What's All Happening at the Zoo?

By

Daniel Vandersommers

Return to Article

The London Zoo’s 'Bear Pit.'

London Zoo Bear Pit Post

The London Zoo’s “Bear Pit” had a post so onlookers could see bears at eye level.

Schönbrunn Zoo postcard.

Schönbrunn Zoo Postcard

Founded in 1752 as a royal menagerie, the Schönbrunn Zoo is the oldest zoo in the world.

The monkey house at the Schönbrunn Zoo.

Schönbrunn Monkey House

The monkey house at the Schönbrunn Zoo in Vienna, Austria in 1907.

An overhead view of the London Zoo in 1828.

The Gardens of the Zoological Society Regent’s Park

An overhead view of the London Zoo in 1828, known at the time as the Gardens of the Zoological Society Regent’s Park.

Depiction of the buildings at Berlin’s Zoological Garden.

Berlin Zoological Garden

Depiction of the buildings at Berlin’s Zoological Garden around 1880.

A menagerie in Oxford, England.

Oxford Menagerie

A menagerie in Oxford, England at the fair of St. Giles in 1895.

William Temple Hornaday with a bison.

William Temple Hornaday and a Bison

William Temple Hornaday with a bison in the New York Zoological Park in 1886.

A bear in the Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago.

“An Elevated Snoozer”

A bear in the Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago asleep atop a tree in the late 19^th century.

A brown bear looks out from inside an open-air enclosure at the London Zoo.

Brown Bear at the London Zoo

A brown bear looks out from inside an open-air enclosure at the London Zoo in 1967.

The only living quagga ever photographed.

A Quagga at the London Zoo

The only living quagga, a now-extinct subspecies of zebra, ever photographed. This quagga lived at the London Zoo from 1864 to 1870. Quaggas went extinct in the wild in 1878 and the last quagga died in captivity in the Netherlands in 1883.

The Bronx Zoo Atrium.

Bronx Zoo Atrium

The Bronx Zoo Atrium in 1905.

King Dick.

King Dick

King Dick, a famed lion at New Zealand’s Wellington Zoo (c1904-1914).

An exhibit at Detroit, Michigan’s Belle Isle Children’s Zoo.

The Old Lady Guinea Pig Who Lived in the Shoe at the Children’s Zoo

An exhibit at Detroit, Michigan’s Belle Isle Children’s Zoo in the 1950s.

Artists painting lions and tigers.

Animal Artists

Artists painting lions and tigers at the Paris Botanical Gardens in 1902.

Giraffes at the Copenhagen Zoo.

Copenhagen Zoo Giraffes

Giraffes at the Copenhagen Zoo in 2012.

A sit-in in Lisbon, Portugal in 2014.

Protest over Marius’s Execution

A sit-in in Lisbon, Portugal in 2014 protesting euthanasia practices on animals for reasons of conservation of the species. The stuffed animal in the foreground represents the case of Marius, a giraffe killed to prevent the propagation of his genes.

Harambe.

Harambe in 2015

Harambe, a Western lowland gorilla, at the Cincinnati Zoo in 2015.

Harambe and the three-year-old boy who fell into the enclosure’s moat.

Harambe and the Toddler

Harambe and the three-year-old boy who fell into the enclosure’s moat.

The gorilla habitat at the Cincinnati Zoo.

Cincinnati Zoo Gorilla Enclosure

The gorilla habitat at the Cincinnati Zoo in 2016.

Crowds gather to watch an aquatic show at the Singapore Zoo.

Singapore Zoo

Crowds gather to watch an aquatic show at the Singapore Zoo in 2012.

Thousands attend a music festival at the Albuquerque BioPark Zoo.

Albuquerque, New Mexico Zoo

Thousands attend a music festival at the Albuquerque BioPark Zoo in 2002.

Onlookers watch the elephants at Dublin’s Zoo.

Dublin Zoo

Onlookers watch the elephants at Dublin’s Zoo in 2014.

Children and adults walk through the tunnels of the Dallas World Aquarium Zoo.

Dallas World Aquarium Zoo

Children and adults walk through the tunnels of the Dallas World Aquarium Zoo in 2014.

A Roman marble mosaic from CE 194 in Edessa, Turkey.

Orpheus Taming Wild Animals

A Roman marble mosaic from CE 194 in Edessa, Turkey depicting the mythical poet Orpheus taming wild animals with his music.

The royal menagerie of Versailles.

Royal Menagerie

The royal menagerie of Versailles during the reign on Louis XIV of France (1643-1715).

A drawing by Albrecht Dürer of the rhinoceros exchanged between the Sultan of Malacca, the Portuguese Governor of India, and the King of Portugal.

1515 Rhinoceros

A drawing by Albrecht Dürer of the rhinoceros exchanged between the Sultan of Malacca, the Portuguese Governor of India, and the King of Portugal in 1515.

An early 19th century advertisement for George Wombewell’s Royal Menagerie.

Wombwell’s Royal Menagerie

An early 19^th century advertisement for George Wombewell’s Royal Menagerie, a British traveling menagerie show that included a variety of animals from Africa, Asia, and South America.

Carl Krone’s circus exhibit.

Continental Menagerie of the Crown

Carl Krone’s circus exhibit, the Continental Menagerie of the Crown, in 1884.

A traveling menagerie in Germany.

“Wandermenagerie”

A traveling menagerie in Germany around 1800.

An 1894 painting of a German menagerie show.

