ZSL London Zoo Animals kept at london zoo in the past

two interesting parrots kept at London Zoo: kakapo (six of them between 1870 and 1875, and one from 1911 to 1915). And a night parrot in 1867 which lived for four months.

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.
 
London had a yellow-eyed penguin at one time. I have a 1920 animal encyclopaedia with a very old photo of a yellow-eyed taken at the Zoo.
 
in 1968 the Zoo had 1527 species on display (according to a 1968 book I have), so I would hazard a guess that over the 180 years they have been open to the public the Zoo has kept, well, pretty much everything you could think of!
 
I don't think London have ever kept any cetaceans, but they may have had a manatee or dougong, or both?
 
I think Buckland tried to keep porpoises at the Zoo in the 19th century...I'll have to look that up when I get home
 
in the 1860s Frank Buckland (perhaps best renowned for trying to eat his way through the animal kingdom) tried to keep common porpoises at the Zoo on fifteen occasions. The first, on the 4th December 1862, had been caught at Brighton, sent by train to London and then put on a fishmonger's slab for half the day before the Zoo got hold of it. Buckland revived the animal with a bottle of "sal volatile and water" and two hours later with a "brandy and water", after which the porpoise was released into the Zoo's seal pond, to the seals' dismay. The porpoise was dead by the next day (it turned out the animal's capturers had beaten it in the head and put its eyes out before sending it to London). Seeing as how the porpoise had at least reached the Zoo alive, Buckland put out a request for anyone to capture a new one unharmed and send it his way. A second porpoise was obtained three months later, also at Brighton, but died soon after capture before even reaching the Zoo.In October 1863 a third was caught, in Lincolnshire, but this one also died soon after (and had, it turned out, also been deliberately blinded, apparently the usual fate of porpoises caught in fishermens' nets). Several other porpoises all met the same untimely deaths in attempts to send or keep them at the Zoo. One in December 1864 managed to survive a full month.
 
There was also a manatee in World War II which was shot :(

Other species I've read they've had include:

A number of dog breeds, both existing and now extinct (Esquimaux Dog, Chow Chow, just to name a few)
Indian White Dog (not sure what this was/is)
Coyote
 
According to some online sources like species lists and old Guidebooks, I could find four cape mountain zebras kept at the Zoo in the 19th century.

Two , with unknown gender, were purchased in 1864 and 1867, but cape mountain zebras are not listed in the Guidebook from 1869 ( full guidebook is available online )does anbyody knows,what happend to them ?

Same question with a pair, which was aquired in 1886 and 1889.Does anbody has a guidebook between 1889 and 1898 ? John Edwards hasn't mentioned these four animals in his book, only the animals which came into the collection in 1898,1899 and 1907.

So if I'm correct, London zoo has kept 2.3.2 cape mountain Zebras between 1864 and 1930. The 1899 purchased male was killed by Jenny in 1909, but what happend to the 1898 female ?

By the way, for all friends of the Zoo, that webside might be from interest:

Catalog Record: List of vertebrated animals living in the... | Hathi Trust Digital Library
 
Bib Fortuna said:
According to some online sources like species lists and old Guidebooks, I could find four cape mountain zebras kept at the Zoo in the 19th century.

Two , with unknown gender, were purchased in 1864 and 1867, but cape mountain zebras are not listed in the Guidebook from 1869 ( full guidebook is available online )does anbyody knows,what happend to them ?

Same question with a pair, which was aquired in 1886 and 1889.Does anbody has a guidebook between 1889 and 1898 ? John Edwards hasn't mentioned these four animals in his book, only the animals which came into the collection in 1898,1899 and 1907.

So if I'm correct, London zoo has kept 2.3.2 cape mountain Zebras between 1864 and 1930. The 1899 purchased male was killed by Jenny in 1909, but what happend to the 1898 female ?

By the way, for all friends of the Zoo, that webside might be from interest:

Catalog Record: List of vertebrated animals living in the... | Hathi Trust Digital Library
Click to expand...

I was interested in that link you supplied to the “List of Vertebrated Animals Living in the Gardens of the Zoological Society of London”; I have copies of most editions of this book, but didn’t realise they were available on line.

After your question about London Zoo’s Cape mountain zebras, posted in another thread, I searched through various books (including the book by John Edwards and different editions of the “List of Vertebrated Animals” ) to try to come up with a list of Cape mountain zebras at London Zoo. My list was very similar to your one (although your list omits the 1830 specimen)-

• one presented 3rd September 1830 by King William IV; died 20th July 1836
• one presented 27th July 1864 by Sir Philip Edmund Woodhouse, Governor of the Cape Colony
• one purchased 18th July 1867
• male purchased, 11th December 1886
• female purchased, 23rd July 1889
• female purchased 7th May 1898 (born Amsterdam Zoo)
• male purchased 6th May 1899 from Cross; killed by ‘Jenny’ 20th July 1909
• female ‘Jenny’ received 14th August 1907; KBO 19th May 1930

I’ve not had time yet to do a search of old guidebooks.

Incidentally, I was also interested to read in Lydekker’s book “Catalogue of the Ungulate Mammals in the British Museum (Natural History)" (Volume V, 1916) that the museum contains the skin, skull and limb bones of a Cape mountain zebra, born in the London Zoological Gardens, and presented to the museum in 1911.

