Things to do / Travel Guide
When you come to the region with the oldest zoo in the United States, you expect great animal offerings, and the eastern Pennsylvania region does not disappoint.
Philadelphia
The Philadelphia Zoo, which opened in 1874, is the oldest zoo in the United States; a zoo that's only getting better with age. Over 1,800 creatures call it home, including rare white lions, snow leopards, and jaguars. In addition to the animals, there's a balloon ride that takes visitors 400 feet up in the air, as well as a 3-D ride through the plains of Africa, a camel safari, and an open air aviary. With a Children's Zoo to boot, this zoo is sure to entertain yet another generation of new visitors.
Maybe you're into creepy crawlers? If so Philadelphia's only all-bug museum can be found at the Insectarium at Steve's Bug-Off Exterminating Company. You'll find live and interactive exhibits here - including delicious delicacies like live cockroaches, bees, and praying mantises. Haven't seen a Madagascar Hissing cockroach lately? Not to worry. Plus they also display Mexican Red Leg tarantulas, and Emperor Scorpions. Not to be missed, but definitely not for the squeamish!
More standard fare is the Elmwood Park Zoo, in Norristown, near Philadelphia, which has a wide variety of mammals, birds, amphibians, reptiles and arthropods for your viewing pleasure. Over the course of your visit you may enjoy an African Pigmy Hedgehog, a Chilean Flamingo, a skink (a type of lizard, not a skunk), a boa constrictor, a tarantula, and more. The animals are seen in exhibits of the Bayou, Farmland, Grasslands, Wetlands, and South/Central America.
Harrisburg
ZooAmerica, another great zoo, houses more than 200 animals native to North America. The animals live in exhibits named North Woods, where you'll find a Canada Lynx, Cactus Community, with roadrunners, scorpions, and Gila monsters, and Big Sky Country, which is home to golden eagles, mountain lions, and American Elk.
Camden, New Jersey
Actually located just over the Pennsylvania-New Jersey border, in Camden, New Jersey, the Adventure Aquarium is the home to over 4,000 aquatic animals, including over 20 sharks and 850 others who live in the 550,000 gallon shark realm. Some of the many programs and shows include Swimming with the Sharks, as well as penguin, seal, and hippopotamus shows.
Brandywine River Valley
The Brandywine Zoo has been described as small, but intense. You'll see the world's largest rodent, the capybara, and some exotic Siberian tigers. In all, there are 150 animals - mammals, birds, reptiles, and amphibians – living in 13 acres of fun.
Zoos and Aquariums in Philadelphia, Lancaster, the Poconos, Eastern Pennsylvania
Zoos-Aquariums
Show :
|
|
|