Facts about the history of the Antwerp Zoo

I wanted to make this because there is no tread about the history of the Antwerp Zoo yet. Every day I will try to add an interesting fact about the history of the Antwerp Zoo.

 

My first fact about the history of the Antwerp Zoo is the one about the arrival of the first white rhinos. These were not only the first white rhinos for the Antwerp Zoo, but also for the whole world. Nowhere outside of Africa were rhinos kept in captivity, and in Africa there was only 1 institution with white rhinos.
The 2 rhinos were named Paul and Chloe, 2 Northern white rhinos.
Paul was the male and was born in 1948 in the wild of South Sudan, near Bahr el Ghazal just like Chloe (the female). The rhinos were 30 and 24 months old respectively on January 8, 1950.
At the time, the purchase of the 2 animals was the highest amount ever spent on wild animals, costing 1 million Belgian francs, which is 24789 euros, or $29102. The animals were transferred from the Kartoem Zoo in Sudan. There the animals were fed a diet of condensed milk, corn, flour, grass and clover.
A representative of the Antwerp Zoo came to pick up the animals from Khartoum.
Finally, the animals arrived at the Antwerp Zoo in the spring or early summer of 1950.
They were housed in the then 60-year-old Rhino building (which is now part of the Buffalo aviary) that was first used for camels, moose, .... In 1974 Southern white rhinos also came to live in the building, and in 1978 Indian rhinos.
Paul passed away in April 1968. Chloe survived much longer, and when Indian rhinos came to live in the building in 1978, Chloe moved to the building across from it, the Egyptian Temple. Here she lived in a small enclosure until her death in August 1985.
These rhinos were the first and only Northern white rhinos the Antwerp Zoo ever had.
Until today Zoo Antwerpen is known as the first zoo with white rhinos.
I am open to questions or answers

 

This film, that I found on YouTube, might be of interest; It features the northern white rhinos "Paul" and "Chloe" arriving at Antwerp Zoo.

northern white rhinos

 

Thank you @Tiger for this most intresting tread ! I visited the Antwerp Zoo for the first time in the mid-1970s and have visited it numberous times since. I'm also very intrested in the history of the Zoo ( as the Belgiums call the Antwerp Zoo ) and hope I also can make some contributions to this tread now and then .

 

Glad you like this thread. Go ahead and contribute something to this thread. I will try to post a new story tomorrow.

 

Certainly interesting images and a nice addition to the 'story' I posted

 

I'm going to make a "story" of the Antwerp Zoo's history later today, but I just wanted to share this list I put together about all the animal (sub)species that ever lived in the Egyptian Temple, which might be interestesting. Subspecies are ranked separately, if there is also e.g. hippopotamus and the following is a subspecies of the hippopotamus it is not certain from the first hippopotamus which subspecies it is. Those in bold are currently living in this temple opened in 1856:
Dusky pademelon (Thylogale brunii)
Capybara (Hydrochoerus hydrochaeris) (described as 'water hog')
Malayan tapir (Acrocodia indica)
South American tapir (Tapirus terrestris)
Hartmann's mountain zebra (Equus zebra hartmannae)
Chapman's zebra (Equus quagga chapmani)
Grevy's zebra (Equus grevyi)
Southern couagga (Equus quagga quagga)
Nubian wild ass (Equus africanus africanus)
Onager (Equus hemionus)
Dromedary camel (Camelus dromedarius)
Reticulated giraffe (Giraffa reticulata)
Nubian giraffe (Giraffa camelopardalis camelopardalis)
Kordofan giraffe (Giraffa camelopardalis antiquorum)
Masai giraffe (Giraffa tippelskirchi)
Okapi (Okapia johnstoni)
Hippopotamus (Hippopotamus amphibius)
East African Hippopotamus (Hippopotamus amphibius kiboko)
Western Pygmy hippo (Choeropsis liberiensis liberiensis)
Northern white rhinoceros (Ceratotherium simum cottoni)
maybe also southern white rhinos
Indian rhinoceros (Rhinoceros unicornis)
Eastern black rhinoceros (Diceros bicornis michaeli)
Sumatran rhinoceros (Dicerorhinus sumatrensis)
Asian elephant (Elephas maximus)
Indian elephant (Elephas maximus indicus)
African forest elephant (Loxodonta cyclotis)
African elephant (Loxodonta africana) (many different subspecies, but some were kept in the Hippo Building and Zoo Antwerpen did not keep track of which subspecies it was)
Lowland anoa (Bubalus depressicornis)
Eland (Taurotragus oryx) (the same story as with the African elephant, only there were no elands kept in the Hippo Building)
Arabian oryx (Oryx leucoryx)
Red duiker (Cephalophus natalensis)
Common ostrich (Struthio camelus)
other ostrich species were probably kept in the building as well
possibly sea turtles were also kept in the pond in the middle of the building, which was demolished a few years after opening due to too difficult maintenance
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This was the list, if you have any points of improvement or questions, please post them

 

