Your Zoo's Significant Firsts

B

Blackduiker

Well-Known Member
In this thread we add significant zoo firsts. Preferrably your home zoo. This would include firsts in breeding, species exhibited, largest litter size or longevity. Get the picture? Just a bit of fun zoo trivia.

In 1976 the Los Angeles Zoo, through an exchange with its sister city Nagoya, Japan, in honor of the USA's 200th anniversary, was the first zoo in the Western Hemisphere to ever exhibit the Japanese Serow. The zoo in Nagoya received a pair of Rocky Mountain Goats in exchange.

Los Angeles Zoo firsts in breeding have included:

Dog-toothed Cat Snake
Crimson-rumped Toucanet
First Rhino of any species ever successfully bred in California (Black Rhino in 1970). And yes that even includes San Diego.:eek:
Mountain Tapir
Pesquet's Parrot
Marbled Cat
Crested Capuchin (first ever exhibited and bred outside of South America).
Peninsular Pronghorn (first ever exhibited and bred outside of Mexico).

More L.A. Zoo firsts to follow.
 
I've got one for you: first near-servering of celebrity's husband's foot by Komodo Dragon!: Phil Bronstein ("Mr. Sharon Stone") had his bare foot (!!!) chomped in an ill-advised behind the scenes tour a few years ago.......
 
The Kansas City Zoo had a bull African elephant who fathered the first African elephant calf through artifical insemenation, though that calf was born to a female at the Indianapolis Zoo.
 
In 1979 the Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle created the first ever naturalistic gorilla exhibit, and it still holds up brilliantly exactly 30 years later.
 
White Oak Conservation Center:
-sent the first US captive born rhinoceros into the wild
-first successful gerenuk artificial insemination
-2nd facility to ever house 4 species of rhinoceros, 1st in the US
-1st of 2 facilities to have parent reared Maned Wolf pups
 
This is not on the exact theme of the thread but here we go:
In 1931 The Zoological Society of London opened the worlds first open-air zoo its name - Whipsnade Wild Animal Park (now - ZSL Whipsnade Zoo) and it has gone from strength to strength, it is one of my favourite zoos and one of the very best i have visited :)
No back to the theme, Linton Zoo my home zoo achieved the first breeding of the Southern Ground Hornbill in Europe.
 
Last edited:
Blackduiker

Cat-Man said:
yey, you finally got your thread name right!
Click to expand...

I've gotten a couple of titles wrong in my month with ZooChat and my apologies to all, but this is not the first I've gotten right. For example:

"Elite Species List."
"Zoos You've Never Visited But Are High On Your List."
"New Orangutan Population Found In Indonesia."

I guess being use to typing my username in for every post response, causes me to type name rather than title for 2 of the posts I've created.:o And unfortunately, this site does not give the option of self editing titles once submitted.

I'm still waiting for one of our dear moderators to make the correction on the improperly titled "Blackduiker" thread I created. I'll try to be more careful in the future Cat-Man.
 
Blackduiker

reduakari said:
I've got one for you: first near-servering of celebrity's husband's foot by Komodo Dragon!: Phil Bronstein ("Mr. Sharon Stone") had his bare foot (!!!) chomped in an ill-advised behind the scenes tour a few years ago.......
Click to expand...

Yes, "ill-advised" reduakari I agree. And you should have seen the thousands that came out to the zoo in the following weeks to see the Komodos, after all the media hoopla. It seemed everyone in L.A. wanted to see them.
 
Edinburgh zoo.

Worlds first captive bred king penguin

UK first bred - Japanese serow, Hamlyn's guenon and first botn orang utan, but it did not survive.
 
Blackduiker

Los Angeles was the first major American zoo to discourage and enforce a strict policy, against public feeding of unhealthy foods to its animals. For a time, they did sale fish you could feed to the Sea Lions.

The world's first gorilla baby(Caesar) delivered by caesarian section, was at the Los Angeles Zoo in 1977.
 
Chester

first captive breeding of Superb Bird of Paradise

first lion enclosure without iron bars

Jersey first captive breedings of
Mallorcan Midwife Toad
Gunether's Day Gecko
St Lucia Whiptail Lizard
Telfair's Skink
Lesser Antilles Iguana
Keel-scaled Boa
Antigua Island Racer
Madagascan Teal
Hispaniolan Amazon Parrot
St Lucia Amazon Parrot
Rodrigues Fody
Montserrat Oriole
Livingstone's Fruit Bat
Rodriguies Fruit Bat
Aye-Aye
Madagascan Giant Jumping Rat
Volcano Rabbit
 
Blackduiker said:
I've gotten a couple of titles wrong in my month with ZooChat and my apologies to all, but this is not the first I've gotten right. For example:

"Elite Species List."
"Zoos You've Never Visited But Are High On Your List."
"New Orangutan Population Found In Indonesia."

I guess being use to typing my username in for every post response, causes me to type name rather than title for 2 of the posts I've created.:o And unfortunately, this site does not give the option of self editing titles once submitted.

I'm still waiting for one of our dear moderators to make the correction on the improperly titled "Blackduiker" thread I created. I'll try to be more careful in the future Cat-Man.
Click to expand...

sorry if i offended you, but i ment that in a nice way:)
 
Blackduiker

:D No offense taken Cat-Man, others have remarked about my "Titles" or lack of them as well. Now give us a few firsts.
 
Riziki said:
This is not on the exact theme of the thread but here we go:
In 1931 The Zoological Society of London opened the worlds first open-air zoo its name - Whipsnade Wild Animal Park (now - ZSL Whipsnade Zoo) and it has gone from strength to strength, it is one of my favourite zoos and one of the very best i have visited :)
No back to the theme, Linton Zoo my home zoo achieved the first breeding of the Southern Ground Hornbill in Europe.
Click to expand...

Sorry to correct you ,but Whipsnade is desribed as the first open zoo, NOT "open air", i.e. large barless paddocks for hoofstock.

It was believed that tropical animals could not survive outside in London's cold weather and so they were all kept indoors until 1902, when Dr Peter Chalmers Mitchell was appointed secretary of ZSL. He set about a major reorganisation of the buildings and enclosures of the London Zoo, bringing many of the animals out into the open, where many thrived. This was an idea inspired by Hamburg Zoo, and led to newer designs to many of the buildings. Sir Peter Chalmers Mitchell inspiration for Whipsnade was a trip to the Bronx Zoo. Sir Peter, who at the time was ZSL secretary and was the major supporter of Whipsnade is also credited with changing the thinking on animal husbandry. I remember reading that the death rate among monkeys was as high as 80% a year until he tried allowing them access to outside enclosures and fresh air at London Zoo, where the death rate was cut dramatically.
 
Blackduiker

Los Angeles was also the first zoo to ever exhibit all four species of Tapir; Malayan, Mountain, Baird's and South American simultaneously.
 
Toronto Zoo is the first zoo in Canada to have bred Sumatran Tigers, Komodo Dragons and I believe African Dwarf Crocodiles. They're also the first (and only zoo thus far) to display a Liberian Mongoose. It is also one of the first zoos to display animals geographically, rather than having cat and reptile houses.
 
Last edited:
It is also the first zoo to display animals geographically, rather than having cat and reptile houses.
Click to expand...

That is probably debateable....

Los Angeles, Gladys Porter, and Sedgwick County are all designed zoogeographically and opened before Toronto....however, unless I am taking your post out of context and Toronto's "firsts" all apply to Canada only - then I am mistaken.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top