A zoo's most famous animal

As a Colchester local I would say that Rajang was probably Colchester's most loved resident until Matt won X Factor on Sunday, lol.

Unfortunetly it looks as if we will be saying goodbye to Sasha anyday now.

I would also say that the elephant Kito, who was born in 2002 from artificial insemination is quite famous. He was even mentioned on Have I Got News For You after he was born.

Also semi-famous were the Zeedonks the zoo kept until last year.
 
At London, Josephine the hornbill, long time resident in the bird house who passed away in 1999, on the Mappin Terraces, Pipuluck the polar bear, son of Sally and Sam,with polar bears Mandy at Flamingoland, the last polar bear on public display in England. At Monkey World Trudy the chimp who hit the headlines after being confiscated from her former owners who later requested the return of "their property" even after Trudy had settled at Monkey World .At Bristol, was Dotty the ring tailed lemur a resident of this zoo when she starred on Animal Magic with Johnny Morris?
 
RowanGreen said:
London: Winnie the bear. Apparently they used to let children stroke and feed her. One of those kids grew up to write Winnie the Pooh, apparently named after her. They have a picture of her and the author (as a kid) together up at the zoo.
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Actually it was that kid's father who wrote Winnie the pooh stories, I can't remember his name now, but I think the child has same/almost same name as the human child in the stories
 
from Wikipedia's article on Winnie the Pooh:
A.A.Milne named the character Winnie-the-Pooh after a teddy bear owned by his son, Christopher Robin Milne, who was the basis for the character Christopher Robin. His toys also lent their names to most of the other characters, except for Owl and Rabbit, as well as the Gopher character, who was added in the Disney version. Christopher Robin's toy bear is now on display at the Main Branch of the New York Public Library in New York.

Christopher Milne had named his toy bear after Winnie, a Canadian black bear which he often saw at London Zoo, and "Pooh", a swan they had met while on holiday. The bear cub was purchased from a hunter for $20 by Canadian Lieutenant Harry Colebourn in White River, Ontario, Canada, while en route to England during the First World War. He named the bear "Winnie" after his hometown in Winnipeg, Manitoba. "Winnie" was surreptitiously brought to England with her owner, and gained unofficial recognition as The Fort Garry Horse regimental mascot. Colebourne left Winnie at the London Zoo while he and his unit were in France; after the war she was officially donated to the zoo, as she had become a much loved attraction there. Pooh the swan appears as a character in its own right in When We Were Very Young.
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Bulu, Paignton's female Bornean orangutan. Before her death at the age of 47 in 2008, she had the claim to be the UK's longest living captive bred orangutan. Her wild born father, Charlie, was captured by David Attenborough on one of his televised expeditions and taken to London Zoo. I've seen him mention Bulu in TV interviews and have a copy of a photo of him with her.
 
Bethyl (Kodiak Bear), Heman (Asian Elephant)-Taronga

Bong Su (Asian Elephant, Rigo (Western Lowland Gorilla)- Melbourne

Chook (lyrebird), Wang Wang + Funi (giant pandas)- Adelaide

Hsing Hsin (sumatran orangutan)- Perth

Harriet (oldest known captive living tortoise)- Australia Zoo
 
Wasn't there a hippo called Obayash, that was very popular for Londoners in the early 1900th or so?
 
Thanks for the clarification on Winnie. I was down at London yesterday and looked at the sign very briefly and obviously didn't take in all the details (didn't know this thread was going to be here when I got back!)

There was something about a hippo too... was the first in Britain since Roman times I believe! I'll trust you on the name Zoomaniac! (The pigmies they have now were charging about in their indoor pool, amazing how fast they can move)

Suprised no-one has mentioned Monkey World's Sally the chimp
 
Prior to the arrival of Mercedes (and now Walker) for HWP it was Sascha and Yuri (plus cubs) the Tigers for a while.
 
Gary said:
Victor the Giraffe who did the splits at Marwell.

Ralph the wetsuit wearing Penguin, also at Marwell.

Snowflake the albino gorilla at Barcelona zoo.
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I still remember victor. I was 6 at the time and in infant school. After the news story Our school made a life size giraffe, which we painted and put up in the school hall. We were gutted when he died.

I was talking about it to orangeperson the other day, but couldn't remember why we had done it. It's all started to come back to me now
 
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Dudley - Pepé, (Chimpanzee), Flossie, (African Elephant), Cuddles, (Killer Whale)
,
Chester - Boris, (Chimpanzee), Sheba, (Asian Elephant), and "Motty", her hybrid calf, (African X Asian).
 
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GreatApe said:
Dudley - Pepé, (Chimpanzee), Flossie, (African Elephant), Cuddles, (Killer Whale)
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Chester - Boris, (Chimpanzee), Sheba, (Asian Elephant and only survivor of their mixed species herd), and "Motty", her hybrid calf, (African X Asian).
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Actually Judy is alive and well still currently living in Germany,so Sheba isnt the only Elephant left from the days of Chesters mixed herd.
 
zoomaniac said:
Wasn't there a hippo called Obayash, that was very popular for Londoners in the early 1900th or so?
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Obaysch, London Zoo's first hippo lived at London Zoo from 20th May 1850 until his death on 11th March 1878.

He was the father of the famous Guy Fawkes, born at London Zoo on 5th November 1872.
 
Toronto Zoo:

Charles (Lowland Gorilla)

Inukshuk, Aurora and Nikita (Polar Bears; all where orphaned and it made news when they were rescued)

Patsy (African Elephant)

Kunik (Polar Bear)
 
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