Everything about London Zoo totally explained
ZSL London Zoo is the world's oldest scientific
zoo. It was opened in
London on
April 27 1828, and was originally intended to be used as a collection for
scientific study. It was eventually made open to the public in
1847. The Society also has a more spacious site at
ZSL Whipsnade Zoo in
Bedfordshire to which the larger animals such as elephants and rhinos have been moved.
As well as being the first scientific zoo, ZSL London Zoo also opened the first Reptile house (
1849), first public Aquarium (
1853), first insect house (
1881) and the first children's zoo (
1938).
ZSL receives no state funding and relies on 'Fellows', 'Friends', 'Members', entrance fees and sponsorship to generate income.
The closest
London Underground stations are
Camden Town and
Chalk Farm and is served by the
274 bus route.
History
ZSL was established by
Sir Stamford Raffles in 1826, In 2005 the "African Bird Safari" and "Meet The Monkeys" walkthroughs opened and in 2006 "Into Africa" and "Butterfly Paradise" exhibits opened, while in Easter 2007 the Duke of Edinburgh officially opened the new "Gorilla Kingdom" and "Clore Rainforest Lookout" a walkthrough rainforest replacing the small mammals building. During Easter 2008 the Bird House reopened as a tropical rainforest called the "Blackburn Pavilion".
Other plans include the redevelopment of the Children's Zoo and the Lion Terraces.
African Bird Safari
The
African Bird Safari opened in Easter 2005 as a redevelopment of the Stork and Ostrich House, replacing three out-of-date enclosures.
Species on display include
Abdim's stork,
superb starlings,
Madagascar teals,
Von der Decken's hornbills,
lilac-breasted roller and
blue-bellied roller.
Aquarium
There has been an aquarium at the Zoo since 1853 and was the first aquarium to be established in the world. The word 'aquarium' also originates at London Zoo, beforehand the term for a fish enclosure was 'Aquatic Vivarium'.
- The first hall contains species involved in various conservation projects, such as captive-breeding programmes and other ZSL-based initiatives. These include species such as rudd, European eels, pink sea fans, spiny starfish and seahorses.
- The second hall is a coral reef habitat with tropical species from across the globe, including copperband butterflyfish and clownfish.
- The third hall contains Amazon fish including electric eels, glass knifefish, lungfish and stingray.
The aquarium also includes the Big Fish Tank which holds fish rescued from private homes that had insufficient equipment to look after the fish. This includes
catfish, tucunare,
tambaqui and pirapitinga. The breeding room is also visible to the public. Displaying over 140 species, including
leaf-cutter ants,
Mexican redknee tarantulas,
flamboyant flower beetles,
anteaters and
Malaysian giant stick insects. Since 98% of all known animal life are invertebrates the majority of the species on display are also invertebrates.
Species on display include
clipper butterfly,
great eggfly butterfly,
zebra longwing and
postman butterfly.
Children's Zoo
The
Ambika Paul Children’s Zoo, is based around two sections, the pet care centre and the paddock, and provides a hands-on exhibit aimed at children.
The pet care centre offers advice on keeping and caring for your pets and animals on display include species of
rabbits,
guinea pigs,
mice,
rats,
stick insects,
chinchillas,
degus and
snails. The paddock includes
sheep,
Anglo Nubian goats,
pygmy goats,
llamas,
alpacas
reindeer and
Tamworth pigs. The Lookout replaces the
Charles Clore Pavilion for Mammals, which was built in 1967, with the aid of the
Clore Duffield Foundation.
The exhibit recreates the
South American rainforest and provides
canopy and forest floor levels for the public to wander through.
Gorilla Kingdom
Gorilla Kingdom is a flagship exhibit which opened in Easter 2007. It is a 5.3-million pound development that took 18 months to build, was launched by HRH
Duke of Edinburgh on
29 March and opened to the public on
30 March 2007. There are currently four gorillas in the enclosure: Bobby, a 23-year-old male; Zaire, a 32-year-old female, Effie, a 14-year-old female and Mjukuu, a 9-year-old female brought in from
Chessington. The area also holds
black-and-white colobus monkeys. It has been planted with plants and herbs that the gorillas can eat while the island itself represents a natural
forest clearing in the
Central African rainforest.
A visitor to the exhibit will learn about the plight of western lowland gorillas in the wild and conservation of rainforests, while being separated from the animals on the island by either a
moat or a floor to ceiling window.
Into Africa
Into Africa opened on
1 April 2006, and features a high level viewing platform to bring the public face-to-face with the giraffes.
After a survey found that 95% of visitors preferred enclosures without bars the decision was made to use glass windows instead, to bring the public closer to the animals and gain a more intimate experience. mimics a dry river bed with a curving glass wall. There are two adult dragons, Raja (male) and Sungaï (female), and four babies. The
Komodo dragons were introduced as part of the European Conservation Breeding Programme. . Designed to recreate the
Bolivian
Rainforest, it holds
black-capped squirrel monkeys which are part of the European Conservation Breeding Programme.
The Zoos outer boundary had to be increased to accommodate the new enclosure, encroaching into
Regent's Park to the south-east.
