The Elmwood Park Zoo is a zoo in Norristown, Pennsylvania that houses a collection of over 300 animals representing 100 species. Opened on July 4, 1924, the 16-acre (6.5 ha) zoo includes the Andrew L. Lewis Wetlands Aviary, Wild Encounters building, Woodlands exhibit, and Grasslands exhibit. The zoo is accredited by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums and operated by the Norristown Zoological Society. The zoo also participates in a number of its species survival programs.
Today, Elmwood Park Zoo welcomes over 150,000 visitors annually.
In the Newbery Medal-winning fiction book Maniac Magee, the titular character lives briefly in the buffalo pen of the Elmwood Park Zoo.
Famous quotes containing the words park and/or zoo:
“and the words never said,
And the ominous, ominous dancing ahead.
We sat in the car park till twenty to one
And now I’m engaged to Miss Joan Hunter Dunn.”
—Sir John Betjeman (1906–1984)
“The zoo cannot but disappoint. The public purpose of zoos is to offer visitors the opportunity of looking at animals. Yet nowhere in a zoo can a stranger encounter the look of an animal. At the most, the animal’s gaze flickers and passes on. They look sideways. They look blindly beyond.”
—John Berger (b. 1926)