I don't know any details of a Cape mountain zebra born in London Zoo; more investigation is needed.
 
Last edited:
Tim May said:
I was interested in that link you supplied to the “List of Vertebrated Animals Living in the Gardens of the Zoological Society of London”; I have copies of most editions of this book, but didn’t realise they were available on line.

After your question about London Zoo’s Cape mountain zebras, posted in another thread, I searched through various books (including the book by John Edwards and different editions of the “List of Vertebrated Animals” ) to try to come up with a list of Cape mountain zebras at London Zoo. My list was very similar to your one (although your list omits the 1830 specimen)-

• one presented 3rd September 1830 by King William IV; died 20th July 1836
• one presented 27th July 1864 by Sir Philip Edmund Woodhouse, Governor of the Cape Colony
• one purchased 18th July 1867
• male purchased, 11th December 1886
• female purchased, 23rd July 1889
• female purchased 7th May 1898 (born Amsterdam Zoo)
• male purchased 6th May 1899 from Cross; killed by ‘Jenny’ 20th July 1909
• female ‘Jenny’ received 14th August 1907; KBO 19th May 1930

I’ve not had time yet to do a search of old guidebooks.

Incidentally, I was also interested to read in Lydekker’s book “Catalogue of the Ungulate Mammals in the British Museum (Natural History)" (Volume V, 1916) that the museum contains the skin, skull and limb bones of a Cape mountain zebra, born in the London Zoological Gardens, and presented to the museum in 1911.

I don't know any details of a Cape mountain zebra born in London Zoo; more investigation is needed.
Click to expand...

@Tim May.

Thank you for the additonal Information.I have my doubts, cape mountain Zebras were bred at London Zoo.So"Jenny"wasn't compatible to the stallion and even killed him in 1909, and after his death, no other male was kept at the Zoo.Maybe the sull, Skin and bones at the museum came from him ?

Do you, or other members know, when toe Zoo got its first Hartmann-Mountain zebras ? None of them are listed in the International Studbook, but they appear in the 1938 Guidebook, and according to Zootierliste, a foal was bred in 1929-so maybe both mountain Zebra subspecies were kept at the same time ? I only know, Hamburg Zoo got 2.5 Hartmanns in 1929 and I always thought, they were the first imported to europe.

I'm also looking for Information about the hybrid between both subspecies, Born at the Bronx between 1924 and 191 and sold to London Zoo (see Lee Crandall"managment of Wild Mammals)
 
Any answer to my question ? Thanks !

Do you, or other members know, when toe Zoo got its first Hartmann-Mountain zebras ? None of them are listed in the International Studbook, but they appear in the 1938 Guidebook, and according to Zootierliste, a foal was bred in 1929-so maybe both mountain Zebra subspecies were kept at the same time ? I only know, Hamburg Zoo got 2.5 Hartmanns in 1929 and I always thought, they were the first imported to europe
 
Bib Fortuna said:
.....I have my doubts, cape mountain Zebras were bred at London Zoo.So"Jenny"wasn't compatible to the stallion and even killed him in 1909, and after his death, no other male was kept at the Zoo.Maybe the sull, Skin and bones at the museum came from him ?
Click to expand...

I thought the quote from Lydekker’s book about the Cape mountain zebra in the British Museum (Natural History) was relevant to our discussions on London Zoo’s Cape mountain zebra.

I was very surprised to read it, though, as it was the only reference I’d seen to a Cape mountain zebra being born in London Zoo and, as I mentioned, further investigation is needed.

Flower (1929) who is normally very thorough about these things doesn’t mention a Cape mountain zebra being born at London Zoo (but he records both the Somali wild ass x mountain zebra and the plains zebra x mountain zebra hybrids).

Bib Fortuna said:
Do you, or other members know, when toe Zoo got its first Hartmann-Mountain zebras ? None of them are listed in the International Studbook, but they appear in the 1938 Guidebook, and according to Zootierliste, a foal was bred in 1929-so maybe both mountain Zebra subspecies were kept at the same time ? I only know, Hamburg Zoo got 2.5 Hartmanns in 1929 and I always thought, they were the first imported to europe.
Click to expand...

I don’t know off-hand when London Zoo acquired its first Hartmann’s mountain zebras.

Flower (1929) doesn’t record any Hartmann’s mountain zebra in his “List of the Vertebrated Animals in the Gardens of the Zoological Society of London 1828 – 1927” so presumably the first were received there after 1927.

As you mention, the early London ones are not listed in the studbook; the earliest London animals featured in the studbook are from the 1950s but the zoo obviously had them prior to that.

When I get time I’ll try to find out more.

Bib Fortuna said:
I'm also looking for Information about the hybrid between both subspecies, Born at the Bronx between 1924 and 191 and sold to London Zoo (see Lee Crandall"managment of Wild Mammals)
Click to expand...

Other than the information supplied in Crandall’s book, I don’t know any details about the hybrid Cape mountain zebra x Hartmann’s mountain zebra that Bronx Zoo sent to London Zoo.

However, the Zoological Society of London’s Annual Reports for both 1946 and 1947 record mountain zebra x Hartmann’s mountain zebra hybrids being born in London Zoo in those years.
 
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