“Sideshow Tricks”

An 1894 painting of a German menagerie show by Paul Friedrich Meyerheim.

A 1762 painting of a lion exhibit in Italy.

The Lion’s House

A 1762 painting of a lion exhibit in Italy by Pietro Longhi.

Elephants at the Schönbrunn Zoo.

Schönbrunn Zoo Elephants

Elephants at the Schönbrunn Zoo in Vienna, Austria around 1910.

The monkey cage at the Schönbrunn Zoo.

Schönbrunn Zoo Monkey Cage

The monkey cage at the Schönbrunn Zoo in Vienna, Austria in 1898.

Sheet music for 'The Hippopotamus Polka.'

“The Hippopotamus Polka”

Sheet music for “The Hippopotamus Polka” published in the early 1850s.

Crowds watching Obaysch.

Obaysch in the London Zoo

Crowds watching Obaysch, the London Zoo’s first hippopotamus in 1852.

Adhela, Obaysch’s partner, and Guy Fawkes.

Mother and Child Hippopotamus

Adhela, Obaysch’s partner, and Guy Fawkes, their only surviving offspring in 1873.

A 1924 advertisement for Kodak cameras.

A “KODAK” At the Zoo

A 1924 advertisement for Kodak cameras from Carreras Cigarettes.

Jumbo, the male African Bush elephant who had long been a popular attraction at the London Zoo.

Jumbo at P.T. Barnum’s Circus

Jumbo, the male African Bush elephant who had long been a popular attraction at the London Zoo, had a post-zoo “career” as a skeleton on display with P.T. Barnum and the Great London Circus in the 1880s.

Polar bears at the London Zoo 'Bear Pit.'

Polar Bears at the London Zoo

Polar bears at the London Zoo “Bear Pit.”

William Temple Hornaday feeds an antelope.

William Temple Hornaday and an Antelope

A leading naturalist, William Temple Hornaday feeds an antelope in a 1920 at the New York Zoological Park.

Polar bears around 1910 in the Belle Isle Park Bear Pit.

Bear Pit at Belle Isle Park

Polar bears around 1910 in the Belle Isle Park Bear Pit in Detroit, Michigan.

Two zookeepers restraining an elephant who had broken out of the New York Zoological Park.

"‘Alice’ under control and thinking it over”

Two zookeepers restraining an elephant who had broken out of the New York Zoological Park in 1908. This was the elephant’s second escape attempt. The photo was originally captioned: “The end of the rampage. ‘Alice’ under control and thinking it over.”

Animal cages at the Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle, Washington.

Animal Cages, Woodland Park

Animal cages at the Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle, Washington in 1915. In the foreground, a guest reaches out to touch the bears.

A lion caged in New York’s Central Park Zoo.

The “King of Beasts”

A lion caged in New York’s Central Park Zoo around 1900.

Bears labeled as Russian in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania’s Highland Park Zoo.

Russian Bears

Bears labeled as Russian in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania’s Highland Park Zoo around 1900.

Schoolchildren gathered around a birdcage at the National Zoo.

A Class at the Zoo

Schoolchildren gathered around a birdcage at the National Zoo in Washington, D.C. in 1899.

A woman feeding a camel in New York’s Central Park Zoo.

“The Faithful Ship of the Desert”

A woman feeding a camel in New York’s Central Park Zoo around 1900.

A 1907 postcard from the Hamburg Zoo.

Nordland-Panorama

A 1907 postcard from the Hamburg Zoo in Germany. Started by Carl Hagenbeck, the Hamburg Zoo was the first to use open enclosures instead of barred cages.

Penguin parade in Edinburgh’s Zoo.

Penguin Parade

Even after “naturalistic enclosures” became popular at zoos, animals were still literally paraded for visitors, such as in this penguin parade in Edinburgh’s Zoo in 1989.

This visitors’ path is meant to recreate a jungle.

Landscape Immersion

The visitors’ path is meant to recreate a jungle and thereby improve visitors’ experience in the Asian Elephant Exhibit in Seattle Washington’s Woodland Park Zoo (1989).

Visitors at the Leipzig Zoo viewing polar bears without bars.

Leipzig Zoo Bear Gallery

Visitors at the Leipzig Zoo in Germany in the 1960s were able to view polar bears without bars.

Visitors could get very close to the bears in Memphis Tennessee’s zoo.

Bear Pit in Memphis, Tennessee

Visitors could get very close to the bears in Memphis Tennessee’s zoo around the turn-of-the-century.

Alfred Hitchcock riding a turtle.

Alfred Hitchcock Riding a Turtle

Officials at the zoo in Sydney, Australia allowed famed director Alfred Hitchcock to ride a turtle in 1960.

Children excitedly look at bears through iron bars.

Children Watching Bears

Children excitedly look at bears through iron bars at Washington, D.C.’s National Zoo in the 1950s.

Two Siberian tigers in the San Francisco Zoo.

Tatiana and Tony

Tatiana and Tony, two Siberian tigers in the San Francisco Zoo. Tatiana was killed after escaping her open-air enclosure and killing one visitor and injuring two others in 2007.

Updated enclosure to the San Francisco Zoo after a Siberian tiger escaped.

Updated Tiger Enclosure

Updated enclosure to the San Francisco Zoo after a Siberian tiger, Tatiana, escaped from her open-air enclosure and killed one visitor and injured two others in 2007. Police shot and killed Tatiana during the incident.

Share: