Auckland Zoo Auckland Zoo guide book C. 1960

I just found an old Auckland Zoo guide book in a second-hand store, and thought some forum members might find a description interesting. It's dated 1959-61 and is the 6th edition (according to the cover) or the 7th edition (according to the text on page four). It is 68 pages long. Because it is "The Auckland City Council Zoological Park", the first page lists council members (the Mayor at the time was Mr. D.M. Robinson). The next two pages display photos of the zoo's director, head keeper, supervisor, secretary and keepers ("men who look after the animals"). Cost of entry to the zoo at that time was 2/6 (the same price as the guide book), children between 3 and 16 years cost 1 shilling each. The first few pages of text are general information about the zoo (price, size, feeding times, etc) and include such items as that due to the threat of disease to the livestock industry "there is an almost total embargo on any animals from Africa, thus excluding giraffe, zebra, etc., whilst birds of the pheasant, duck, goose type are prohibited from most parts of the world."; "Monkeys from South America are prohibited because they could carry the germs causing yellow fever, while the danger of rabies stops the importation of many members of the canine family. The importation of parrots from Australia is prohibited as there is a danger they would bring in psitticosis." Despite all this the zoo still had several species of wild dogs, monkeys, parrots and giraffes!

Some of the text on feeding the animals at the zoo: "Patrons would enjoy their visit more if equipped with suitable delicacies. Lions, sea lions, lizards and fish do not enjoy peanuts.....Visitors are invited to feed the animals in all instances except where a special notice indicates to the contrary.....The hippopotamus enjoys fruit and buns.....Sea lions and polar bears are very fond of small whole fish, but visitors are asked to get permission of the keepers before feeding these animals."

The following are the species then kept at the zoo, in the order they appear in the guide book, with selected quotes from the text in parentheses. The common names are those given in the guide book (any names or comments given afterwards in brackets are added by myself).

MAMMALS:
orang utan, chimpanzee, gibbons ("Although a number of species of gibbon are recognised, great variation within the species is noted, and specific names to the exhibits are not given"), capuchin monkey, spider monkey, vervet or black-faced monkey, pigtail monkey, kra monkey or crab-eating macaque, Bengal or rhesus monkey, bonnet monkey, entellus monkey, slow lorris (sic)("This is a small creature very slow and deliberate in its habits, fond of climbing and moving only at night. During the day it curls up in its box."), chacma baboon ("The specimens on exhibit were a present from the Directors of the Taronga Zoological Park, Sydney")

Lion, tiger ("This insatiable appetite also drives him to cannibalism. Tigers will often kill and eat their own cubs, and cases are on record where they have even devoured their wives. The tiger also breaks the jungle law which says, "Never kill man" and may take to man-eating at any age"), leopard and black panther, puma, jaguar, coyote, timber wolf, red fox [foxes are now completely banned in NZ even in zoos], huskie dogs [the zoo bred these for Antarctic expeditions], Pyrenean mountain dogs, [spotted] hyaena, dingo, polar bear, brown bear, [American] black bear, bruang or honey bear [sun bear], cross-bred bears [brown X Himalayan black bears bred at Adelaide Zoo], crab-eating raccoon, coati, Californian se-lion, southern fur seal

Bison ("The animals on exhibition are the American variety"), Himalayan thar ("The species has been introduced to New Zealand, and occurs in the Mount Cook area, but it was easier for us to obtain specimens from the Taronga Zoological Park, Sydney" [which, ironically, probably got them initially from New Zealand!]), red deer, fallow deer, wapiti, rusa, sikar (sic), giraffe, llama, guanaco, hippopotamus [there is a photo of "Nada the Lily with her latest calf"], domesticated donkey, zebroid ("The specimen on exhibition has been broken to saddle and has figured in Wirth's circus. It is exceptionally large, having been sired by a horse instead of a pony stallion"), Indian elephant ("Jamuna, the larger of the elephants on exhibition, has been in the zoo for close on 40 years, and during that period has carried several hundred children around the Elephant Walk. The smaller elephant Kassala was purchased from Singapore and arrived early in 1952. She was reputed to be six years old at the time of purchase")

Grey kangaroo, wallaroo, black-striped wallaby, black-tailed swamp wallaby, black-tailed rock wallaby [brush-tailed rock wallaby], dama wallaby [tammar wallaby], Australian opossum [brush-tailed possum], wombat, squirrel glider and glider opossum

Domestic rabbit, cavia or guinea pig, capybara, nutria or coypu, golden agouti, American red squirrel [like foxes, squirrels of any species are now completely banned from NZ], Malay porcupine

Echidna

BIRDS:
"Following up on a severe outbreak of Fowl Pest in Great Britain and other parts of the world in 1951 the importation of birds into New Zealand from any other part of the world other than Australia was stopped. This, following upon an already severely restricted market, meant that the only birds we could exhibit, apart from a few that are the offspring of earlier exhibits, are our own native birds and Australian species."
"The legislation in this country makes it an offence to 'molest or keep in captivity' almost all the native birds, and this restriction applies as severely to us as it does to private individuals. However, we have recently been allowed certain privileges and are therefore able to exhibit the following specimens:"