Reptile House
The
Reptile House opened in
1927 and was designed by Joan Beauchamp Proctor and Sir
Edward Guy Dawber.
Over the years a variety of birds have been kept in the aviary from
birds of prey to
waterfowl. The current birds in the aviary include
green peafowl,
sacred ibis,
little egrets,
cattle egrets,
night herons,
waldrapp,
ducks,
pigeons and
African grey-headed gulls.
The Snowdon Aviary was spoofed in the
Scotland and
The Goodies and the Beanstalk episodes of
The Goodies television series.
Zoo World
Built around the Casson Pavilion, originally the old
Elephant and
Rhino House,
Zoo World is now home to
bearded pigs,
bactrian camels and also provides a winter home for the
pygmy hippos. Previously this house was a temporary home to monkeys and birds while the Clore Rainforest Lookout and Blackburn Pavilion was built.
Inside the house displays inform visitors about the zoo and its various conservation programs.
These new developments are all part of the new masterplan to create better accessibility, which involves relocating the main entrance to the east, adjacent to the Broad Walk in Regent's Park.
Notable animals
Throughout its history the Zoo has had many well-known residents. These may have been scientifically important individuals or simply beloved by the public.
The Zoo was home to the only living
quagga ever to be photographed, before the species became
extinct in the wild due to hunting in
southern Africa in about 1870. Another now extinct species the Zoo held was a number of
thylacines, or marsupial wolves.
The first
hippopotamus to be seen in Europe since the Roman Empire, and the first in England since prehistoric times, arrived at London Zoo in May 1850 as a gift from the Ottoman Viceroy of Egypt in exchange for some
greyhounds and
deerhounds. The hippo was named Obaysch and led to a doubling of the Zoos visitors that year.
In
1865,
Jumbo, the largest
elephant known at the time, was transferred to the Zoo from
Jardin des Plantes in
Paris. His name, possibly from
Jambo,
swahili for
hello, become an epithet for anything of large size, such as
Boeing's
747 Jumbo jet. He unfortunately became aggressive in old age, and had to stop giving rides; he was sold to
Phineas Barnum's circus, the
Barnum & Bailey Circus, in
1882, where he was later crushed by a
locomotive and killed.
Winnipeg bear (or Winnie) was an
American black bear given to the Zoo in
1914 by a
Canadian Lieutenant,
Harry Colebourn.
A. A. Milne visited with his son
Christopher Robin, and the boy was so enamoured with the bear Milne wrote the famous series of books for him entitled
Winnie-the-Pooh.
Guy, a
western lowland gorilla, arrived at the Zoo on
Guy Fawkes Night (hence the name)
1947 from Paris Zoo, and lived at the Zoo until his death in
1978. Over his 32-year life he became one of the Zoos best-loved residents. After years of trying to find a mate, in
1969 five-year-old Lomie arrived from
Chessington Zoo. They were kept separated for a year to adjust to each other, until they were finally united. Although they got on well together they never produced any offspring.
Today the Zoo holds the only population of
humming birds and
socorro doves (which are extinct in the wild) in the United Kingdom in the Blackburn Pavilion.
The initial grounds were laid out in 1828 by
Decimus Burton, the Zoos first official architect from 1826 to 1841, made famous for his work on the
Coliseum Theatre and
Marble Arch. Burton concluded his work in 1837 with the Giraffe House, which, due to its functional design, still remains in use as the Zoos giraffe enclosure in the
Into Africa exhibit.
The Snowdon Aviary, built in 1964 by
Cedric Price,
Lord Snowdon and
Frank Newby, made pioneering use of
aluminium and
tension for support. A year later the Casson Pavilion, designed by Sir
Hugh Casson and Neville Conder, was opened as an elephant and rhinoceros house.
In
2000, the
Burmese python scene from the
2001 film Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone was filmed at the Zoo's Reptile House. In the film the inhabitant of the tank is a Burmese python, however in reality it's home to a
black mamba. A
plaque beside the enclosure commemorates the event.
A couple of scenes were filmed here for the
ITV series
Primeval. The first was a confrontation between
Helen Cutter and
Claudia Brown in the old elephant house. The second was a brief scene that showed
Abby Maitland with a Komodo Dragon. Although the fictional Wellington Zoo played a large role in the episode, most scenes were filmed at
Whipsnade Zoo.
Part of the
1985 film Turtle Diary, based on the novel by
Russell Hoban and starring
Ben Kingsley and
Glenda Jackson, was also filmed here; the film follows a plan to help two of the turtles escape from the Zoo.
The
music video for the
Talk Talk song
It's my life was filmed at London Zoo in
1984. The video was used as a statement against the banality of
lip-syncing and includes mostly footage from
nature documentaries with shots of
lead singer Mark Hollis in the Zoo keeping his mouth shut, obscured by hand-drawn animated lines.
A scene from the
1981 film An American Werewolf in London was filmed here, featuring the lead actor David Kessler (played by
David Naughton) waking up naked in the wolves enclosure. Several other of the animals are also seen and you can clearly see the old caged enclosures of the tigers and apes.
A scene from the
1964 film The Pumpkin Eater with
Anne Bancroft and
James Mason was also set at the Zoo.
Further Information
Get more info on 'London Zoo'.
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