The Executive Director of the Roger Williams Park Zoo is decrying ATV use on city and park streets. Photo: GoLocal File
The Executive Director of the Roger Williams Park Zoo (RWP) Zoological Society on Monday sent a letter to a City Councilman describing how ATVs and off-road vehicles have destroyed the property and have ruined events at the Providence landmark.
RWP Zoo Zoological Society Executive Director Jeremy Goodman urged Councilman Michael Correia not to legalize ATVs on city streets but rather find a designated location for ATVs and off-road vehicles to operate. GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLAST
How the zoo’s mainstays, both two- and four-legged, are faring amid the pandemic.
January 20, 2021
Willie the donkey joins his alpaca friends in the farmyard. Photo by Meaghan Susi
“It was eerie. Quiet as can be,” says Matt Fugate, an adaptations keeper at Roger Williams Park Zoo (RWPZ), as he walks me through the grounds. “It was really strange continuing to do the same job I’ve always done, but with the complete absence of sound. Very cinema-esque.”
As many a lifelong local can attest, Rhode Island’s one and only zoo ordinarily is teeming with noise. Not quite due to the roars of lions, tigers and bears (our big cats are more the purring type), but rather the joyful gasps and laughs of two-legged visitors. Nearby I-95 usually whirrs with rushing cars while the adjacent park emits bicycle chimes, scrimmage shouts or even event chatter. Yet, in the throes of COVID-19, there was just silence.
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The Roger Williams Park Zoo is a glowing wonderland after the suns goes down. (Rachel Nunes/Patch)
PROVIDENCE, RI Starting Thursday night, Roger Williams Park Zoo will come to life after the sun goes down, lighting up the night.
No, this isn t the annual Jack-O-Lantern Spectacular, instead a new holiday tradition in the making. Rhode Islanders young and old can celebrate the season while stay socially distanced in their cars during the new drive-through Holiday Lights Spectacular.
Guests enter a tunnel of lights as they head into the light display (Rachel Nunes/Patch)
More than 1.5 million bulbs line the walkways of the zoo, taking the shape of snowmen, dinosaurs, butterflies even Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. The new holiday event was made possible through a grant by Rhode Island Commerce s HArT Recovery Grant Program. Zoo Director Jeremy Goodman said it will be here to stay in years to come in the form of a walkthrough similar to that of the jack-o-lanterns.