How flattering. Thank you 1971 to 1974 were the best years. You can see most of my decent photos in the Gallery, but as I said above there were some things that I didn't manage to photograph properly or haven't published here yet (gerenuk, woolly tapir, striped possum, mountain gorilla, white uakari, zebra duiker, pygmy kingfisher, brown hyaena and more ).
For some reason, I never posted on this thread. Apart from the obvious advantages of going back to late 19th early 20th century London, the two in my lifetime I would like to go back to would be Kilverstone in the late 1970s ( I loved it, but really didn't appreciate some of the rarities and think i only saw a bobcat for the first time in 40 years at Tierpark Berlin 2 weeks ago!) and Port Lympne when the Sumatran Rhino were there, I didn't visit until 2008.
For me, I have three main zoos with no specific dates... just time frames. Bristol Zoo - late 1800s, 1950s, 1980s and 1990's. Dudley Zoo - Post Tecton And because I really want to see what it was like - RSCC Later addition - Winsor Safari Park - when it had the orca and dolphins - then a year or so before closing.
A lot of these historical zoos were bad for the animals but collections were often better. I feel a kind of nostalgia for the old time London and Hagenbeck I never got to visit but would I want to see a 19th C zoo just to see a passenger pigeon or a thylacine?
My pleasure......very much enjoy (if jealously can be enjoyable!) your photos from that period. I was actually around during that time, so would only be going back to my toddler years.... Your comments above on seeing species but not managing to get photographs (or good quality ones), gave me another idea on this theme.......travelling back during your own life to get another chance at photographing species now gone/ very rare in zoos. For me, this would be going back to 1976-79 when I lived in Perth, WA. The nocturnal house at Perth (then brand new) contained a plethora of Australian species that would certainly get the juices flowing now, but at age 7-10 I probably just walked past them and certainly didn't have a camera anyway. Also, when I was about 7 or 8, a friend brought a Thorny Devil to school in a tupperware bowl!! (captured in back yard)...I actually had it in my hand! Now I wish I could go back and photograph that!
Beaumaris Zoo, for obvious reasons... I would of course be referring to their marvellous collection of bennett's wallabies.
I would of loved to see the Hobart or Beaumaris zoo in Tasmania in 1921 to see the Tasmanian tigers or thylacine before they died out and went extinct.
It would have to be my home zoo- the Pittsburgh zoo, in the 1970s. They had a lot of different species than they currently do now, including moon bears, chimpanzees, Nile hippos, etc. And this is also a time before the zoos master plan was developed (Asian forest, African savanna). And this was also a time before any of the zoos current exhibits existed, which would be interesting to see. Also I would love to see the aquazoo again.
1. Montague House, the first British Museum before 1845 because they had three giant giraffes on the grand staircase and based on the watercolor by George Scharf it looks so cool. The day the mastodons left 2. London Zoo in the late 1800's when they had pretty much everything including Jumbo the elephant and the one Javan Rhino they had in the 1870's. 3. King Louie 16th's menagerie at Versailles (before the French Revolution) because I saw his mounted Indian Rhino in the Musee National D'Histoire Naturelle and the gardens there are cool. 4. Vincennes Zoo, Paris when the mighty Siam was still alive (pre-September 1997). I got to see his mounted hide in the Musee National D'Histoire Naturelle though. 5. Bronx Zoo in the 1960's when the James' Flamingo was rediscovered in the and the zoo had a small colony in their flamingo exhibit. 6. Toronto Zoo before 2011 when their Gaur bull, Hercules was still alive. 7. Oregon Zoo to see the elephants Packy and Tusko before they passed away. 8. Any zoo or facility with a huge bull Southern Elephant Seal. 9. Whipsnade Zoo when you could ride their Indian Rhino "Mohgan". RRC: Whipsnade 1953 10. Any zoo that had Chacma or Yellow Baboons.
At Zoo Miami they have an Asian bull named Dalip who looks a lot like Siam but his back slopes down like a mammoth. I always treasure when I get to see him because it makes me think "I guess this is what it was like when Siam was alive". Dalip can get about 25 feet close to the public (via a moat) and looks kinda short. Based on pics I've seen of the old Vincennes exhibit, did Siam seem kinda short when in his exhibit? In the museum when I stood next to him he made me feel so tiny. His lower lip must've been 6 feet above the ground. He should be the holotype for a bull Asian Elephant. Which son did you see? He only has one son alive, named Thisiam and he's at a zoo in Poland somewhere.
And fortunately Thisiam is in a breeding situation at knies kinderzoo, with a proven breeding cow and her female calf (unrelated to him) Siams only other surviving offspring, a cow named Nina, is also in a breeding situation and currently has a young bull calf. Intriguingly, the bull to breed with her is also out of "legendary" lineage, being a son of Ramon from Rotterdam.
The son I referred to was the tuskless bull Sahib, had previously been called Fridolin. I can't recall his dates offhand, but a quick Google will produce them. He was born at Circus Knie and hand reared. This left him poorly socialised to elephants, although I believe he was ok with people, to the extent that he was handled with some degree of free contact at Cricket St Thomas. He had come from Belfast with a history of attacking cow elephants (he had never learned elephant social skills). This behaviour continued in England, and he could never be integrated with the female group. Consequently he spent much of his time circling in a small side enclosure, and was eventually put down. Despite the lack of tusks, he was a large and handsome animal.
"Siam" was, without doubt, the most impressive elephant I have ever seen; I saw him many times in Vincennes Zoo (Paris). I've only seen "Dalip" once; I agree he does look like "Siam" and he is probably the second most impressive elephant I've seen. I saw the tuskless "Sahib" several times in Leipzig before he was sent to Belfast. He was an enormous elephant....
Maybe, as I believe is the case with antlerless Red Deer stags, not having tusks frees up resources to develop a larger body mass.
Oh dear, this thread is making me feel very old One of my earliest memories from Chester Zoo in about 1961 is of a chacma baboon in a corner enclosure of the old Monkey House, on the site which is now the monorail station near Oakfield House: it grunted at me and I grunted back - as kids do. I probably also saw yellow baboons at Antwerp in 1973 and 1974, but I have no memory of them as I was much more interested in the graueri gorillas and the bonobos (but next time I sort through my slide collection, I'll check to see if I have any photos just in case). I saw and photographed the magnificent Siam, and I saw and photographed several pretty big bull elephant seals, search our galleries for Vincennes, Stuttgart and Hannover to see some photos. The caption to the photo in your link is slightly wrong, Whipsnade's first rhino bull was actually called 'Mohan'. I never saw him, but I remember his son 'Manik' from my first visit to Whipsnade - his photo is in the gallery too. Another suggestion London Zoo on 28 March 1838, when Charles Darwin saw the young orang utan 'Jenny'. It was the first time that he had ever seen an ape. https://www.zsl.org/blogs/artefact-of-the-month/portrait-of-jenny This scene was recreated, quite fancifully, for the film Creation, which I recommend to anyone interested in Darwin's life.
Older ZooChat members will recall the television programme "On Safari" featuring Armand and Michaela Denis. Michaela Denis wrote the book "Ride a Rhino" (1959) and the cover picture features Michaela riding an Indian rhinoceros at Whipsnade.
