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Brookfield Zoo Information

The Brookfield Zoo is a zoo located in the Chicago suburb of Brookfield, Illinois. The zoo covers an area of 216 acres (874,124 m²) and houses around 450 species of animals.

Brookfield Zoo, also known as Chicago Zoological Park,[1][2] opened on July 1, 1934, and quickly gained international recognition for using moats and ditches, instead of cages, to separate animals from visitors and from other animals. The zoo was also the first in America to exhibit giant pandas, one of which (Su Lin[3]) has been taxidermied and put on display in Chicago's Field Museum of Natural History. In 1960, Brookfield Zoo built the nation's first fully-indoor dolphin exhibit, and in the 1980s the zoo introduced Tropic World, the first fully-indoor rain forest simulation and the then-largest indoor zoo exhibit in the world.

The Brookfield Zoo is owned by the Cook County Forest Preserve District and managed by the Chicago Zoological Society. The Society sponsors numerous research and conservation efforts globally.

Contents

History

In 1919, Edith Rockefeller McCormick donated land she had received from her father as a wedding gift to the Cook County Forest Preserve District for development as a zoological garden. The district added 98 acres (400,000 m2) to that plot and in 1921, the Chicago Zoological Society was established. Serious construction did not begin until 1926, after a zoo tax was approved. Construction slowed during the Great Depression, but regained momentum by late 1931. Construction went on at an increased pace[4] and the zoo opened on July 1, 1934.[5] By the end of September 1934, over one million people had visited the new zoo;[6] the four millionth visitor was just two years later.[7]

The 1950s saw the addition of a veterinary hospital,[8] a children's zoo,[9] and the famous central fountain.[10] The zoo went through a decline in the 1960s until a large bond issue from the Forest Preserve District, close attention to zoo governance and visitor services saw the zoo recreate itself as one of the nation's best. Tropic World, the then-largest indoor zoo exhibit in the world, was designed by French architect Pierre Venoa and opened in phases during the 1980s.[11]

Brookfield Zoo's North Gate

In the past decade, the zoo has undergone significant capital upgrades, constructing the Regenstein Wolf Woods, the Hamill Family Play Zoo, butterfly tent, sheltered group catering pavilions, and the largest non-restored, hand-carved, wooden carousel in the United States. Great Bear Wilderness, a new, sprawling habitat, opened in 2010. The interiors of several existing buildings were reconfigured into immersion exhibits, based upon ecosystems rather than by clades; these include The Swamp, the Fragile Rain Forest, Fragile Desert (the Sahara desert of North Africa) the Living Coast (the shores of Chile and Peru), the African Savanna, and Australia House.

Notable animals

Perhaps the most famous resident of Brookfield Zoo was Ziggy, a 6.5 ton bull elephant that was kept in an indoor enclosure for nearly thirty years after it attacked its trainer in 1941. Ziggy was originally bought by theater empresario Florenz Ziegfeld as a birthday present for his daughter Patricia, but was given to the zoo after he soon outgrew his pen on the grounds of the Ziegfelds' manor in Hastings-on-Hudson, New York. During the 1960s and 1970s, Ziggy attained a cult following in the Chicago area, and the elephant was finally released in 1970 amid much fanfare. Unfortunately, the elephant fell into his exhibit's moat in March 1975 and died seven months later.[12]

1938 WPA poster

Another well-known Brookfield zoo animal was Olga the Atlantic walrus. She was a favorite of thousands of visitors between 1962 and 1988, entertaining them with her antics.[13] She is remembered by a large bronze statue in the current sea mammal exhibit.

One of the zoo's most well-known current residents is Binti Jua, a female Western lowland gorilla. On August 16, 1996, a young boy fell into the gorilla exhibit of Tropic World, and Binti Jua carefully cradled the boy and brought him to her trainers.[14] The incident received international attention, inspiring a lively debate as to whether Binti Jua's actions were the result of the training she received from her keepers (who had taught her to bring her own baby, Koola, to zoo curators for inspection) or some instinctive sense of animal altruism.

Another current resident of the zoo is Cookie, a Major Mitchell's Cockatoo who has been part of the zoo's collection since the opening in 1934. He was given to Brookfield Zoo when he was one year old. He is now permanently off-exhibit. A much younger current resident is Esmerelda, the only black spider monkey in North America.

