Analyzing the history and evolution of Rome's Zoo through maps and medias

[Mickey]

I created this thread to showcase and explain the history and evolution of the collection of the 'Caput Mundi' zoo (partially inspired by @Tiger 's thread about the Antwerpen Zoo) that despite initial plans after few more than 110 years does not stand out to other Capitals' zoos if not for how bad and seemingly mediocre it is.

I'll start with the general history of the zoo from its foundation to the first years of the 21st century and in the following posts I'll showcase the different maps explaining how the collection evolved, what important events took place and a bit of speculation for the parts that are not crystal-clear.

The sources I'll use for both media and facts are the Zoochat gallery for this zoo, Google Maps, Les Zoos dans le Monde website ( Les Zoos dans le Monde - Bioparco di Roma ), the zoo's website, the website of Spartaco Gippoliti (a famous figure orbiting this structure since he was little) about the zoo ( Giardino zoologico di roma, gli animali e la storia dello zoo di roma ), his ResearchGate profile ( https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Gippoliti-Spartaco ) and my two visits in recent years (I have tons of photos but cannot access and thus post them in the gallery unfortunately).

The Zoological Garden is born under an association called 'Società Anonima per il Giardino Zoologico' (Anonymous Society for the Zoological Garden), chaired first by the Baron Giorgio Sonnino and subsequently by the Prince Francesco Chigi. The society gets Carl Hagenbeck, whom revolutionized zoo architecture in 1907 (as some of us know), to collaborate with them.

The Zoological Garden was inaugurated under the presence of the mayor Ernesto Nathan on January 5th 1911. The first director was german zoologist Knottnerus-Meyer.
The zoo covered a total of 11 hectares and occupied the northern part of Villa Borghese. The first years of life are rather difficult given the absence of public transport to link the rest of the city with the gardens and the conflicts involving Italy, the Italo-Turkish war and WW1. The facility declared bankruptcy in 1915, so the Town Hall came in to rescue this unique italian facility.

Only during 1924 the governor could create an Autonomous Agency (in the italian legal system this is an organisation that despite being part of the State or under a public entity has characteristics that allow it to be somewhat independent, such as the railway agency) that could secure the economic flexibility of this peculiar structure. Lamberto Crudi became the new director with Marquis Professor Giuseppe Lepri being the scentific advisor. Amongst the projects realized by the Autonomous Agency top the Civic Museum of Zoology (adjacent to the zoo and incorporated into the zoo grounds for the longest time, now divided by a metal fence) and the expansion of the zoo under the project of Raffaele de Vico.

WW2 will block other projects, such as the pachyderm house and the aquarium (the latter will never be constructed), due to the Universal Exposition of 1942. The following years the Zoological Garden (not anymore an Autonomous Agency since 1936) will suffer from a chronic lack of founds. After the death of Crudi in 1953 Ermanno Bronzi will take his role (he was the zoo's biologist since 1937).

Under his leadership particular attention will be directed towards scientific research in collaboration with many universities. Many new exhibits will be built and many more will be refurbished in occasion of the Olympic Games of 1960. To celebrate its 50th anniversary the zoo launches its own zoologic magazine called 'Giardino Zoologico'. From now on the political pressure of the direction will interfere with the organisation and development of the zoo.

Between tons of difficulties the new pachyderm house (1969) and the monkeys' village (1977) will be built anyway. Bronzini leaves the director position in 1978 and after a few years the biologist Francesco Baschieri Salvadori will take this position and continue the modernization of the exhibitions. From 1983 the direction is left to many and short-lasting administrative managers that will prevent the zoo from fullfilling its educational, scientific and animal conservation duties during an era of vital transformations for modern zoological collections.

After 1993 the capital administration promotes the transformation of the zoological garden towards an economically self-sustaining center of enviornamental education. In 1997 the Gilman Foundation proposes a partial recovery project of the zoo and in 1998 will found the Bioparco S.p.a. which will be in charge of the complex until 2004, when the failure of the economic goals set will force the Town Hall to create the Bioparc Foundation, which stands and directs the zoo to this day.

