Reopening day brings some changes to Southwick’s Zoo in Mendon

MENDON, Mass. — All is happy at Southwick’s Zoo in Mendon. It’s reopening day with some changes; tickets need to be purchased online by reserving a time slot, and many attractions are still open with adjustments for social distancing.

“We had to remove picnic tables. We had to caution tape off a lot of areas. We had to completely close down our playground, which is very large. Our petting zoo is closed,” said Betsy Brewer-Bethel, family owner of Southwick’s Zoo in Mendon. “We knew that Gov. Baker was going to have some strict guidelines. We were preparing for that knowing that these stipulations were going to be in place. We weren’t sure how stringent it was going to be.”

Southwick’s Zoo is a family-owned business that opened in 1963. It’s normally open from April through October and relies solely on admissions and donations to keep the more than 200 acres operating.

​"We open the beginning of April. So we missed those two months of opening that's generally where we get most of our funding from school groups and visitors on the weekend, and that really helps us to kickstart, jump back into the zoo," Brewer-Bethel explained.

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On any given morning there could be as many as 2,500 students from field trips alone. As Brewer-Bethel told Boston 25 News, it's not only about the bottom-line; zoo handlers also noticed a change. ​

"A couple of weeks ago on a beautiful day, I was walking by the chimp habitat and, of course, they're highly intelligent animals. And one of them, the oldest one that I've known for about 50 years, actually was jumping up and down and hoot and hollering. I could tell she was like, ‘what's up, this is kind of crazy,’" Brewer-Bethel said. "So visitors can actually be enriching for those animals. It keeps them a little entertained as well."

After getting the green light to reopen, zoo staff has been anxiously anticipating welcoming back smiling faces and the laughter of little ones.

We're really happy, the staff is happy and like I said the animals are happy too," Brewer-Bethel said.

Other area zoos like the Franklin Park Zoo and the Stone Zoo still remain closed.

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