Maidstone Zoo: Chinese tiger

I’ve recently purchased an old Maidstone Zoo guide (no publication date but circa 1939).

Of particular interest, this guide mentions that the collection includes the only Chinese tiger in captivity, captured at ten days old in Amoy, in 1936.

A few other snippets from the guide:-

· Three elephants are listed: two young Burmese elephants “Gert” and “Daisy” (imported in May 1936) and a fifteen year old Indian elephant “Lizzie”.

· Four different species of bear are listed:- sun, polar, sloth and (European) brown.

· The zoo housed both spotted and striped hyaena.

 

Them was the days when zoos were zoos!

 

Further to my earlier post:-

According to the book "The Story of Maidstone Zoo” (Vickie Harris; 1994) the guide in question (7th edition) was actually published in 1940.

 

It must have been quite a large zoo considering they had three elephants and four species of bear.

 

Not necessarily -remember that the size of enclosures considered adequate was significantly smaller that many years ago. Nearer to now, Bristol (one of the smallest zoos in the UK) had close to the animals listed (and many, many more) crammed in as recent as the 1970's.