 

[Tiger]

Very interesting to read about the history of this still underexposed zoo. I am also very happy that my work seems to be inspiring to others and that even more zoo history can be exposed. All in all a thread well worth following.

 

[DavidBrown]

Between tons of difficulties the new pachyderm house (1969) and the monkeys' village (1977) will be built anyway.

What species lived in these exhibits when they were built? Do they still exist today?

 

[Mickey]

What species lived in these exhibits when they were built? Do they still exist today?

The pachyderm house always housed at least 2 species of elephants all the same time (African, African forest or any Asian species/subspecies), the common hippo and one species of rhinoceros, while the monkeys' village was a mock-up of a miniature city where monkeys would be mixed and exhibited making tricks.
The pachyderm house exists to this day and is the unfortunate home of 2 female Asian elephants that have lived at the zoo almost their entire lifetime and a pair of hippos; what remains of the monkeys' village is now the Japanese macaques' pit

 

[Mickey]

1st phase: 1911-1924
N. of animals: 1021 (1911), 1200 (1923).
N. of species: 329 (1911), 152 (1923).

Before analyzing the map I'd like to take a look at everything else on this piece of paper: the things that should stand out more to the reader are the many advertisements for the Great Magazines 'Mele' in Naples, symbol of the great prosperity in these times in Europe and a carriage trained by tamed zebras, sponsored still by the same Great Magazines, to visit the zoo in grand style.

The shape of the park resembles, at least to me, that of a horse's head.
The Main Entrance is on the bottom left of the park and a secondary gate on the bottom right (Ingresso principale and ingresso).

The main gate is in Neoclassical style with detailed colums, statues of lions, (unidentified) mythological figures and a sense of symmetry (sitting man not included).

Under the main gate, following the right, we find the Direction building which will remain the same for all of the coming years, then continuing we have the zoo's first Pachyderm House, which housed elephants, rhinos, hippos (sometimes the last two together) and possibly even tapirs given an unclear word in the enclosure that starts with the letter 'T'; this building still stands today but it is in ruin, and I wouldn't be surprised if many zoochatters missed it! (as I noticed it only on my last visit in 2021) You can spot, if you look immediately to the right once you enter the main gate, the egyptian decorations and pictograms.

You can note the roofless building, that is the building we're talking about: very hidden, right?

Headkeeper Angelo Pozzi with the zoo's first rhino, Moritz

A famous animal to talk about is M'Toto (child in Swahili, photo above), rebabptised as just 'Toto' in Italy, was an african elephant that came in Rome during November of 1910 accompanied by the cargo of animals sent by Carl Hagenbeck for the great opening of the zoo. He was captured at a really young age in 1908 in the german Tanganika (modern Tanzania) from the hunter Hans Schomburgk and was called by him Jumbo; Schomburgk wrote in some books his first two years with the elephant during his staying at Dar Es Salaam.
'Jumbo' will be bought by Hagenbeck and stay in Hamburg for a couple of months in 1910. The first company of Toto are two female asian elephants, he was usual to walk around the park and participate in films and theatral manifestations such as l'Aida. During a veterinary session for a shoulder problem, he killed his veterinarian doc. Canezza; from now on only his guardian Ivo Calavalle will be able to tame him.
But during the summer of 1928 he unexpectedly killed Ivo under the sight of few guests: he would be know as 'the assassin' and would be kept under sight night and day until his sudden death in the spring of 1939.
He was found in a position that suggested he was sleeping; who knows what went into his head in his last moments. His skeleton is now conserved in the Civic Museum of Zoology.

Going further on the right we can see an enclosure with a strange shape in the middle and divided in many parts, with the word 'Stambecchi' on it; this is the enclosure of many ibexes and ram-like ovines and that weird shape is their mountain of which nothing remains and the only photos I could find to confirm its existence is the above photo of the black rhino-rider with said mountain behind him.

On the right of the ibex enclosure there's a very small rocky enclosure that is the brown bears 'habitat': if you peel your eyes when you're near the current brown bear enclosure, you'll see the rotting wooden doors of the old habitats that were subsequently built here near the original bear pit.

