendations about this zoo that I finally went. Heavens! This is a NEIGHBORHOOD park with a «zoo’. The cages are so small; the bears, cougar and elephants are stressed out. There ought to be a petition to get these animals out of there and released in a larger habitat. Keep the smaller birds and reptiles — they are probably better off in that conditioned environment and not hunted BUT please, not the larger animals. This is a strange concept in a residential neighborhood. I felt sad when I left. Shaking my head.

This zoo is a remnant of zoos past. While walking through one can clearly see that the animals enclosures are too small, confined and border on cruelty. The zoo itself is very clean and enclosures are maintained to hygienic standards It is clear that this zoo needs to be overhauled. The zoo should start by finding homes for their two elderly elephants. These elephants are prisoners in an enclosure about the size of a basketball court!
Buttonwood Park Zoo is cute and caters to small children and families. It’s something to do in an otherwise boring city.

It’s a great little zoo that offers a lot I feel for the cost. We have been to them all in the New England area. Are there better yes, but with this one it’s less overwhelming. It’s nit crowded it’s easy to see the animals and move about. Plus they have the parking and walking paths which helps make a day if it. Plus if u look there is also so much more to do around the area.

Awww, what a cute itsy bitsy zoo.
We have been consistant visitors to Rog Williams Park Zoo (Prov RI) and Capron Park Zoo (Attleboro MA), so we wanted to mix it up a little and try something new. What a delightful find! The zoo is small, with well designed, interesting exhibits. Sure they do not have «wow» factor animals, but my daughter stood at the bear enclosure for an eternity just taking it all in… she never did that at RWZ. They have a carousel and mini-​train ride for the kids which were both favorites… however at $ 2 a ride pp, it started to add up! There is something a bit more serene about this zoo, it very clean, beautifully landscaped and did not have the «hustle-​bustle» feel that I experience when we go to RWZ.
I also must mention that just outside the zoo is an AWESOME play ground for the kids! We may have spend as much time on the jungle gym as we did inside the zoo.

I am so depressed just reviewing this place.
I am the kinda person that walks in to a farm, sees 2 animals, — - excited! But what makes me irate, is that this place is called a zoo and has not that many animals. Last I heard Zoos house more wild animals than domesticated ones.
This is not so much a zoo, as it is a farm.
Actually, it is REALLY just a Farm.
The only animals I saw here are a Lynx+ one Pissed off lion+ 2 cute Asian elephants+2 bears+ 2 deers+ 2 bald eagles. The rest were horses, cows, pigs, hens.
They had a section with some amphibians/​owls/​fish in exhibit. This place was quite intriguing because, I could not locate a single salamander/​fun looking fish. Seriously? After minutes of searching, I would find a board in the corner that said .” Animal temporarily out of exhibit”.WTH
My 2 cents, if you have absolutely nothing better to do, go here and spend 6 dollars, to see what I mentioned above. Unless I went at a BAD time when all the animals were on vacation. On the other hand, this is a very small zoo, easy to cover in 30 minutes, especially because there are no animals!

What a charming little zoo! We got right up close to many animals, and enjoyed wandering through. This would be a good zoo for small children as it is not so big that it will test their patience and it is easy to get around the park. Great for a summer afternoon!

I’m an animal extremist and given that this Zoo is an AZA member, I feel good giving them my business. They give a portion of proceeds and their land to rehabilitating animals who would not have had a chance or survival in the wild and often times, they return them to the wild, once they are healthy and have gone through a readjustment program. The staff is very nice and helpful and you can’t beat the price.

This summer we were trying to find a place that was perfect for our toddlers. We’ve done Roger Williams, we had just been to Drumlin Farm in Lincoln… I felt they were overpriced, couldn’t get near the exhibits, too large for our little kids. Anyways, that was my perspective coming to this place. I was so happy I found this place.
I’m not sure what people were saying about the enclosures, nothing seemed too small for me. The mountain lion (or was it a cougar) (or is there a difference) was having a ball in his/​her enclosure. There were trees that it was climbing up, it was running back in forth. I have been to zoos that keep animals in little metal pens with hardly enough room to stand up. To paint this place in that light is unfair and biased.
Everything was the perfect height for my daughter (who was 2 ½ at the time) it was a beautiful day but it wasn’t crowded. The elephants were pretty far away and it was so hot they weren’t doing a whole lot of anything, but it looked like a lot of other elephant enclosures, (I think if you look at Roger Williams it is certainly as dusty as this one, but its better laid out)
The train (tractor) that drove around the entire place was a big draw for my daughter. She still looks at the videos and says «first choo choo ride!» with pride. I have recommended this place to anyone with small children. It is small, cozy and the staff was so friendly. We didn’t end up eating there but the concession area was clean and reasonably priced, lots of room. I was really impressed. Perfect for small kids, field trips. And I thought as a Rhode Islander that Roger Williams was the best! but after a couple of trips where the place was so crowded and overpriced, I was ready for somehting else. And this was it! I can’t believe I had never heard of this place prior!

The farm animals section was fine, but it broke my heart to see two elephants pacing back and forth on sand in front of a concrete building, and a coyote and bobcat living alone in small enclosures. If the zoo cannot provide a companion for an animal and a suitable habitat, they shouldn’t have that animal at the zoo. I thought this unenlightened approach to zoos was a thing of the past.

It’s a zoo with zoo animals. If you don’t like zoo’s don’t go there (peg). The elephants are great and seem to be enjoying themselves.

The Buttonwood Park Zoo may be small, but it is a 15 min walk from my home, is cheap ($ 6 admission for adults! less for students), and has a lot of my favorite zoo animals (otters, seals, goats, and bison). I went on a sunny day so all of the animals were easy to see. I liked the conservation elements that the zoo is involved in (with terrapins and Asian elephants, for example). Membership is reasonably priced ($ 35/​individual and they subtract your admission from that day, if applicable) and gets you into 120 other zoos and aquariums around the country, including Boston’s Franklin Park and Stone Zoos, and the Museum of Science.

Buttonwood Zoo is a very small zoo, but not bad for little kids. A lot of the animals have reaaallly small living areas (which kind of makes me sad) or are in pens too covered by brush and branches you can’t even see the animals. Oh well. The farm area is nice, though. And deer! Aww.