ZSL London Zoo Animals kept at london zoo in the past

[DavidBrown]

Anyone have any further info on the 1928 platypus? Everything else I've read says the only ones to be kept in any overseas zoo were the various Bronx Zoo ones.

Did anyone ever figure out how a 1928 picture of a platypus supposedly at London Zoo came to be? Was the picture misidentified as coming from London Zoo? Was there a mystery 1928 London Zoo platypus exhibit that has been erased from memory by time travelers?

 

[Gavialis]

@Tim May How many types of giraffes from the 9 currently recognized subspecies has London Zoo kept over the centuries?

Historically, ZSL sourced their first giraffes from Western Sudan. As Dassie rat has noted, these were listed at the time (and on ZTL) as antiquorum but the studbook claims that two were Nubian - these two are not listed on ZTL.

Political issues in the region at the tail end of the 19th century meant that ZSL turned to 'Portugese East Africa' (now Mozambique) for Cape giraffes. A few years later a peralta was imported from Niger.

A Masai giraffe (also not on ZTL) was bought from the animal dealer Chapman in 1927 and the zoo received several reticulated and Rothschild's from Kenya in the 1940s. Pure Masai and reticulateds were both kept into at least the late 1970s. Some Rothschild's giraffes were listed until 2009 - I suspect, though, that some of the more recent rothschildi may have been hybrids.

 

[Dassie rat]

Thanks for this. I should have looked at ZTL instead of searching through old ZSL species lists!

Thanks Tim. It would have taken a lot longer to read through the hand-written records.

 

[Dassie rat]

Pure Masai, Rothschild's and reticulateds were all kept into at least the late 1970s.

I'm glad that confirms my identifications. ZTL is very useful, but it isn't perfect. I saw a dwarf lemur at Fuengirola Zoo in 1994. I reckon it was a greater dwarf lemur, as it seemed bigger than London Zoo's fat-tailed dwarf lemurs. Unfortunately, it isn't listed on ZTL.

 

[Tim May]

The Aspinall diet differed dramatically from the typical fare of just hay...

In his posthumously published book “Wild Animals in Captivity” Abraham Bartlett describes the diet of a captive rhinoceros as:-

clover or meadow hay, straw, boiled rice mixed with bran, roots such as mangold and carrots, grass, leaves, branches of trees and shrubs, bread, biscuit and grain consisting of oats, barley, Indian corn etc

Bartlett doesn’t specifically mention Sumatran rhinos but, presumably, this how London Zoo’s two long-lived hairy-eared Sumatran rhinos were fed.

"They were fed upon three buckets of exotic fruits a day (flown in twice a week at a cost of £1,000 a time), and even their fresh hay was dipped in pineapple juice to make it more acceptable. Branches were cut for them from a carefully tended, unsprayed woodland."

Indeed I recall seeing Port Lympne's Sumatran rhinos being fed enormous amounts of fresh pineapples, mangoes, kiwi fruits and other exotic fruits

 

[Bib Fortuna]

A Bilby is mentioned and illustrated in a photo in the Guidebook 1908, kept in the new Prince of Wales Ground-Australian and New Zealand Collection. This animal isn't on ZTL, too, and it is not in the guide 1907.

Does anybody has a bit of more information about this animal ?

 

[Tim May]

A Bilby is mentioned and illustrated in a photo in the Guidebook 1908, kept in the new Prince of Wales Ground-Australian and New Zealand Collection. This animal isn't on ZTL, too, and it is not in the guide 1907.

Does anybody has a bit of more information about this animal ?

According to the Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London (1908), the Special Collection of Australian Animals reached the zoo on 9th June 1908; it comprised 164 mammals, 332 birds and 107 reptiles. This volume only lists those species that were new to the collection so the bilby is not specifically mentioned as there had been several at the zoo previously.

A new building was constructed especially to house the Australian Collection; it subsequently became known as the North Mammal House (and is the building where the ZSL's last thylacine was housed).