My story for today is that of the arrival of the first okapis, another species of which the Antwerp Zoo was the first holder ever.
As early as 1907, the Antwerp Zoo inquired of the then Secretary General for Congolese Affairs (Congo was then Belgian Congo and was under the control of Belgium until 1960) to obtain an okapi, discovered 6 years earlier (in 1901). An attempt was made to ship, but this individual never arrived. In 1905, an okapi arrived in Antwerp, albeit a stuffed one.
After the 1st World War, the Antwerp Zoo was largely destroyed. Only 19% of the animal collection before the war was left, this number consisted mostly of fish.
But in 1919, a savior came into the picture, named Jozef Hutsebaut. Hutsebaut was a missionary and biologist in the Congos, who had founded a farm in the heart of the Congolese rainforest. Among other things, he succeeded in taming elephants and discovered many new animal species. On August 25, 1919, he recorded a world first: he and his helpers caught a young okapi in a trap in Buta. The okapi was born around December 1, 1918. He and the wife of the district commissioner succeed in keeping an okapi alive for the first time. The okapi is given cow's milk and fresh leaves from the forest and is named Buta. Hutsebaut arranges for a shipment to Antwerp and thus Buta becomes the first okapi to leave Congo alive.
Buta finally arrives in Antwerp on August 9, 1919, and is nine months old at that time. She is housed in the Egyptian Temple. Antwerp Zoo achieves a world first by housing this first okapi in captivity. Thenthousands people visit the Antwerp Zoo and newspapers all over the world write about it. But because of the les knowledge about the species, Buta weakens within her first month on Belgian soil and dies on September 29, 1919, 50 days after arrival. To make matters worse, every zoo now wants an okapi and a ban on trapping is imposed. Due to Hutsebaut's many knowledge, he gets an exception and is allowed to continue catching okapis.
On 15 May 1928 a new okapi, Congo I, arrives in Antwerp, this time a male. This one, however, survives only 13 days.
On June 14, 1927, Hutsebaut and his helpers catched an okapi again, this time was the okapi only three weeks old, born around May 14, 1927. The okapi is named Tele, after the river where she was captured.
A few months later, the then Belgian King Albert I and his wife Elisabeth visited Hutsebaut's "farm" and the king personally orders him to ship Tele to Antwerp. Tele arrives there on September 15, 1928 and, like the 2 previous okapis, was placed in the Egyptian Temple. This okapi survives much longer and dies of malnutrition in the 2nd World War on October 25, 1943. A true record at the time, which amazed everyone.
In the meantime 2 new okapis arrived in the Antwerp Zoo: Kitoke on 19 August 1931 and Kadanga on 17 August 1932, both males.
Hutsebaut also shipped okapi's to a.o. London Zoo and the Bronx Zoo, but of course also to the Antwerp Zoo.
In 1965, the okapis in the Antwerp Zoo moved from the Egyptian temple to the Moorish Temple, which was previously used for ratites and antelopes and is still home to okapis and red duikers.
Today, Antwerp is as the first holder also studbook keeper of the okapi and Antwerp Zoo holds the record for most okapi births in 1 zoo, namely about 50.
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This was the story about the first Antwerp okapis and why the miracle missionary Jozef Hutsebaut is linked to the Antwerp Zoo.

I am open to critiques or answers.

 

An error apparently crept into my list because there most likely never East African hippopotamusses lived in the Egyptian Temple, they lived in the Hippo Building.

 

I'm Sorry, but I have to correct this a little bit. It was the Zoo Pretoria, who got in 1946 the first White Rhinos ever shown in a zoo. Antwerp was the second.

 

Well... if you go a little bit back in my post you'll see that I said Antwerp was the first outside of Africa (range of the white rhino, so doesn't really count as the first zoo with the species). However, I was wrong in saying that there was only 1 zoo with white rhinos in Africa at that time, but actually 2 (Pretoria Zoo and Kartoem Zoo).

 

You are free to believe this @Bib Fortuna , but you do exaggerate about some things sometimes.
Africa is certainly a part of this world, but it's more 'special' that a species was first kept outside its original habitat, because these rhinos couldn't just be "restocked" when they died, which zoos in the original habitat could, you understand.
Sorry, the sentence "Nowhere outside of Africa were rhinos kept in captivity" was misspelled by me, and "rhinos" should be "white rhinos", but sometimes mistakes happen when typing (which happened with your post too so it seems). However, no one has complained about this besides you, so everyone knew what I meant, and you, I think, took it a little bit "too seriously'.

