BBC 4, Wednesday 20 November at 9pm: A Day at the Zoo. A documentary with the public and professionals recalling their experiences of visiting zoos. Featuring home-movie footage, Regent's Park, Jersey, Dudley, and Jumbo amongst others.
Now on iPlayer for UK residents: BBC Four - Timeshift, Series 13, A Day at the Zoo Very good overview of (almost exclusively British) zoo history through a handful of 'case-study' zoos, with a few familiar faces for UK members (particularly if you're a Bartlett/IZES member who's been going to the meetings!).
Dudley Zoo certainly did well out of this program - whereas major zoos like Chester, Edinburgh, Paignton and Whipsnade didn't get a look-in. (I really don't know how they could overlook the establishment of Whipsnade) Once again, that annoying bit of modern 'zoo mythology' was aired: you know, the one that says nobody before Gerald Durrell had ever thought about using captive breeding to help endangered species. Peter Scott, for one, must be turning in his grave.... Oh, and my favourite "Mis-education Moment" of the program - One of the contributors gave us the pearl of wisdom that the word hippopotamus is Latin for 'river horse'. [It does mean 'river horse', but in Greek not Latin] But apart from that, I quite enjoyed the show....
They also said that Dudley was the first zoo without bars which is another dubious claim. But ont he whole I enjoyed it too, the old lady from Dudley was very sweet.
For a general audience I think it was a pretty good overview of the evolution of zoos in the UK. The old footage I thought was a little Bristol-orientated but some really good stuff amongst it. I think there should have been some mention of public zoological collections pre-RP - of which there were many. Gary Marvin's long out-of-print book, Zoo Culture, is a good read by the way.
It was of course the 11th Duke of Bedford who pioneered captive breeding of endangered species -- Pere David's Deer.
Isn't one of the contributors the student who did the history talk and tour at ZooHistorica at Bristol as well?
Indeed one of the contributors to the programme, Andy Flack, gave a history talk and tour during the ZooHistorica event at Bristol Zoo.
Was the 'Chimp's Tea Party' shown from Chester ? Thought it looked like the Tropical House in the back-ground .
I thought the programme was of interest, even with the poor shots from the old home movies, nice ones of giraffe necks with the occasional one of the actual face etc. As it happens I was reading The Ark in the Park about London zoo by a Wilfrid Blunt (it was a decent read but his style was annoying at times, putting French quotes in without a translation was pointless and supercilious to me) but I digress, what struck me was the old shots of London zoo in the programme the engravings photos etc could have come directly from the book, I suppose authentic l material is rare on the ground. I wonder how many people and I know my parents do have zoos on the old home movies and can't afford/ be botherd to update them to disk (after VHS of course)? there must be miles of 50+ year old zoo history in lofts and cupboard's all over the country.
No, I don't think that Chester ever held tea parties for their chimps. I have just looked at that section again and I think that as the newsreel film was silent (with an introductory caption page rather than a commentator) it was also too old to be Chester. I reckon that the Pathe camera men would have gone to Regents Park. The big building in the background might be the old Deer and Cattle sheds, which were demolished to make way for the Lion Terraces. Alan
Chimps teaparty was definately London. I recognised the plinth-type platform it was held on. Also interesting to see the footage of gorilla 'Alfred' at Bristol, of which there seemed quite a lot, and a brief shot of 'Congo' too.
I concur with “Gentle Lemur” and “Pertinax”: the footage of the Chimp’s Tea Party is definitely from London Zoo. However, I doubt the building in the background is the old Deer and Cattle Sheds; I don’t think that this structure would have been visible immediately behind the lawn where the tea party took place.
No, that was in completely another direction with Plane trees in between. I think these are probably the GiftShop/Restaurant buildings.
The program was repeated on BBC4 tonight - and us such will be on Iplayer for the next 7 days should anyone fancy watching again
In the 1980's there was a similar style programme featuring Bristol zoo- I don't know if it had the same title but the theme was similarly 'a day at the Zoo', starting early in the day before the visitors arrived, and ending in the evening after they had all gone. I think it was silent.i.e. no commentary, but maybe with background music. The highlight of the programme was a (musical) sequence with the Gorilla 'Delilah' with her latest infant(sadly another one that soon died) and featuring the father 'Samson' in the enclosure with her too and looking closely at the young baby. This bit was very popular with viewers who requested to see it again and it was repeated as a short clip several times.
The documentary is being repeated again on BBC4 tonight - 22.15 (about 10 mins from now) Should be on I-player for those that miss it
