ZOO magazine, 1936

ZOO magazine, 1936
15-03-2011

whilst cleaning out my belongings I happened across a collection of old animal magazines in two binder folders that I'd completely forgotten I had!

The very first volume was published June 1936 and was simply called "ZOO" (subtitled inside as "official organ of the Zoological Society of London"). The next month the title had changed slightly to "Zoo: the national nature magazine". In December 1937 it had become "Zoo: the national animal magazine", February 1938 "Zoo and Animal Magazine" and in May 1938 (the last issue I have) had changed again to "Animal and Zoo Magazine".

I haven't had time to read through them all again and now they are packed inside moving boxes, but there's some fascinating stuff in there including monthly round-ups of what was happening in the UK zoo world (with reports from several of the big zoos around at that time), reviews of overseas zoos such as Copenhagen, a report on London Zoo's very first bongo (actually two, as the animal was a pregnant female that had given birth on board ship), and article on London Zoo's wish-list (including gorilla, giant forest hog and others).

Later the content of the magazines shifted from zoos to more general animal and nature articles, but they still did the monthly round-ups etc.

Does anyone else remember these magazines (not that anyone would be old enough to actually remember the first issues but you know what I mean), and know how long they ran for?

17-03-2011

I haven’t any copies of this magazine and don’t know when it ceased publication. I guess, though, that it stopped being produced during the war.

There was a later magazine called Zoo Life which was also “an Official Publication of the Zoological Society of London”. This ran for eleven years; it was a produced quarterly, the first issue being Spring 1946, the last being Summer 1957.

I have a bound set of these and it was an extremely interesting publication. These can still be found sometimes in second hand bookshops and there are well worth buying.

22-04-2011

Well that's a coincidence. I too am clearing out and have found a complete set (minus just two copies) of these magazines running from June 1936 ("Zoo") through until June 1941. Does anyone know if June '41 was the last issue of "Animal and Zoo"? They are lovely magazines.

29-03-2012

ah, imagine being a zoo-fan back in the 30s and 40s, with almost no idea of what was going on elsewhere in the world and what species were kept where. These magazines must have been an absolute God-send!