Very few zoo maps are dated, but this one is on the back of a Zoo Holiday Programme dated for August 1988. It is a pretty rough hand-drawn photocopy map. It is interesting to compare the design with an earlier map (probably around 1985, with the zoo entrance at the left of the map - Wellington Zoo map 1980s | ZooChat) and a slightly later map (1989 or 1990, in a vertical orientation with the zoo entrance at the bottom of the map - Wellington Zoo map c.1989/1990 | ZooChat).
This era of the zoo is my favourite - loads of species to see with animals packed in everywhere, although it is true that the enclosures were not always the best, with there still being a lot of concrete and heavy mesh.
At this time there were somewhere between 50 and 60 bird species at the zoo. Many of these were in the "Bird Valley" at the bottom of the map (where there are labels for birds and alligator), but there were also aviaries elsewhere in the zoo, and the lake had numerous species of waterfowl as well as pelicans. Today the zoo displays less than 15 species of birds, and even that is including their chickens and guineafowl.
Just above Bird Valley in the monkey cages there were also Kinkajou, Common Raccoon, and Geoffroy's Cat. Further up the zoo there were Arctic Wolves, Eurasian Badgers, Snow Leopards, White-nosed Coatis, and all sorts of ungulates.