North Island kiwi, North Island weka ("It is hoped that ultimately the birds on exhibition at the Zoo will breed and that the offspring can be used for re-stocking purposes"), South Island kaka, kea, red-fronted kakariki, pukeko, paradise duck, grey duck, grey teal ("The specimens on exhibition were bred by Mr. Welsh [sic, actually his surname was Welch] in the Wairarapa who presented them to the Zoo"), New Zealand scaup or black teal ("...our specimens were bred and presented to the Zoo by Mr. Fitzgerald, a well-known aviculturist of Tauranga"), morepork, sacred kingfisher ("The birds on exhibition are the progeny of a clutch which were rescued after cats killed their parents")

Emu, black swan, brush turkey, Cape Barren goose, maned goose [Australian wood duck], plumed tree duck, straw-necked ibis, white ibis, stone curlew, kookaburra or laughing kingfisher, satin bowerbird, regent bowerbird, white-backed magpie ("The Australian magpie in captivity has been taught to speak in both English and Maori"), Australian finches ("a representative collection will be found in the smaller aviaries")

Silver pheasant, golden pheasant, Lady Amherst pheasant, speckled Reeves, Indian Nepal pheasant [Himalayan monal?], ring-necked Mongolian pheasant and a melanistic mutant, razor-billed curassow, Indian peafowl, green Java peacock, "Also present in our collection is the fascinating white peacock", macaws [blue and gold macaws], vultures ("Three types of griffon vulture (Gyps fulvus), Europe's largest bird, are exhibited"), turkey vulture, demoiselle crane, sarus crane, great wattled crane, Carolina or wood duck, mandarin duck, European mute swan, Canada goose, red-billed whistling tree duck, "a number of other ducks will be found on the covered pond....In view of the disease situation it seems highly improbable that we shall ever be able to increase the variety of ducks on exhibition at the Zoo", raven ("The ravens on exhibition at the Zoo were flown out from England two years ago"), lace-necked dove, nicobar pigeon, ring-necked dove. There is also a photo of "Rosy Flamingoes Displaying" but they aren't mentioned in the text.

REPTILES:
Tuatara, stump-tailed skink, goanna or monitor [the text mentions "Gould's monitor, as exhibited...", and a photo on the next page shows a lace monitor], waterdragon, blue tongued skink, cunningham skink, "New Zealand Lizards. There are a variety of these on exhibition.", painted terrapin, long-necked terrapin or snake tortoise, there is also a photo of "Young Troosts Turtles after arriving by air from America", alligator ("The specimen on exhibition was donated by the Honolulu Zoological Park"), crocodilians [species not named] ("The Crocodilians on exhibition are young specimens from the Malay Peninsula").

There is a small piece on the Aquarium and Vivarium mentioning only angel fish, head and tail-light fish, and "the grotesque Mexican axolotl"; and likewise a small piece on the Children's Zoo mentioning "small rabbits, lambs, piglets, guinea pigs, baby llamas, fawns and goats" and "Mousetown".

 

the older guide books often make more interesting reading than the modern versions, partly for the quaint snippets of information that today one would find amusing, but also because many modern guidebooks are just so superficial.

The other Auckland guidebook I have is from 1979 and has full colour photos. The earlier one has very old-looking black-and-white ones that give the book a 1930s feel (I suspect many were simply recycled from earlier editions). Strangely, in the 1979 edition many of the photos were taken at Los Angeles Zoo rather than of the Auckland Zoo's animals.

I don't think Auckland even produces a guidebook anymore

 

is that a rather luridly-coloured painting on the cover, because if so its the same cover as the 6th/7th edition I have? (And I think it may be a kaka and a kea rather than two kea, although its rather hard to tell!)

 

I don't have a scanner. I could try and take photos of the pages and post them in the gallery (I've done that with a few older print photos of mine). I'll have a look in Tiger By The Tail and see if the maps are in there already though.

 

just looking at the map in the guidebook and apart for the animals I already mentioned above, there is also banteng and penguins (although the text in the book states that they don't have penguins). I also had a look at the 1924 map in Tiger By The Tail and some interesting species on there include Tasmanian devil, paradoxure, duikerbok, jackals and hornbills. There are many similarities between the 1924 layout and that of the 1960 map although the artistic style is very different. The 1979 map has extra ground to the south (?) for paddocks

 

Nice. The 1968 cover is the same as the c.1960 I have. The only difference is that mine says "6th Edition" instead of 8th, and there is a price in the top right corner. (Also yours is much better condition than mine!)

 

I have the 1979 edition (by then they'd given up calling them "6th edition", "7th edition", etc). The cover is black with a photo of a jaguar. I'll upload a picture of it some time soon. As far as I know they stopped doing guidebooks during the eighties, instead they just had a fold-out map with a bit of info and photos on the reverse side from the map (I'll upload a picture of this as well); when I got my one sometime in the mid to late 80s I was told they don't do guidebooks any more. I guess they then started a guidebook again in the 90s seeing as you have a 1998 one. Apparently now they have stopped doing them again (but I could be wrong about that).

 

I've just uploaded photos of the Auckland Zoo guidebooks and maps, and also some for Wellington, Napier Aquarium, Orana and Taronga.

no idea where Zebraduiker got his, but I just find them opportunistically in second-hand book shops or junk shops. You usually need to rumage through the old magazines and stuff to find interesting things. You've probably got a good chance of finding old Auckland Zoo guidebooks in the Auckland second-hand shops.