Wild Lives: A History of the People and Animals of the Bronx Zoo
Zoo-goers crowd around the bear dens on Opening Day The drivers parked outside the gates and the excited guests stepped out Women in their long skirts and fancy hats men in dark suits and derby caps rushed in and gathered for the opening ceremonies The speeches were brief and the crowds were soon staring in wonder at the bears in their new dens and pressing to get a look at the buffalo elk and caribou in their pens Boys in knee pants and woolen socks hurried to see the storks and pelicans in the Aquatic Birds House Girls in short frilly dresses gasped at the alligator and python in the Reptile House Never had the visitors seen so many strange and fascinating creatures in one place As the years went by New York City grew its skyscrapers blocking out forest and sky the din of its trains and horseless carriages drowning out the songs of birds New Yorkers came to consider the Zoo up in the rural woodsy Bronx a pleasant diversion from the pressures of city life Although zoo-goers enjoyed the excitement excitement of seeing unfamiliar or exotic animals few inquired about the
habitats those animals came from or what their lives in the wild might have been like Most people regarded animals as objects to be captured and tamed or to be hunted and killed for pleasure or profit They regarded wild habitats as places to be subdued or developed for human uses Unless an animal seemed truly abused and miserable miserable in its cage zoo-goers rarely ques tioned whether the confinement of animals could be justified solely for the sake of human pleasure and entertainment William T Hornaday first director of the Bronx Zoo at his desk BROWN PELICAN
What would happen if Noah should arrive with his arkful of animals and turn them loose But William T Hornaday wanted that to change From the very start he envisioned a new kind of zoo a zoo that would both entertain and educate a zoo that would help change people’s indifferent or destructive atti tudes toward wild animals Today people know that many wild animal species are threatened with extinction and that their wild habitats are rapidly disappearing One hundred years ago Hornaday and a few visionary people like him were among the first to recognize that wildlife was in grave dan ger He and the Bronx Zoo’s founders took the first steps to protect wildlife And they hoped to create a zoo that would give zoo-goers a deeper respect for the animals and a greater understanding of their lives in the wild In 1896 before laying out the plans for the Zoo Hornaday traveled around Europe studying what the older zoos had done right and thinking about what things could be improved The average European zoo of the day was only about thirty acres approximately the size of fourteen city blocks and the lim ited space meant that their animals were very closely confined Hornaday and the founders of the Bronx Zoo believed this was detrimental to the animals And they saw that
the cramped unnatural cages prevented people from learn ing about and appreciating the animals as wild creatures in their own right In their Preliminary Plan the founders announced that they would cre ate a zoo where the liv ing creatures can be kept under conditions most closely approximating those with which nature usually surrounds them in spaces so extensive that with many species the sense of confinement is either lost or greatly dimin ished yet at the same time sufficiently limited that the animals are not inaccessible or invisi ble to the visitor The city government agreed to provide a large parcel of public land where the new zoo logical park could be developed Hornaday spent three weeks studying the city’s park-lands When he finally arrived at South Bronx Park he was elated Here were 261 acres of rolling meadows and lush woodlands bor dered by lakes to the north and by the Bronx River to the east He explored every nook and cranny of the park all the time imagining what would happen if Noah should arrive with his arkful of animals and turn them loose AMERICAN ALLIGATOR
