Centenarian zoos

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CGSwans

Well-Known Member
15+ year member
I was reading through some stuff about San Diego Zoo and noticed that it turns 100 next year, as does another very significant world zoo, Taronga. It prompted me to try to make a list of zoos that have passed the centenary milestone. I'm only formally including zoos that have operated continually on the one site, though I've made notes where I'm aware of zoos that are clearly continuous with earlier zoos at different sites.

I'm quite sure I couldn't possibly have found them all with a couple of hours on Wikipedia, so please raise any that I have missed:
1752 - Vienna (opened to the public in 1779)
1794 - Jardin des Plantes
1828 - London
1831 - Dublin
1836 - Bristol
1838 - Amsterdam
1843 - Antwerp
1844 - Berlin
1858 - Frankfurt
1859 - Copenhagen
1860 - Cologne
1861 - Dresden, Mumbai
1862 - Melbourne
1864 - Moscow, Central Park
1865 - St Petersburg, Wroclaw, Hanover, Karlsruhe, Saigon
1866 - Budapest
1868 - Mulhouse, Lincoln Park (Not really happy with this date for Lincoln Park as they mark the founding of the zoo from the donation of a pair of swans to the park. Two swans does not a zoo make. However, the site was clearly being developed as an animal collection from quite soon afterwards.)
1871 - Hong Kong
1872 - Kothen, Roger Williams Park (Providence, US), Lahore
1874 - Basel, Philadelphia
1875 - Buenos Aires, Cincinnati, Buffalo, Binghamton (NY)
1876 - Alipore (Kolkata), Baltimore
1877 - Jaipur
1878 - Leipzig, Gulab Bagh (Udaipur, India. Not sure whether the zoo was founded at this time or just the garden on the same site)
1881 - Wuppertal
1882 - Ueno, Cleveland
1883 - Adelaide
1884 - Lisbon
1888 - Sofia, Oregon
1889 - Helsinki, Atlanta, Smithsonian National Zoo
1891 - John Ball (Grand Rapids, US)
1892 - Barcelona, Mysore
1894 - Henry Doorly (Omaha), Seneca Park (Rochester, US)
1896 - Denver
1897 - Como Park (St Paul US)
1898 - Perth, Pittsburgh
1899 - Rostock, Pretoria (National Zoo of South Africa), Bronx, Woodland Park (Seattle)
1900 - Toledo, Virginia (Norfolk, US)
1901 - Halle
1902 - Potawatomi (South Bend, US)
1903 - Kyoto
1904 - Assimboine Park (Winnipeg, Canada), Saint Louis
1905 - Brandywine (Wilmington, US), Stone Zoo (Massachusetts)
1906 - Wellington, Yangon (Myanmar), Memphis
1907 - Hamburg
1908 - Beijing
1909 - Kiev, Bernburg (Germany), Seoul, Kansas City, Fort Worth
1910 - Parque Centenario (Merida Mexico)
1911 - Rome, Munich, Henry Vilas (Madison, US)
1912 - Riga, Nuremberg, Franklin Park (Boston), Bramble Park (Watertown, US)
1913 - Edinburgh, Berlin Aquarium
1914 - Taipei, Miller Park (Bloomington, US), Audubon, Rosamond Gifford (Syracuse, US), Utica, Point Defiance, San Antonio
1915 - Tennoji (Osaka)

Former sites closed, zoos moved to new locations less than 100 years ago:
Madrid - original zoo opened in 1770 and was replaced by current site in 1972.
Rotterdam - original zoo opened in 1857, moved in 1940 due to damage suffered in WWII.
Ragunan Zoo, Jakarta - original zoo opened in 1864. Current site in 1966.
Chennai - original zoo opened 1855, current site opened in 1985.
Sydney - original zoo in Moore Park opened in 1879, replaced by Taronga in 1916.
Toronto - the original Riverview Zoo opened in 1888 and was replaced in 1974.
Prospect Park - the original zoo started as an informal menagerie in 1890 and was on another site in Prospect Park. The present zoo opened in 1935.
Los Angeles - founded in 1912 as Griffith Park Zoo, moved to another site, also within Griffith Park, in 1966.
Burgers - opened in 1913, shifted to current site in 1922.

So. What have I missed?
 
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this is a great list. It really is amazing how long so many of these zoos have been around.
 
I don't think Rotterdam's at it's original site -it relocated during WWII.
 
Diergaarde Blijdorp (Rotterdam) is indeed not on it's original site and was indeed relocated just after the second world war. Burgers Zoo is also not on it's original site for 101 years. The collection moved as a whole from 's Heerenberg to Arnhem in 1922.
 
Thanks. :) I don't think I read into Rotterdam at all (it was one of the years that I knew off the top of my head, but obviously not that they had moved). Was unable to infer the move from Burgers' website. I also forgot to mention LA Zoo, which had its previous incarnation in another part of Griffith Park from 1912 to 1966.

On a semi-related note - I'm also interested in forming a list of 19th century zoos that may have closed since. I know of Belle Vue Zoo in Manchester and the short-lived Manchester and Surrey Zoos but I'm sure zoos have formed in cities outside the UK that didn't survive.
 
Mexico´s first zoo was founded in 1910 at Parque Centenario in Merida, Yucatan. The zoo was opened as part of the celebrations of the 100 years of Mexican independence. It was inaugurated by the famous president turned dictator Porfirio Diaz. Chapultepec zoo in Mexico city would be inaugurated until 1922. The zoo at parque centenario is sadly rather neglected now, as vogelcommando found during a recent visit.
 
Detailed list but I can name you 3 more:Bronx,November 8, 1899;Central park made in 1860s(made modernized mid 1980s), and Philadelphia, July 1, 1874
However there is contoversy as to whether Phili or Central Park was first. Phili was opened as a zoo before central park but due to war in states they didn't have animals until later. Central park opened in between but had animals. This is what I think the order should be(see above list which isn't in order)
 
CGSwans said:
On a semi-related note - I'm also interested in forming a list of 19th century zoos that may have closed since.(...) I'm sure zoos have formed in cities outside the UK that didn't survive.
Click to expand...

In regard to Germany:
Aachen Zoo (1882-1905)
Berlin Aquarium unter den Linden (1869-1910)
Berlin Menagerie Pfaueninsel (1828-1844)
Düsseldorf Zoo (1874-1944)
Schweinfurt Zoo (1869[relocated in 1878]-1944)
Hamburg Zoo (1863-1930)
Carl Hagenbeck's original zoo (1874-1907)
Krefeld's first Zoo (1879-1914)
Munich's first Zoo (1863-1866) and another (1874-1876)
Two zoos in Stuttgart (1814-1817) and (1840-1874)

Relocated: Frankfurt Zoo, Tierpark Nuremberg, Münster Zoo

More: Zoo-AG: Aufgelöste Zoos in Deutschland
 
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