The closure was part of a five-year, $35 million renovation program, that completely replaced the zoo's cages with naturalistic environments.

It was rededicated on August 8, 1988, as part of a system of five facilities managed by the WCS, all of which are accredited by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA).

[a] Located at East 64th Street and Fifth Avenue, the zoo is situated on a 6.5-acre (2.6 ha)[3] plot in Central Park.

According to a 2011 study by the Central Park Conservancy, the zoo and its surroundings were visited by an estimated four million people each year.

[8] Trellised, vine-clad, glass-roofed pergolas link the three major exhibit areas—tropic, temperate and polar—housed in discrete buildings of brick trimmed with granite, masked by vines.

[11] The structure at the central garden's southwestern corner is the "Tropic Zone",[4] which contains a two-story representation of a rain forest.

The rain forest contains Rodrigues flying foxes, Seba's short-tailed bats, emerald tree boas, pythons, cotton-top tamarins, white-eared titis, toucans, black-and-white ruffed lemurs from the Bronx Zoo and a large variety of birds including scarlet ibis, emerald starlings, superb starlings, pied avocets, speckled mousebirds, sunbittern, troupials, Taveta golden weaver, blue-crowned motmots, crested couas, blue-gray tanagers, African pygmy goose, ochre-marked parakeets, white-fronted amazons, blue-headed macaws, plum-headed parakeets, Derbyan parakeets, Fischer's lovebirds, golden conures, red bird-of-paradise, superb bird-of-paradise, Nicobar pigeons, black-naped fruit doves, green peacocks, Victoria crowned-pigeons, coroneted fruit doves, kagus, blue-and-yellow and green winged macaws.

[17][18] Tigress and Cubs, one of the park's oldest statues, was created by Auguste Cain in 1867 and installed on a rock outcrop near the Lake, but moved to the zoo in 1934.

[30][31] The Children's Zoo contains a petting zoo with mini nubian goats (a crossbreed between Nigerian dwarf and Nubian goats), sheep, pigs, alpacas, Patagonian cavies, and the only cow in Manhattan, as well as the Acorn Theatre, a performing arts theater.

[35] The zoo was not part of the original Greensward Plan for Central Park created by Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux.

[36][37]: 343 [38] The first animal, a bear cub tied to a tree, was left in Central Park in 1859, followed by a monkey the next year.

[43] By 1862, 60 acres (24 ha) were set aside for the construction of a future "zoological and botanical garden", later the Central Park Zoo.

[37]: 200  Up to twelve sites would eventually be considered for the zoo throughout the last three decades of the 19th century, including the North Meadow of Central Park.

[49] The menagerie became popular because of its free admission and proximity to working-class Lower Manhattan; by 1873, it saw 2.5 million annual visitors.

[50] The menagerie reached peak popularity in the mid-1880s after a chimpanzee nicknamed "Mike Crowley" was imported from Liberia.

Observers such as former president Ulysses S. Grant showed up at the Monkey House to see the chimpanzee, overfilling the building past capacity.

However, these efforts met resistance, as the Central Park menagerie was popular among the general public and among the politicians that represented them.

[37]: 389 Through the early 20th century, the quality of the menagerie declined through neglect from the city government, which administered the zoo.

[55] After assuming office in January 1934, New York City mayor Fiorello La Guardia hired Robert Moses to head a newly unified Parks Department.

[56] Plans for the new Central Park Zoo were prepared by Aymar Embury II within a 16-day span in February 1934[57] and were announced the following month.

[62] The rebuilt zoo opened on December 2, 1934,[63] at a ceremony where former governor Al Smith was given the honorary title of "night superintendent".

[72] In the late 1960s and early 1970s, the New York City Subway's 63rd Street lines, the present-day F, ​, and Q trains, were being built directly underneath the zoo.

[74] The construction of the subway line itself was controversial because it called for 1,500 feet (460 m) of cut-and-cover tunneling, which required digging an open trench through Central Park and then covering it over.

[76] A nature kiosk at Central Park Zoo was added in 1972,[77] and a $500,000 renovation for the Lion House was proposed the following year.

The facility's menagerie cages were replaced with three naturalistic habitats that blended with Central Park's scenery.

[12] In March 2020, the Central Park Zoo and the WCS's other facilities were shuttered indefinitely due to the COVID-19 pandemic in New York City.

J. I. C. Clarke was the primary writer of the hoax, under the direction and inspiration of the Herald's managing editor, T. B. Connery, who often walked through the zoo, and had witnessed the near-escape of a leopard.

[106] The Herald's cover story of November 9, 1874, claimed that there had been a mass escape of animals from the Central Park Zoo and that several people had been killed by the free-roaming beasts.

A rhinoceros was said to be the first escapee, goring his keeper to death and setting into motion the escape of other animals, including a polar bear, a panther, a Numidian lion, several hyenas, and a Bengal tiger.

[106][111][112] The Central Park Zoo is depicted in the 2005 animated film Madagascar as the place from which the main characters escaped.