Believe it or not, the Central Park Zoo was the first public zoo to open in the United States. I imagined it would've been larger in that case. I always thought the Bronx opened before (but wasn't the first in the country).
London Zoo was established as a zoo.
It was preceded by the Tower Menagerie, but was not an outgrowth of it as far as I know. In fact, the Menagerie existed for several years even after the zoo opened. There was also an earlier Exeter 'Change menagerie.
A number of royal menageries eventually became zoos.
But still, those account for a minority of the zoos that are or ever were.
There are several great sources for international zoo history, if you're interested in the subject, and of course The Bartlett Society (someone from which posts on Zoochat occasionally)
He may have posted the first zoo in North America but I posted the first IAZA (Intergalactic Association of Zoos and Aquariums) zoo to hold animals from Earth (although non-IAZA, side-show zoos are known to have displayed Earth creatures illegaly before this). And at least I named the zoo where.
That's rather interesting because Central Park didn't "open" as such. It was more like something that slowly evolved from a few geese into a few more animals, until eventually the Park had to do something more permanent about it. I have a photo of the Central park fenced enclosures from 1860 but it is so faded I can't get a decent scan to share.
There had been proposals for a zoo in the new park very early but the wealthy Fifth Ave. neighbors and Olmstead himself objected. Eventually though it happened spontaneously in spite of them.
Very different from Philadelphia, Cincinnati, Cleveland, National Zoo, Bronx (which was opposed because it might compete with Central Park!), etc. These were created by groups of civic minded citizens wanting to increase the cultural stature of their cities by founding a zoo.
I would have thought there is no ruling body to declare what counts. Must be up to you to decide how you feel.
And if a town established a zoological society but could not open an actual facility ever, where do they stand? It took Philadelphia almost 25 years when no actual zoo existed!
That's rather interesting because Central Park didn't "open" as such. It was more like something that slowly evolved from a few geese into a few more animals, until eventually the Park had to do something more permanent about it. I have a photo of the Central park fenced enclosures from 1860 but it is so faded I can't get a decent scan to share.
There had been proposals for a zoo in the new park very early but the wealthy Fifth Ave. neighbors and Olmstead himself objected. Eventually though it happened spontaneously in spite of them.
Very different from Philadelphia, Cincinnati, Cleveland, National Zoo, Bronx (which was opposed because it might compete with Central Park!), etc. These were created by groups of civic minded citizens wanting to increase the cultural stature of their cities by founding a zoo.
I believe the person that owned the land Bronx now sits on donated it to the city with the exception that it had to be built into a park with a zoo and botanical garden to give people an escape from the ever growing city.
When were the Prospect Park Zoo, Queens Zoo, and NY Aquarium opened and when did they all join the WCS?
I believe the person that owned the land Bronx now sits on donated it to the city with the exception that it had to be built into a park with a zoo and botanical garden to give people an escape from the ever growing city.
When were the Prospect Park Zoo, Queens Zoo, and NY Aquarium opened and when did they all join the WCS?
I think Prospect Park Zoo was built in the 1930s, largely as a WPA project. Queens Zoo opened in the mid-60s, as part of the 1964 World's Fair. Both were operated by the New York City Parks Department, until the early 1980s when a deal was made with the New York Zoological Society (now WCS) to take over management of all of the "City Zoos" in return for significant funding from the city to rebuild all three. The "new" Central Park Zoo opened in 1988, followed a few years later by Prospect Park and Queens, which received major renovations (although not nearly as extensive or dramatic as Central Park). The three continue to be run by WCS.
The New York Aquarium has always been run by NYZS/WCS, but it was originally located in the historic Battery Fort building at the southern tip of Manhattan. It was moved to it's current Coney Island location in the late 1950s, to allow construction of the Brooklyn-Battery tunnel below its previous location. There have been several proposals to build a new aquarium in various locations in Manhattan, but nothing has come of any of them. It will be interesting to see how the City and WCS move ahead with the huge and fully-funded plan to expand and improve the Aquarium following the disasterous flooding from Sandy.
I believe the person that owned the land Bronx now sits on donated it to the city with the exception that it had to be built into a park with a zoo and botanical garden to give people an escape from the ever growing city.
No I don't think that's accurate (not positive though). When you read the history of the Bronx Zoo you see that several sites were discussed between the NYZS founders and the City. The Parks Dept had this large tract of land and it ended up where it is in Bronx Park (as it was called).
Prospect Park Zoo - 1893
Queens Zoo - 1968 (after the World's Fair was gone from the site)
NY Aquarium (in the present site) - 1957. Prior to that it was in Battery Park on Manhattan island and when that site was given up it moved to the Bronx Zoo.
The Aquarium came to the zoo's management in 1902
The others were given to the NYZS to manage (not own) in 1980
All of this info, by the way, from Vernon Kisling's excellent book on "Zoo and Aquarium History"