 

My next story is that about of the first elephant, an Indian elephant named Jacqueline (after the then director Jacques Kets). Although the name, it was proved later that Jacqueline was actually a male.
Jacqueline arrived in Antwerp on July 21, 1852 from his birthplace: the wilds of Myanmar (then Burma).
However, the Egyptian Temple wasn't built yet at that time so he lived his first 4 years in an enclosure of a building designed for giraffes, in a farmhouse look.
In 1856, he moved to a new enclosure in the Egyptian Temple, a barred enclosure on where the elephant enclosure still is located today (now it is double the size).
Until her death on January 31, 1880, he was the favorite of the visitors: he could strike the hour with a hammer, nod "yes" or "no" when asked, played trumpet, and stealed hats from visitors.
Here his first enclosure, the farm-looked Giraffe Building:

 

Again I share a species list of a building in Zoo Antwerp. Last time we covered the Egyptian Temple, now the Great Ape Building, opened in 1958 and renovated to its current form between 1987 and 1989. In 2017, were outdoor enclosures for the 2 remaining monkey species added. Species in bold are currently living in the building. Here is the list:
Tamarins and marmosets (I need more information about which species lived in the building)
Hamlyn's monkey (Cercopithecus hamlyni)
Chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes)
Bonobo (Pan paniscus)
Western lowland gorilla (Gorilla gorilla gorilla)
Eastern lowland gorilla (Gorilla beringei graueri)
Mountain gorilla (Gorilla beringei beringei) (not 100% sure if this species is kept here)
Bornean orangutan (Pongo pygmaeus)
Sumatran orangutan (Pongo abelii)
Siamang (Symphalangus syndactylus)
Black-and-rufous sengi (Rhynchocyon petersi)
Barbary striped grass mouse (Lemniscomys barbarus)
Northern Luzon giant cloud rat (Phloeomys pallidus)
Madagacar partridge (Margaroperdix madagarensis)
Black-cheeked lovebird (Agapornis nigrigenis)
A section added to the building in 2016 also houses okapis (Okapia johnstoni) and possibly red duikers (Cephalophus natalensis) (I don't know if they also live in this okapi enclosure). ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This was the list. If you have any additions, questions, points of critic, points for improvement or answers, please post them.

 

My 'story' for today is that of the giant pandas at Zoo Antwerpen. Not many people know that not Pairi Daiza, but actually Zoo Antwerpen was the 1st zoo in Belgium that had pandas.
The 2 pandas were a couple (1.1). The male was called Wan Wan and the female was called Xi Xi.
The pandas stayed there for a short period only, from Thursday 28 May 1987 to Monday 28 September 1987.
The special thing about these pandas is that they were perhaps the only Qinling Pandas in Europe ever. However, the pandas weren't brown, because not all Qinling Pandas have a brown color. Therefore, the pandas came from the Qinling Wildlife Zoo, located in Xi'an, China.
The pandas' visit was accompanied by scientific speeches, among others, and attracted very many visitors.
The pandas were housed in the lion enclosure (used for lions until 2011 and for raccoons until 2019, to become a tiger enclosure in 2023), the lions were housed in the Small-feline cage closest to the lion enclosure, which was also used as a separation room for the lions. The lion enclosure was modified especially for the pandas: the moat was drained and connected to the actual enclosure with a hill, making the enclosure much larger.
Although they were a couple, the pandas turned out not to get along so well and were eventually left outside alternately.
The link below leads to the digital image bank of the KMDA (Antwerp Zoo and Planckendael). Simply search in the search bar for 'reuzenpanda' (Dutch for giant panda) and you will get pictures of them:
Historische Beeldbank
I am open to questions, additions or answers.

 

Because I haven't posted anything in this thread in a long time I'm posting another species list of a particular building in the Antwerp Zoo. This time it's not a building but rather the Panorama enclosure, which is probably the largest enclosure Zoo Antwerp has ever had. The enclosure is best known for its height differences and the bridge that goos over the enclosure. This bridge was the first reinforced concrete structure in Europe. The enclosure was built on a hill to enhance the Hagenbeck feeling. This difference in height has been very nicely used in the lion enclosure, which is located in a part of the Panorama Park. In the past, this enclosure was a large enclosure with various (semi-) domesticated animals such as camels, reindeers, llamas and donkeys. Now the enclosure is split in two, under the bridge came in 2011 a "wall" as a division between the 2 enclosures that Panorama Enclosure now has: the largest part before the bridge is for lions, which recently had 3 cubs, and behind the bridge came an enclosure for the original inhabitants: ungulates, in the form of dromedaries, camels and Somali blackhead sheeps. Now, however, camels and dromedaries no longer live here, but blackhead sheep and alpacas still do. In the beginning there were also fox mongooses and meerkats living with the lions, but these were removed from the enclosure after a lion ate one or more mongooses. Below is the list, in bold are species that currently live in the enclosure:
West African lion (Panthera leo senegalensis)
Barbary lion (Panthera leo leo)
Yellow mongoose (Cynictis penicillata)
Meerkat (Suricata suricatta)
Pony (Equus ferus caballus)
Shetland pony (Equus ferus caballus)
Donkey (Equus africanus asinus)
Llama (Lama glama)
Alpaca (Vicugna pacos)
Dromedary camel (Camelus dromedarius)
Bactrian camel (Camelus bactrianus)
Domestic reindeer (Rangifer tarandus domestica)
Somali blackhead sheep (Ovis aries laticaudatus)
Domestic Yak (Bos mutus grunniens)
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This was the list.
Please post it if you have any additions or criticisms.

 

This was very helpful

 

I'm happy I could help you.

 

I would like to ask if you have any information about the thylacine that was exhibited at the Antwerp Zoo the period 1912-1914.It was a male Thylacine that had arrived from Melbourne Zoo.