Venture Out: Roger Williams Park Zoo

Revisit your younger days when you hopped in the car, started the engine and drove off in search of something fun. Here are three unique options for you, depending on how far you want to drive. Visit one, or visit all of them. How far will you go?

15-Minute Drive: Roger Williams Park Zoo:

If you haven't been to the Roger Williams Park Zoo in a while, you might be surprised how close you can get to the animals.

The zoo has been undergoing an extensive renovation and expansion over the last few years and the results are numerous breathtaking glimpses at wildlife from around the world.

"We have minimized the amount of space between people and the animals. It's completeley safe but its also thrilling to get that close," said Janet Mariani, director of marketing an public relations for the zoo.

More people visit zoos each year than Major League Baseball games.

And Roger Williams Park Zoo isn't a zoo of old, with sad animals trapped in cages and pens. It's a vibrant, humane place where animals live in environments remarkably similar to their natural settings and get to live in peace and dignity.

Along with animal exhibits, the zoo offers educational programs, camps, a variety of dining options, shopping and even a booth where you can climb in and experience 70-plus mph winds like those that whip through the African plains.

And then there's the conservation element. Many of the species living at the zoo are endangered or threatened. The zoo offers them a safe place to live and gives scientists and zoologists the opportunity to study them up close. The end result is more knowledge and experience that can be brought to their conservation and protection in the wild.

One project in particular aims to reestablish a type of beetle that was once prevalant across the eastern United States but has dwindled for a variety of reasons: the American Burying Beetle. One small pocket of the beetle population remained on Block Island, of all places. At the zoo, they're in the process of breeding the beetles in the hopes of reintroducing them to the wild.

The burying beetle is one of the world's most efficient recyclers and serve an important role in the ecosystem as they help recycle decaying animals back into the ecosystem.

Since the program startced in 1995, the zoo has reared several generations of the beetles and released 2,923 beetles in Nantucket. It all started from just 19 male and 11 female beetles.

For more information, including a calendar of events, visit the zoo's website at www.rogerwilliamsparkzoo.org

30-Minute Drive: The Gilbert Stuart Birthplace

60-Minute Drive: Yawgoo Valley Ski Area