"Golden Ages" of Certain Zoos

[Gondwana]

Wait the zoo planed a tropics trail expansion as early as the 80s? Does anyone have photos of the planed expansion, and the zoo planed has on getting Sumatran rhinos!?

Sorry, I don't have any photos. It would have been outdoor exhibits though, with Indian Rhinos, Orangutans, etc. The other big-ticket exhibit envisioned early on was an Arctic/Bering Strait exhibit, which I think was a big influence on the eventual construction of Russia's Grizzly Coast.

 

[Dhole dude]

Sorry, I don't have any photos. It would have been outdoor exhibits though, with Indian Rhinos, Orangutans, etc. The other big-ticket exhibit envisioned early on was an Arctic/Bering Strait exhibit, which I think was a big influence on the eventual construction of Russia's Grizzly Coast.

Now the original northern trail plan I did see. Do you know the other species planed for the tropics trail expansion?

 

[amur leopard]

Kind of difficult to pinpoint a golden age for the London Zoo. Perhaps the 1960s would be the 'Golden Decade'.

 

[Dassie rat]

Kind of difficult to pinpoint a golden age for the London Zoo. Perhaps the 1960s would be the 'Golden Decade'.

I'd go for the late 1920s to early 1930s, if only for the chance to see a thylacine alive.

 

[TeaLovingDave]

I'd go for the late 1920s to early 1930s, if only for the chance to see a thylacine alive.

If you're gonna play that game, you might as well aim for the period 1870-1875, which would nab you living Thylacine, living Quagga, living Falkland Island Wolf, living Indochinese Sumatran Rhinoceros and living Syrian Wild Ass with many of these directly contemporaneous.

 

[FBBird]

I'd go for the late 1920s to early 1930s, if only for the chance to see a thylacine alive.

I’d go for the brief periods in the 19th century when they had Pink-headed Duck, in the hope of picking up Dziggetai, Quagga, Thylacine, and maybe even Passenger Pigeon, Warrah and Huia.

 

[TeaLovingDave]

I’d go for the brief periods in the 19th century when they had Pink-headed Duck, in the hope of picking up Dziggetai, Quagga, Thylacine, and maybe even Passenger Pigeon, Warrah and Huia.

Well, that would be very specifically the holding in the first three months of 1874 then - you'd be in time for the Wild Ass, Warrah, Passenger Pigeon and Huia, but too late for the Quagga and in the middle of a bit of a Thylacine-free patch

 

[Tim May]

Kind of difficult to pinpoint a golden age for the London Zoo. Perhaps the 1960s would be the 'Golden Decade'.

It obviously depends on how you define "Golden Age" but I think London Zoo's collection was probably at it's peak in the 1930s (although, as others have mentioned, there were several now-extinct species in the collection during the late nineteenth century).

I'd go for the late 1920s to early 1930s, if only for the chance to see a thylacine alive.

Indeed London Zoo's twentieth and last thylacine was at the zoo from 1926 to 1931.

If you're gonna play that game, you might as well aim for the period 1870-1875, which would nab you living Thylacine, living Quagga, living Falkland Island Wolf, living Indochinese Sumatran Rhinoceros and living Syrian Wild Ass with many of these directly contemporaneous.

This period also coincides with London Zoo's only Javan rhinoceros. However not a great time for seeing thylacines; London Zoo's fifth thylacine died in January 1870 and it didn't receive its sixth specimen until November 1884.

I'd go for the brief periods in the 19th century when they had Pink-headed Duck, in the hope of picking up Dziggetai, Quagga, Thylacine, and maybe even Passenger Pigeon, Warrah and Huia.

London Zoo didn't have a dziggetai in the nineteenth century; it only had one true dziggetai, presented by the Duke of Bedford in 1909.

 

[TeaLovingDave]

This period also coincides with London Zoo's only Javan rhinoceros. However not a great time for seeing thylacines; London Zoo's fifth thylacine died in January 1870 and it didn't receive its sixth specimen until November 1884.