 

[Daubentoniidae]

Here's a couple of old maps of the zoo from the 1929 and 1933 guidebooks which show the North Mammal House as well as other interesting structures / areas:
1933 Map - ZooChat
1929 Map - ZooChat

 

[Pertinax]

A new building was constructed especially to house the Australian Collection; it subsequently became known as the North Mammal House (and is the building where the ZSL's last thylacine was housed).

On one of my last visits to the Zoo, on a particularly wet and miserable December day, I tried to establish exactly where the North Mammal House would have stood. There is a grassy area beyond the Snowdon Aviary and before the Education Building in the far corner of the zoo, which I think was the site. I also took a 'Thylacine's eye view' from there looking over the canal toward the Giraffe house. I probably would have seen this house(the NMH) while it was still standing but unfortunately have no clear memory of it.

 

[FBBird]

On one of my last visits to the Zoo, on a particularly wet and miserable December day, I tried to establish exactly where the North Mammal House would have stood. There is a grassy area beyond the Snowdon Aviary and before the Education Building in the far corner of the zoo, which I think was the site. I also took a 'Thylacine's eye view' from there looking over the canal toward the Giraffe house. I probably would have seen this house(the NMH) while it was still standing but unfortunately have no clear memory of it.

I think that’s where it was

 

[Tim May]

... I tried to establish exactly where the North Mammal House would have stood. There is a grassy area beyond the Snowdon Aviary and before the Education Building in the far corner of the zoo, which I think was the site.

That's exactly where the North Mammal House stood; north bank of Regent's Canal, between Snowdon Aviary and Education Building (but further back from canal and closer to the road than the aviary); almost opposite Giraffe House).

Although known as the North Mammal House, it was actually two separate but adjacent buildings; North Mammal Houses would have been a better name.

 

[Pertinax]

That's exactly where the North Mammal House stood; north bank of Regent's Canal, between Snowdon Aviary and Education Building (but further back from canal and closer to the road than the aviary); almost opposite Giraffe House).

Although known as the North Mammal House, it was actually two separate but adjacent buildings; North Mammal Houses would have been a better name.

I took my photo directly looking across toward the Giraffe house so was probably from the right place. A shame its not commemorated with a plaque or something, given its most famous resident.

 

[Pertinax]

Although known as the North Mammal House, it was actually two separate but adjacent buildings; North Mammal Houses would have been a better name.

I do have the vaguest of memories of it/them, or maybe its falsely stimulated from the photos I've seen since. I would definately have seen it though.

 

[Ned]

Is this the North Mammal House in the clip below? and I wonder if that keeper had all ten digits in tacked on his retirement?

 

[Mark Kent]

Is this the North Mammal House in the clip below? and I wonder if that keeper had all ten digits in tacked on his retirement?

I think that this is the old South Mammal House (which started life as a Bird House), clues are the giant tortoises visible early in the clip and the view of the old Monkey House towards the end.

 

[Ned]

I think that this is the old South Mammal House (which started life as a Bird House), clues are the giant tortoises visible early in the clip and the view of the old Monkey House towards the end.

Thank you.

 

[Tim May]

I think that this is the old South Mammal House (which started life as a Bird House), clues are the giant tortoises visible early in the clip and the view of the old Monkey House towards the end.

I agree: this is the old South Mammal House (previously known as the Rodent House) which was demolished to make way for the Sobell Pavilions.

 

[Chlidonias]

Is this the North Mammal House in the clip below? and I wonder if that keeper had all ten digits in tacked on his retirement?

"Back in my day we didn't have soccer balls, we had to roll Honey Badgers around for fun."

 

[Dassie rat]

So was it a case of shake, ratel and roll?

 

[Pertinax]

I agree: this is the old South Mammal House (previously known as the Rodent House) which was demolished to make way for the Sobell Pavilions.

I don't remember this house. Can you jog my memory? Where did it stand in relation to the old Monkey House? I thought the Sobells were largely are on the site of that.