Going up we can find a great building dotted on its right and left with trees which at the time was a great restaurant, bar and tobacco shop and will be converted in the Civic Museum; in front of it the Aquatic Birds lake, which will see no changes throughout its history if not for the vegetation around it.
The lake used to house pelicans, swans and ducks during the opening but will change its inhabitants many times during these 110+ years.

You can see the old restaurant complex in the back.

We now come to what I think is the highlight of the park: in front of the lake, the 'Paradiso' (Paradise) enclosure, which housed many herbivore species all together, perhaps a rotational habitat, in a massive plain with a rocky formation in the middle.
All of this will later be buried and demolished to be replaced by the mediocre new Pachyderm House.

In front of it the ostrich enclosure, which is occupied by Bennet's wallbies today and was occupied by coatis until mid 2021.

Above the ostriches, a line of 4 big, rock moat habitats in classic Hagenbeck style, which housed lions, what are labelled as 'panthers', tigers and hyenas respectively; all of these are still here to this day, the moats have been filled and the habitats expanded to use all of the grass space in front of them and while not state-of-the-art enclosure, still better than the current Hagenbeck lion enclosure if I may say.

After the carnivore enclosures, on the top right we can find a divided exhibit that houses kangaroos and wallabies, and above it the building which will serve as Reptile House until the expansion in 1935 circa.
This building still exists today and is used for a big Ark-styled playground, but the interiors can be accessed by any out-of-age zoochatter who just want to see the ruins of the past.

To the left of these two enclosures, we can find a 'Polar diorama' that housed, from right to left, seals, polar bears and reindeers.
The seals's habitat will later be occupied by the bears and in 2021 will house again California sea lions.

Going back to the main entrance (Ingresso Principale) if we take the left we'll see an unknown building (the writing is unreadable), then a building surrounded by trees where orangutans were kept (in 20th century style their name is written orang utan): this building will evolve to be the Ape House and after the restauration of the first years of the 2000' a gift shop.

The straight path in the middle of all the herbivores's enclosures is called 'Viale dei Pappagalli' (Parrot Avenue/Boolevard).
On the immediate left we can find the Monkey & Chimp's cages, still existing today, which house two species of owls and kept vervets until 2012 circa, and on the right the still-standing Giraffe House in Moroccan style: during the restoration works the habitat was expanded by the very little that was allowed, the moat filled and a pond for a lonely marabou stork excavated in it.

Two giraffes in front of the Giraffe House (photo obviosly younger than 1911 but no changes were ever made to it).

Giraffe in unkown location on the zoo grounds, seemingly trapped in an aviary-like enclosure.

Moving upper we can find two big divided enclosures, on the left we have deers of many species and on the right antelopes with zebras facing the reindeers.

Moving forward at the end of Parrot Avenue we can find the parrots's cages on the left and on the right an unkown building/habitat (again unreadable name), and on the top left the aviaries for many bird species.
It is interesting to note that it calls them 'uccelliere' rather than 'voliere' (aviaries).

Under the deer enclosures we can find a 'bovine rotunda', which housed buffalos and bisons and still housed bovines throughout its history until the new rhino enclosure was built in its place.

Red buffalo labelled as 'Abyssinian buffalo', possibly a normal red buffalo or a Northwestern buffalo (Syncerus caffer brachyceros).

Our final destination are the gardens located on the 'snout' of the horse; the gardens here are labelled as 'Area reserved to the attractions', so perhaps this was were the animals that lived in small public expositions were let in semi-freedom to roam and relieve their stress (such as Toto, he was known to roam around the zoo under the sight of the keepers).
Then on the very edge of the snout we can find the miniature arena used for circus demonstrations of the animals, 'Arena per rappresentazioni animali domati', lit. 'Arena for demonstrations of tamed animals'.

Thank you for joining me today, I'll try to be as consistent as possible with these uploads and I hope I've enriched your knowledge of this zoo's history with my presentation, I'll leave you with this photo of the first guidebook of the zoo, see you soon!

 

[Ned]

My one and only visit to Rome Zoo was in 1991, I remember it being quite rundown. It's good to learn a bit more about the history of the zoo.