1970's Central Park Koala?

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beemo

New Member
Does anyone remember a Koala in the 1970's at Central Park Zoo?
When I was little in the mid 70's my mom would take me to Central Park zoo often, and she swears to this day that they had a Koala at one time, I dont think he was there long, but I do remember that day as a kid (maybe 6 yrs old) her pointing in the cage and telling me to look at the koala, the memory is so vague, but I do remember a gray ball sleeping, never saw its face and I was not very interested.
When this "mystery" koala was no longer there my mom told me a dark tale of it, which I will not repeat because I think its bogus...and I think the whole thing of central park ever having a koala is bogus...but my mom insists.
So if anyone can prove that in the 1970's (probably mid 70's) that Central park did indeed house a koala please please share :)
 
DavidBrown is correct the only koalas in North America were the San Diego animals at that time.

I get your mom's confusion. To this day I could swear the first time Toronto Zoo had pandas I saw them from my stroller. However I have been assured by both of my parents I never saw them because they didn't take us to the zoo until we were too old for strollers. It's clearly some memory I manufactured based on news clips or something but it still feels like it was a real experience for me. Hard to say what happened in your case but sometimes our memories play tricks on us.
 
When I visited Berlin Zoo in 1984, I remember seeing three unusual birds in the Bird House: kagu, weka and takahe. Nobody has disputed the first two sightings, but I wonder what I saw if the third bird wasn't a takahe.
 
Thank you everyone for clarifying this :)
I'm so glad I posted, because I have been thinking about this for years, now I can finally put it behind me...phew!
Not sure what she saw in that cage, red panda (red koala) sounds probable.
Looking at all the old pictures online, I miss the old children's zoo with Whaley, and that old witch looking house, I think it was Hansel and Gretals house?
 
DavidBrown said:
The Central Park Zoo never had a koala in the 1970s. The only zoo in North America with koalas in the 1970s was San Diego.

Maybe your mom is confusing the koala with another species? When Googling around to see if there was ever a koala in New York I came across this picture of a "red koala" at the Central Park Zoo. https://www.tripadvisor.com/Locatio...-Central_Park_Zoo-New_York_City_New_York.html
Click to expand...

San Francisco Zoo also had koalss in the 1970s. For a period they were kept on a huge mature eucalyptus tree in the approximate location of today's "Grizzly Gulch".
 
reduakari said:
San Francisco Zoo also had koalss in the 1970s. For a period they were kept on a huge mature eucalyptus tree in the approximate location of today's "Grizzly Gulch".
Click to expand...

Thanks for the correction. I only knew about the ones that arrived there in the 1980s in the current exhibit.
 
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