As part of our Syracuse visiting attractions tour thanks to Visit Syracuse, we made a stop at the Rosamond Gifford Zoo. The weather was sunny and so hot at 41° Celsius with humidity, but that didn’t stop visitors to come to the zoo as the parking lot was full! My mother, who made the trip to Syracuse on Saturday, took out her umbrella out of the car and use it for shade! Now, that’s a bright idea, so we did the same!
The Rosamond Gifford Zoo at Burnet Park is the home to approximately 700 animals on 43 acres. Almost every hour, the Zoo offers special Demo Session to view the animals perform or up close. As you enter the main building entrance, you are greeted by 2 attendants in their individual ticket booth. Once you pay, you can start your journey by entering a submarine cave to visit the U.S.S. Antiquities where you will find a variety of fish, reptiles, amphibians and invertebrates.
Up next is the Diversity of Birds Aviary where you can view many birds of different shapes, sizes, and colours!
Your next stop is to visit to the animals in Adaptation – Natural Selection at Work, followed by a walk through the Lion Corridor where you will meet 3 lions, Kierha, Joshus and Mindine. Don’t forget to enter the Ecosystems building to look at the monkies, meerkats, apes and lemurs.
Once outside, you will notice many birds in the ponds such as ducks, raptors, flamingos and other birds.
This was one of my favourite exhibit, the Penguin Coast where you watch the penguins swim, dive, waddle, and give us quite a show. You can watch them from the top of the water bay or under water through six viewing windows. They are so adorable!
The Wildlife Trail is totally awesome as you will view many animals such as the Rocky Mountain Bighorn Sheeps, the Fisher, the Lynx, the Snow Leopards, the Caribou, the Guanaco, the Spectacled Bears, and Tigers while walking up and downhill on the zoo grounds!
I was lucky to be able to capture on photo this tiger as he decided to come up to drink water near the viewing windows.
The Zoo also has a very big Asian Elephant Preserve. They have seven elephants on site: Indy, Siri, Romani, Kirina, Targa, Mali, and Chuck.
A visit to the zoo would not be complete without viewing the Domestic Animal Barn where you can see sheeps, cows, hogs, and more!
Hours
Open 10:00 a.m. – 4:30 p.m., 362 days a year
Closed Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s Day
Rentals
For your convenience, wagons and strollers are available for rent at the membership desk.
| Single Strollers | $3 |
| Wagons | $5 |
On site you will also find the Jungle Café that offers a wide selection of food for lunch and snacks such as salads, hot dogs, hamburgers, grilled chicken, sandwiches, soups, and ice cream.
Before we head out, we went into the gift shop to purchase souvenirs. There are so many cute plush animals that you will want to leave with a few. I purchased two plush baby penguins for my nieces and a coffee mug for myself.
I have not visited a Zoo in years and I have to say that it truly has been a delight to visit the Rosamond Gifford Zoo! Make sure to put it on your to do list when you come to Syracuse!
Check out our other review in Syracuse at the Milton J. Rubenstein Museum of Science and Technology (MOST) Museum!
Disclosure: I received free tickets to the Rosamond Gifford Zoo by the Syracuse Tourism Organization. However, my opinions are 100% my own, and only recommend products or services I believe will be beneficial to my readers.
Great pictures! This looks like a fun zoo to visit. I like the variety of animals they have. Reasonable prices too, our zoo is very expensive to get in to.
I’m so glad you and your family enjoyed your experience at the zoo! Thank you for another excellent review of your Syracuse family getaway!
My pleasure Danica! The zoo is fantastic!
Looks like a fun zoo – our local zoo is under renovations and I’ve heard it’s not worth going this summer because of that. I hope by next year we can go.
P.S. I love the mug 🙂
Wow, that looks awesome! Amazing pics! I love visiting the zoo, wish we could go there but we are pretty far! There isn’t really a close zoo that I can think of to me. We haven’t been in a long while.
Looks like a terrific zoo and wow, very reasonable admission prices! Isn’t it great when the big cats are actually moving? We got the best pics of Daddy Lion prowling around at African Lion Safari last summer – amazing!
Lovely! I enjoy a good zoo trip! This destination looks enjoyable!
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Looks fantastic! I have always wanted to go and have not had time when I’ve visited Syracuse – next time I hope.
Great to know! We are considering a getaway to Syracuse in the spring and will add the zoo to the agenda. Thanks!
I have to say that I hate zoos or other organizations that keep animals that are meant to roam free and run like the wind but instead they’re in cages. I know there is a need for them because of the extinction in some cases but I still feel they should have a place where the can run or roam and I hope this place and others either already have that or will make better places for them in the near future !!
Looks like interesting place to visit, hope animals have great surroundings and are treated well to feel safe and happy!