W. W. 2.

NZ Jeremy

NZ Jeremy

Well-Known Member
What was World War 2's effect on European Zoos..?

Not just physically, i.e. damage caused and animals lost due to the fighting, but ideallogical..?

I've read many zoo's stocks dwindled during this period and it helped them to realise co-operative breeding was required...
 
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Whipsnade lost a 3-year old Giraffe who ironically had been moved to Whipsnade from London for protection...

However, some of the craters caused by the bombs created pools and ditches for new enclosures after the war.
 
CZJimmy said:
However, some of the craters caused by the bombs created pools and ditches for new enclosures after the war.
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That is enterprising..! Was London/Whipsnade largely unaffected..?

I can't change the title from Ww2 --> WW2..! Arrgh..!
 
Yes, i believe they both suffered little especially when compared to the rest of London.

I'll have to dig out my book which accounts the zoo during the war
 
I wrote a little about Auckland Zoo during the war when I edited its Wikipedia page...

If we had that hard a time down here I can only imagine how many times worse it was in Europe...
 
from what I've read many European zoos, especially in Germany, were completely obliterated, which was later seen as a bit of a blessing in disguise because it meant they could be rebuilt from scratch in a modern style (which then meant lots of concrete and sterility)
 
I wonder how much of the construction from this post war period still exists..?
 
Some bits of info regarding the zoo during WW2 taken from the book "The Zoo - The Story of London Zoo" by J. Barrington-Johnson:

- When the zoo was forced to close during the war, the animals were noted as showing signs of curiosity as to why there were no people during the day. Soldiers stationed nearby were invited to visit the zoo and provide stimulus for the animals.
- Attendances severely dropped when the zoo re-opened.
- Whipsnade Zoo took in many of the popular or rare species from London Zoo such as the Pandas. The poisonous snakes and invertabrates were killed in case of an escape. The pandas returned to improve morale in the capital.
- Besides the giraffe, various antelopes died and some birds escaped and became lost.
- 2 houses at London suffered considerable damage: Rodent House and Zebra & Wild Horse house during the first year of the war.
- Other buildings suffered some damages such as broken glass.
-In 1944, during an air raid in which 19 bombs landed either in the zoo or the surrounding areas, all external windows in the zoo were broken including the monkey house roof as well as the owl and pheasant aviaries being completley destroyed. The hippo house also required rebuilding.
- Total cost for rebuilding: £400,000 at the end of the war. The zoo had held back just under £200,000...
 
Cool thanks for the info... Does the book say why attendance was so small after the war..? I can guess but...
 
"but everyone was conscious of the possibility of invasion"

This was the reason and the zoo had to open up to the public on sundays for the first time in order to gain maximum gate reciepts.

The zoo didn't get back on steady ground until Brumas was born and with that, a huge influx of money... ;)
 
CZJimmy said:
This was the reason and the zoo had to open up to the public on sundays for the first time in order to gain maximum gate reciepts.
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Sorry, was this during or after the war..?
 
CZJimmy said:
Previously Sunday's had been "fellows" i.e. members only...
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I like this idea, somehow I don't think Auckland will go for it... :(

Isn't Sunday the busiest day for most zoos these days..?
 
In Europe it was pretty devastating.

Lots of German zoos were bombed. Berlin zoo lost world's largest collection of animals in one night.

Poland had the blunt of all. Warsaw zoo staff was hiding several hundred Jews in animal houses. Then all zoos in Poland were robbed of animals by German army - imagine loot of live elephant babies and hippos.

Germans also destroyed wild animals. Most of surviving european bisons (then very rare) died. Hybrid tarpans were looted - anihillating program to recreate european wild horse. There were horses with upright mane and turning white in winter.

Then was hardship of post-war years...

If you ask about post-war buldings - many in Europe are post-war.
 
Chlidonias said:
from what I've read many European zoos, especially in Germany, were completely obliterated, which was later seen as a bit of a blessing in disguise because it meant they could be rebuilt from scratch in a modern style (which then meant lots of concrete and sterility)
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I doubt whether the loss of rare animals and great & expensive animal buildings was acknowlegded back then as a blessing-even in disguise...Sorry if that may sound harsh, but I have talked to contemporaries involved and read what Katharina Heinroth and others wrote; even the following post-war decades, the need to rebuild was rarely if ever addressed as being positive.

For those who want to see part of a WW2 relict in a zoo, go to Tierpark Friedrichsfelde and to the Barbary Macaque exhibit. The back of the exhibit is part of a former bombed house front.
 
Sun Wukong said:
For those who want to see part of a WW2 relict in a zoo, go to Tierpark Friedrichsfelde and to the Barbary Macaque exhibit. The back of the exhibit is part of a former bombed house front.
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Cool! I have seen that exhibit a number of times, but I did not know that...
As far as German zoos goes, i can imagine that Dresden Zoo took quite a beating. And I know that Rostock suffered as well.
 
Chester Zoo's elephant house was built on the cheap from huge concrete road blocks collected from around the area once the war was over. The zoo itself didn't sustain any damage in the war, it was pretty small at that time anyway
 
Weren't some of the other older enclosures at Chester, like the Bears and Tropical House, also constructed partially from the same materials?
 
Hi Pertinax
I think the old bear pits opposite the sealions might have been (where the S American garden is now). The tropical house didn't go up until the sixties, and I don't think it used the same materials.
 
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