Brookfield Zoo lost six of its well-known residents in 2009,[citation needed] Alpha, a female Western lowland gorilla who was 47 years of age, Kaylee, a female Bottlenose Dolphin who was 15 years of age, Affie, a female African Bush Elephant who was 40 years of age,[15] Carver, the oldest southern hairy nosed wombat on record, Carver's daughter, 3-year-old Goldie, and Christy, a 29 year old African Forest Elephant. [1]

Current exhibits

Former exhibits

Special exhibits

Since 2007, Brookfield Zoo has offered seasonal exhibits available from late April through September/October.

Notable staff and programs

Grace Olive Wiley briefly worked as a reptile curator at the zoo in 1935.[16]

Brookfield has had exceptional success in breeding the sitatunga, a type of antelope; it also bred the world’s first captive-born black rhinoceros (1941)[17] and gray-headed kingfisher (1980), the first okapi born in the United States (1959),[18] and the first wombat born outside Australia (1975).

Gallery

Partial list of Animals

A — J

A

B

C

D

E

G

H

I

K — T

K

L

M

N

O

P

R

S

T

V

W — Z

W

Notes

  1. ^ "Brookfield Zoo (Chicago Zoological Park)". Encyclopedia of Chicago. Chicago Historical Society. http://www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/172.html.
  2. ^ "Brookfield Zoo". Encyclopedia Britannica. http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/81229/Brookfield-Zoo.
  3. ^ "Pandas Galore". Time. 1938-04-11. http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,759451,00.html.
  4. ^ "50 CWA Workers Rush Construction on Brookfield Zoo". Chicago Daily Tribune: p. 6. 1933-12-31.
  5. ^ Kelley, Katherine (1934-01-18). "Brookfield Zoo Will Be Ready to Open July 1". Chicago Daily Tribune: p. 20.
  6. ^ "Total of Brookfield Zoo Visitors Exceeds Million". Chicago Daily Tribune: p. 5. 1934-09-29.
  7. ^ "Zoo's 4,000,000th Visitor". Chicago Daily Tribune: p. 1. 1936-09-08. "Phyllis Guren of Bemidji, Minn., the 4000000th visitor to the Brookfield zoo, with bicycle which was her reward."
  8. ^ Hutchinson, Louise (1953-01-15). "Brookfield Zoo Hospital Gives Succor to Sick". Chicago Daily Tribune: p. S9.
  9. ^ Hutchinson, Louise (1953-07-19). "2 Kinds of Kids Ready for New Brookfield Zoo". Chicago Daily Tribune: p. NW6.
  10. ^ "Dedicate Theodore Roosevelt Fountain at Zoo". Chicago Daily Tribune: p. B7. 1954-05-15.
  11. ^ Presecky, William (1983-05-11). "Brookfield Zoo's Tropic World opens doorway to Asia". Chicago Tribune: p. SD3.
  12. ^ "Ziggy, Bull Elephant That Spent 30 Years in Cell, Is Dead at 58". New York Times: p. 32. 1975-10-29. http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F4081EFF3E55157493CBAB178BD95F418785F9.
  13. ^ Recktenwald, William (1988-08-15). "Brookfield Zoo Mourns Olga the Walrus' Death". Chicago Tribune: p. 3. "The walrus, captured in the wild off Norway in late 1961, came to Brookfield Zoo in 1962, Elbert said."
  14. ^ "Gorilla at an Illinois Zoo Rescues a 3-Year-Old Boy". New York Times. 1996-08-17. http://www.nytimes.com/1996/08/17/us/gorilla-at-an-illinois-zoo-rescues-a-3-year-old-boy.html.
  15. ^ "Affie Elephant Mourned". http://www.czs.org/czs/About-CZS/News-and-Events/News/Affie-Elephant-Mourned. Retrieved 2009-07-31.
  16. ^ "Miscellany: Apples". Time. 1935-09-30. http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,749140,00.html.
  17. ^ "Big Nosed Baby Rhino Born at Brookfield Zoo". Chicago Daily Tribune: p. 3. 1941-10-09.
  18. ^ "Rare Okapi Is Born At the Brookfield Zoo". New York Times. 1959-09-18. http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F3081EFF3F551B7B93CAA81782D85F4D8585F9.

External links

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Categories: Zoos in Illinois | Brookfield, Illinois | 1934 establishments | Visitor attractions in Cook County, Illinois | Buildings and structures in Cook County, Illinois | Protected areas of Cook County, Illinois

 

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