Zoo New York 1 Thompson Park, Watertown, NY 13601

"Great conservatory! Butterfly House was fantastic. The Zoo New York at Thompson Park is immensely improved from its earlier days. Watertown should be proud."

"My husband and I love visiting zoos when we are on vacation, so we had to come to this one on our way home. There were some cool interactive things to help kids learn and some nice exhibits, but overall, the value for the price was disappointing. Many of the exhibits were closed or empty. The butterfly house was locked and inaccessible. A lot of the animals were not visible. We did get to see a bald eagle and porcupine pretty close up which was cool. The grounds were clean and well maintained and the animals seemed to be well cared for."

"Alright so I love zoos but this one was really disappointing. 1) They don’t post the time for the elk feeding and then when I got there at 11:50 and asked to purchase 2 tickets to feed the elk and then I was informed that they stopped selling tickets for that for the day (their hours are 10-5, so I was surprised they stop so early in the day), they said they only sell tickets for it from 10:45 to 11:46 and then the feeding is at 12. Which whatever I missed it, but then at 12:20 the one zookeeper had at least 10 cups of carrots that he was just chucking over the side of the fence to the elk, that was already prepared for visitors. 2) Then we went into the reptile house and out of the 6 enclosures inside 2 of them were empty and closed for renovation. 3) We went to the butterfly house at like 12 when we first arrived and it was locked, and I was told the zookeeper was probably on lunch and then I tried again an hour and a half later after I was told they’d be back between 12:30 and 1 and it was still locked. So we ended up leaving without getting to see the butterflies. 4) The petting zoo/farm animal area was also locked and not open for visitors just like the butterfly house, so we left without seeing them too. 5) They also had the wolverine and owl, and otter inclosure empty 6)They also said there was a pressed penny machine online and there was none. There was quite a bit of play ground area and stuff for small kids to play around. Not bad for little kids but overall not a good zoo. I honestly wouldn’t advertise it as a zoo it’s more of a public park with the animals kinda like a second thought. Definitely not worth the $12 a person. Considered asking for my money back because of how disappointing it was but I didn’t even bother."

"With there being trash in certain spots, and most of the enclosures looking run down. My family did not have a good time. Albeit it was mothers day and my wife got in for free, which respectfully that was nice. It is such a small place and has maybe a handful of sad looking animals. I would hardly consider this a zoo. These animals need to be relocated and this land needs to be used differently. Will not return. However, the animals are still adorable. Maybe spend the 9 bucks to just jog there along the trails and have the animals near you? Takes about 30 mins to go around the entire zoo....walking extremely slow mind you."

"Definitely a small zoo, but still an interesting place to see some native animals up close. I was glad to see that there wasn't anything too exotic, from an animal welfare standpoint, especially considering the harsh winters in this area. Nice place to walk around with my 6 yr old and fun to read about the animals, especially the stories of how they came to the zoo, like Pandora's comical story we laughed about! We also recently saw a wild barred owl and we love to go to Tug Hill in the evenings and call to them. We hear them so often that it was cool to see one much closer up, given all we have learned of them. Only thing I think definitely needs attention is the tanks inside! They were full of algae and a couple dead fish (pictured). The turtle was a kind I've never seen or heard of before, so it was cool to see that and learn how common they actually are. But someone really needs to be keeping up with tank maintenance!"