North American Firsts

J

Jacobea

Well-Known Member
Another daft question pertaining to my imaginary menagerie :D

The story I'm writing is set in the 1740s. The menagerie is owned by a well off planter. I'm planning to take some liberties with history, but am still curious as to when certain animals first arrived in the US, if such is known at all. The little I have been able to find out, and I'm not sure of the accuracy:

First Elephant: 1796 (?)
First Lion: 1716 (?)
First Camel: 1721 (?)

Feel free to correct me if those dates are wrong :D So does anyone know when these animals below were first seen or recorded in North America in a travelling menagerie (or private)?

Tiger, Chimpanzee, Giraffe, Zebra, Cheetah, Ostrich, Jaguar, Rhinoceros (Indian/other Asian or the African sorts), Hippo and African Leopard.

Thanks :)
 
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The first and only liberian mongoose in captivity was held at Toronto Zoo
(Can't remember what year, sorry)
 
S'ok about the date :)

Also-does anyone know what type of camel it may have been in 1721? I suspect dromedary personally, but I could be wrong :rolleyes:
 
You might move the story 100 years to the future, or fill the menagerie with grizzlies, wolves, cougars, alligators and passenger pigeons.

The Vienna menagerie, the oldest modern-like zoo opened only in 1752, mandrill was discovered in 1758, orangutan in 1760 and chimpanzee in 1775 (and baby apes never lived long and ape species were long confused with each other and with native people). The first hippo since Roman menageries arrived in Europe only in 1850.
 
One of my all time favourite zoo books is:-

The Management of Wild Mammals in Captivity (Lee S. Crandall; University of Chicago Press; 1964).

I hope the following details, extracted from this volume, are helpful:-

There were two camels from Arabia in Salem, Massachusetts in 1789; these may have been the first to reach the USA.

An orang-utan that arrived in America in 1825 created a sensation (although this book does not specifically state that this was the first in America).

The first living gorilla in America arrived in Boston on May 2nd 1897. (The second arrived at New York Zoo on 23rd September 1911.)

A giraffe that arrived at the Central Park Menagerie in 1873 was probably the first to reach America.
(Six arrived at Philadelphia Zoo in 1874 and a pair were purchased by Cincinnati Zoo in 1878.)
 
According to the excellent book The Rhinoceros in Captivity (L. C. Rookmaaker; 1998) the first rhinoceros in America was a male Indian rhino which landed in Boston on 9th May 1830.

Again, I hope that this is helpful.
 
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