Happy animal-versary to the Bronx Zoo

Repurposed, but still resplendent, the Elephant House — pictured here in a 1909 — remains a zoo landmark to this day.l Photo courtesy of the Bronx Zoo-WCS

By Jason Fields

More than 100 years of lions and tigers and bears — oh my! The Bronx Zoo turned 110 at the end of November, but shows few signs of its age. The 265-acre park is now home to more than 6,000 animals representing more than 600 species and is engaged in efforts to preserve environments and their wild inhabitants around the world, according to the zoo.

The zoo’s first mission, though, was to preserve a part of nature in the Bronx. The land on which the zoo sits, along with its near neighbor, the New York Botanical Garden, was originally owned by Fordham University, which sold it to the city for $1,000 on the condition that the city keep the area green. The school wanted to keep the urban flood that was lapping at the university’s door from overwhelming it, according to the zoo.

Theodore Roosevelt was a founding member of the New York Zoological Society, which was formed to create and maintain the zoo. Even at the zoo’s inception no one was thinking small. When it opened there were 843 animals in 22 exhibits.

The Reptile House is the only original exhibit that inhabits the same space it did when the zoo opened. Snakes, alligators and turtles eye the crowd comfortably from enclosures that mimic nature and provide an excellent view for visitors.

Early in its existence, the Zoological Society was looking beyond its patch of the Bronx. Roosevelt worked closely with the society in breeding a small herd of buffalo intended to help repopulate the Great Plains of Oklahoma, Nebraska and Kansas. The creature that had once owned the plains was on the verge of dying out.

The zoo, which is now run by the Wildlife Conservation Society (the name of the original group was changed in 1993), has done much to link exhibits to the places where many of the species originate. The Congo Gorilla Forest, for example, has raised millions to help protect gorillas that still live in the wild, the zoo said.

The Bronx Zoo is home to many endangered species; all kept in displays that mirror their home environments as closely as possible, including the African Plains — opened in 1941 and featuring a new lion cub — Tiger Mountain (2003) and Madagascar! (2008). The once revolutionary World of Darkness was closed earlier this year due to budget cuts.

The World of Darkness had long been popular for its bats and other strange-looking nocturnal mammals. When it was built in the 1960s, it was the first such exhibit in the world.

The zoo is open to visitors everyday from 10 a.m., and more than 2 million annually make the trip to a part of the Bronx that is a world all its own.

This is part of the December 3, 2009 online edition of The Riverdale Press.

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