Snow Monkeys, Sea Lions and a Rainforest Inside Central Park
A compact zoo at 64th and Fifth where the day is built around posted feeding times and a gate that closes in stages.
The Central Park Zoo sits at 64th Street and Fifth Avenue, just inside the park's southeast corner. Three climate zones, a sea lion pool and a separate children's zoo are all within a few minutes' walk of each other. Most visitors are through the whole thing in one to two hours, toddlers included. The hour you arrive matters more than the route you take.
The gate closes at 5:00 PM on weekdays and 5:30 PM on weekends and federal holidays through October 31. Animal exhibits shut thirty minutes ahead of the gate, and last entry is a full hour before closing. A 4:00 PM weekday arrival buys thirty minutes with the animals.
Entry is by date. The zoo removes a date from its calendar once that day is full, and its reservation center cannot add anyone back to a closed date. Choosing the day at the moment of booking is the part that protects the visit. One ticket covers one entry, with no re-entry after you leave.
Central Park Zoo Ticket in New York CityKlook · Dated entry, instant confirmation · USD 22.95affiliate.klook.comThe animals that stay outside all winter
Temperate Territory runs outdoors year round, and its residents are built for that. The snow monkey troop gathers around a heated pool, and the zoo invites visitors to watch the group interact: this is a species that communicates through facial expression and a wide vocal range. Red pandas work the branches above them, coming down trunks face first on ankles that rotate.
The grizzly bears nearby arrived here after being orphaned in the wild, and their overlook is reached by stairs. Up a steep path, the snow leopard is the one animal here you may have to wait out. A sighting in the wild is rare, and the enclosure gives the cat plenty of places to be.
Where to go when the weather turns
Tropic Zone is the warm room, kept hot and humid enough that a camera lens fogs on the way in. The birds inside range free through the exhibit with you, and the space rewards looking up. Black-and-white ruffed lemurs, white-faced saki monkeys and cotton-topped tamarins share it, along with a troop of banded mongooses and a leafcutter ant colony. Two of those lemurs are new. Twins Maso and Tonga were born here on April 5, 2026 and went on view in July, a male and a female from a species the IUCN lists as Critically Endangered. The lighting is deliberately low and there are stairs.
Polar Circle splits between indoors and out. Chinstrap penguins are inside, marked as though wearing a helmet strap. Harbor seals are outside, and keepers describe them contracting their stomach muscles to wiggle across land like a caterpillar. In 2015 this zoo became home to the first king penguin ever hatched in New York City.
The feedings set the clock
Two feedings run on a posted schedule and both pull a crowd to the rail. On a recent day the penguins were fed at 10:40 AM and 2:30 PM, and the sea lions at 11:30 AM and 3:30 PM. The zoo publishes the day's actual schedule on its site and posts it at the entrance, and those times move. The penguin session happens indoors, where the crowd packs in and the viewing glass fogs over.
Keepers treat the sea lion sessions as training. The method they describe is called scanning: wait for an animal to offer a natural behavior unprompted, then reinforce it the moment it happens, until the behavior turns up more often.
Going with kids
Tisch Children's Zoo sits just north of the main park under its own gates, with Shetland and harlequin sheep, mini-Nubian goats, zebu and a Patagonian cavy. Animal feeding there runs only between 10:00 AM and 2:00 PM. Families who arrive after lunch miss it.
Two house rules are worth knowing at the gate. Everyone 17 and under has to be with an adult of 18 or over. Child scooters are never permitted inside.
Closing runs in two steps before the gate itself. Last entry is one hour before the park closes, and the animal exhibits shut thirty minutes ahead of that gate time. Re-entry is not permitted on a one-day ticket. From November 1 the whole day shifts earlier: doors at 10:00 AM, exhibits closed by 4:00 PM, gate at 4:30 PM.
Walk out at 64th Street and the rest of Central Park starts on the other side of the path.