Indeed - I considered citing that Javan Rhinoceros as well, but decided to restrict myself to extinct species as for the Thylacine, I knew about the big time gap between thylacines (hence citing 1870 as a lower time bound) but didn't know the fifth one had died so early into that year!

I also considered citing 1852, a year which would (if you aimed for the correct months) allow one to see Warrah, Thylacine, Quagga and Norfolk Island Kaka.

 

[Hipporex]

I'd argue the Sacramento Zoo recently began its golden age. Many species have left the zoo (hippos, tigers, and lots of birds) but we've also been seeing lost of new species joining the collection as well (aardvarks, meerkats, alligators, okapis, squirrel monkeys, and a lot of additions to the reptile house). Many animals are getting larger and improved exhibits (lions, otters, and giraffes). This golden age would of turned into a grand one if the zoo moving had been realized but I doubt that'll happen now. Still I'm sure the zoo will continue to improve on the land it's on. Don't get me wrong, I'm not arguing that the Sac Zoo's golden age is big as other, larger zoos', but for it's size, I think it's on the up-and-up.

Additionally, Sequoia Park, another small zoo, appears to be soon entering a golden age with the realization of its master plan.

 

[Xenarthra]

I argue the Sacramento Zoo recently began it's golden age. Many species have left the zoo (hippos, tigers, lots of birds) but we've also been seeing lost of new species joining (aardvarks, meerkats, alligators, okapis, squirrel monkeys, and a lot of additions to the reptile house). Many animals are getting larger and improved exhibits (lions, otters, and giraffes). This golden age would of turned into a grand one if the zoo moving had been realized but I doubt that'll happen now. Still I'm sure the zoo will continue to improve on the land it's on. Don't get me wrong, I'm not arguing that the Sac Zoo's golden age is big as other, larger zoos', but for it's size, I think it's on the up-and-up.

Additionally, Sequoia Park, another small zoo appears to be soon entering a golden age with the realization of its master plan.

I really agree with these! There's a lot of zoos with golden ages centered around their fantastic collections or big innovations, but it seems like in the last decade or two several small/mid-sized zoos are really coming into their own through modernization and following the trend of larger exhibits, smaller collections. Sacramento has really limited space but they're making much needed changes and even managing to bring in some neat species; the effort put into that while still hunting around for a new site has been really admirable.

Also, zoos are accessing new forms of funding such as tax measures, and it's really changing the game for those facilities. Fresno Zoo went from the verge of losing accreditation to expanding by 13 acres and developing some pretty great exhibits through the magic of having a hefty chunk of funding, and Reid Park Zoo has a similar tax measure now and has $80 million in improvements slated over the next decade (and their master plan looks fantastic). I'm not wildly familiar with Akron but that's another I've heard mentioned in a similar vein. There's probably a lot of golden ages right around the corner for overlooked zoos that aren't world class, if only because they're catching up to their famous contemporaries.

 

[HungarianBison]

Tiergarten Schönbrunn: around 2000- now.
Budapest Zoo: 1930s, 1960s, 2008-up to now.
Sóstó Zoo: now
Veszprém Zoo: 1970s, 2014-now.
Szeged Zoo: now

 

[gentle lemur]

I think there is a bias in this thread towards species that we wish we could have seen. I would suggest that we could give more weight to species that a particular collection was one of the first to have success in breeding and so helped to establish a species which is more commonly seen in zoos today. How about Basle from about 1955 to 1975? Gorillas, Indian rhinos and pygmy hippos of course - plus African elephants, woolly monkeys, Somali wild asses, ruffed lemurs, Cape parrots, waldrapp and greater flamingos.

 

[Luca Bronzi]

Zoo di Napoli (Italy) in the first 20/25 years of its life (1950-1970/1975).
Among the animals it hosted: dibatags, blue macaws (including Spix Macaws), black rhinos, many birds of prey, African forest elephants and even an elephant seal.
From the 80's, the situation got much worse.

