Type of place: Small zoo featuring rescued animals.
Location: 1356 N. Gary Avenue, Wheaton
Cost: Free!
Secret: Starting in April, every day at 10 am you can help feed the ducks! ($1.00 buys a bag of special duck food.)
Appropriate ages: All ages, from infants to 200!
Cosley Zoo is an old favorite of mine, so I wanted to share it here in case some of you haven't discovered it yet. Originally known as Cosley Animal Farm because it was a simple park with a display of farm animals, Cosley is now a wildlife refuge as well as a zoo. Wild animals are able to find a home here when they have suffered injuries that they won't be able to recover from well enough to survive in the wild. There are also some animals, such as the new white-tailed deer, that are at Cosley because humans tried to make pets of them. Baby wild animals are cute and fun, but as they get older they become more difficult to care for... and by then they are too dependent on humans to survive in the wild.
The animals that reside at this little zoo include horses, cows, sheep, goats, pigs, hedgehogs, a burro, llamas, coyotes, foxes, rabbits, raccoons, opossums, deer, and all sorts of ducks, birds, reptiles and amphibians.
There is also an actual antique railroad car for kids to play in. It used to be just an empty car, but kids were always climbing around on it like monkeys, so Cosley changed it into a little learning room with puzzles and other hands-on exhibits.
Pufferfish took this picture of a stuffed owl perched in the railroad car!"
Cosley also has a gift shop, a concession stand, and a picnic area. As summer approaches, everyone should keep this place in mind as a fun way to spend a morning or an afternoon with the kids!
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