 

[David Matos Mendes]

I bet most of the zoos in Brazil/latin america are having their golden age now
Unfortunately, many of these institutions were very oldfashioned untill the early 2000's, and we have some that are still outdated in the present days...

And we can see that conservation/reproduction programs are better now than never. Some examples are the Belo Horizonte zoo, Brasília zoo, Sorocaba zoo (have never been to this one, but for what I've read and heard that it's doing really well in conservation and infrastructure)


We also have the highlight of Rio de janeiro zoo, wich is in the end of a huge renovation that practically destroyed all the old exhibits (wich were really outdated) and is giving place to a very modern looking institution, with river safari, elephant underwater viewing an many other stuff, so Rio de janeiro zoo's golden age is probably gonna be next year, when it inaugurates.

Of course, if we're talking about number of species kept, the present days probably won't represent a "golden age", but I definitely think that good structure and good objectives for conservation, research and education are a much better parameter to consider the good times of a zoological institution...

 

[Ebirah766]

I'd say the golden age of the Bronx Zoo was in the early 2010's. The monkey house and World of Darkness were still open and Madagascar had just opened, and I think maybe the Rare Animal Range was still open and emus were still at World of Birds. Good times.

 

[birdsandbats]

I'd say the golden age of the Bronx Zoo was in the early 2010's. The monkey house and World of Darkness were still open and Madagascar had just opened, and I think maybe the Rare Animal Range was still open and emus were still at World of Birds. Good times.

If we're going collection I'm pretty sure Bronx's golden age was significantly before this.

 

[PossumRoach]

Golden age for Bursa zoo was when they received their accreditation and got extra new animals including giraffes, brushtail porcupine, lemurs, Australian birds and much more before Turkish economy went further down.

 

[dinosauria]

For the San Diego Zoo, it might be from the late 1990s to the late 2010s, since that's when they had the pandas (which might have been overhyped but also helped it gain more success as one of the few American zoos with pandas), hatched more condors, got okapis with the Ituri zone and later more monkey exhibits (and Australia), updated the aviaries, etc. Nevertheless the loss of them was only a minor setback and it still has a pretty renowned, ever-expanding animal collection.

(SDZG History Timeline – SDZG Library) Here's the timeline referenced

 

[Gondwana]

I'd say the golden age of the Bronx Zoo was in the early 2010's. The monkey house and World of Darkness were still open and Madagascar had just opened, and I think maybe the Rare Animal Range was still open and emus were still at World of Birds. Good times.

I agree with this for Bronx. The actual time frame for all these exhibits being open simultaneously would have been between 2008 (Madagascar opens) and 2009 (World of Darkness and Rare Animal Range close).

If we're going collection I'm pretty sure Bronx's golden age was significantly before this.

I wouldn't be so sure on Bronx's collection being better decades ago. There were probably never more on-show exhibits at the zoo than existed in 2008-2009, and if you go back any farther than 1999 Congo Gorilla Forest is lost, which both houses dozens of species and is many people's pick as the greatest exhibit complex in the USA. Unless by collection you're referring to a particular species or set of species the zoo formerly exhibited?

For the San Diego Zoo, it might be from the late 1990s to the late 2010s, since that's when they had the pandas (which might have been overhyped but also helped it gain more success as one of the few American zoos with pandas), hatched more condors, got okapis with the Ituri zone and later more monkey exhibits (and Australia), updated the aviaries, etc. Nevertheless the loss of them was only a minor setback and it still has a pretty renowned, ever-expanding animal collection.

(SDZG History Timeline – SDZG Library) Here's the timeline referenced

I think late 1990s- late 2010s actually spans two distinct eras at San Diego. New exhibits developed up to about Monkey Trails in 2005 was sort of a continuation of the Tiger River/Polar Bear Plunge style, with a big break after that (Elephant Odyssey, Outback, Africa Rocks). And in terms of collection the latter era has been defined by noticeable shrinking, especially of ungulates.