Bronx Zoo
The Bronx Zoo is a zoo within Bronx Park in the Bronx, New York City. It is one of the largest zoos in the United States by area and the largest metropolitan zoo, comprising of park lands and naturalistic habitats separated by the Bronx River. The zoo has 2.1 million average yearly visitors as of 2009. The zoo's original buildings, known as Astor Court, were designed as a series of Beaux-Arts pavilions grouped around the large circular sea lion pool. The Rainey Memorial Gates were designed by sculptor Paul Manship in 1934 and listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1972.
The zoo opened on November 8, 1899, featuring 843 animals in 22 exhibits. Its first director was William Temple Hornaday, who served for 30 years. From its inception the zoo has played a vital role in animal conservation. In 1905, the American Bison Society was created in an attempt to save the American bison, which had been depleted from tens-of-millions of animals to only a few hundred, from extinction. Two years later they were successfully reintroduced into the wild. In 2007, the zoo successfully reintroduced three Chinese alligators into the wild. The breeding was a milestone in the zoo's 10-year effort to reintroduce the species to the Yangtze River in China.
The Bronx Zoo is world-renowned for its large and diverse animal collection, and its award-winning exhibitions. The zoo is part of an integrated system of four zoos and one aquarium managed by the Wildlife Conservation Society, and it is accredited by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums.
History
Early years
In 1895, a group made up largely of members of the Boone and Crockett Club founded the New York Zoological Society for the purposes of founding a zoo, promoting the study of zoology, and preserving wildlife. Credit for this belonged chiefly to Club members Madison Grant and C. Grant LaFarge.The zoo opened its doors to the public on November 8, 1899, featuring 843 animals in 22 exhibits. Its first director was William Temple Hornaday, who had 30 years of service at the zoo.
Heins & LaFarge designed the original permanent buildings, known as Astor Court, as a series of Beaux-Arts pavilions grouped around the large circular sea lion pool. In 1934, the Rainey Memorial Gates, designed by sculptor Paul Manship, were dedicated as a memorial to noted big game hunter Paul James Rainey. The gates were listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1972.
The Rockefeller Fountain, which today adorns the gardens just inside the Fordham Road Gate, was once a landmark in Como, Italy. Originally built by Biagio Catella in 1872, it stood in the main square by the lakeside. Bought by William Rockefeller in 1902 for lire 3,500, it was installed at the zoo in 1903. In 1968, the fountain was designated an official New York City landmark, and is one of the few local monuments to be honored in this way.
The New York Zoological Society's seal was designed by famed wildlife-artist Charles R. Knight. It depicted a ram's head and an eagle to reflect the society's interest in preserving North American wildlife. While no longer in use, the seal can still be found on the lawn in the center of Astor Court.
File:William Hornaday.jpg|thumb|Zoo Director William T. Hornaday feeding a greater kudu in 1920
On December 17, 1902, the zoo became one of the seven zoos outside of Australia, and one of only two in the United States, to ever hold the now-extinct thylacine. The first was a male obtained from German animal dealer Carl Hagenbeck. It died on August 15, 1908. The zoo received a second male on January 26, 1912, from the Beaumaris Zoo in Tasmania, who later died on November 20 of that year. The zoo received its final two animals from Sydney animal dealer Ellis S. Joseph. The first was an unsexed individual who arrived on November 7, 1916, in poor condition and died seven days later. The second and final animal was a female purchased from the Beaumaris Zoo by Joseph for £25 and then was resold to the zoo, arriving on July 14, 1917. On a visit, the director of the Melbourne Zoo, Mr. Le Souef, said upon seeing the animal:
The thylacine died on September 13, 1919.
In early 1903, the zoo was gifted a pair of Barbary lions, a subspecies which is extinct in the wild. The female was named Bedouin Maid and male Sultan, who went on to become one of the zoo's most popular animals. Displayed in the Lion House, Sultan was four years old at the time and described as being both "a perfect specimen" and "unusually good tempered". In May 1903, the pair produced three cubs, the first to be born at the zoo. On October 7, 1905, Charles R. Knight painted a portrait of Sultan and the animal went on to be the focus of many of the zoo's postcards. Sultan was also the model for the lion which sits atop the Rainey Memorial Gates.
In 1906, the Bronx Zoo put Ota Benga, a young Mbuti man from the Congo, on display along with monkeys and a bow and arrow. He was never returned home and later died of suicide at age 33.
In 1916, the zoo built the world's first animal hospital located at a zoo.
In 1926, the Bronx Zoo and the Smithsonian Institution's National Zoological Park simultaneously became the first in the country to exhibit shoebills.
The same year, W. Douglas Burden, F. J. Defosse, and Emmett Reid Dunn collected two live adult Komodo dragons—the first in America—for the zoo.
In 1937, the zoo became the first in North America to exhibit okapi.
Recent years
In 1960, the zoo became the first in the world to keep a James's flamingo, a species which had been thought to be extinct until 1957. They were imported along with the similar Andean flamingo.The zoo was one of the few in the world to exhibit proboscis monkeys outside of Southeast Asia and, in the 1976 International Zoo Yearbook, the zoo reported having eight monkeys, seven of which were born at the zoo. As of March 1999, it only had two monkeys left, these two being the last members of their species kept in the United States. In 2003, the pair were sent to the Singapore Zoo.
On June 6, 1990, the zoo received a female Sumatran rhinoceros named Rapunzel. At the time, the zoo was one of only three in North America to hold the critically endangered species, with the Cincinnati and San Diego Zoos being the others, holding one female each. The three institutions were a part of the Sumatran Rhino Trust's plan to start a captive breeding program for the species. Rapunzel was born in the wild in Sumatra and rescued from an area of rainforest that was slated to be cleared for a palm oil plantation in 1989. Though it's believed she bred in the wild, she never produced any calves in captivity. It was eventually determined that she was past reproductive age, at which point she was returned to the zoo in 2000, having been brought out for breeding purposes. She lived in the Zoo Center until her death in December 2005 in her 30s.
In November 2006, the zoo opened up brand-new eco-friendly restrooms outside the Bronx River Gate. According to Clivus Multrum, which built the composting toilets chosen by the zoo, these facilities can serve 500,000 people and save of water a year.
In March 2007, the Wildlife Conservation Society and the Fordham University Graduate School of Education announced they would offer a joint program leading to a Master of Science degree in education and New York State initial teacher certification in adolescent science education. The program began the next year, and is the first joint degree program of its kind.
In 2009, New York City cut funding for the state's 76 zoos, aquariums, and botanical gardens. The Wildlife Conservation Society as a whole suffered a $15-million deficit, and the zoo was forced to downsize its staff and animal collection. The budget cuts forced the buyouts of over 100 employees and layoffs of dozens more as well as the closure of four sections of the zoo: World of Darkness, Rare Animal Range, the Skyfari, and a small section of the overall still-open African Plains exhibit which featured endangered antelope. In the end, 186 staff positions were cut within the WCS. In 2012, Mayor Michael Bloomberg passed another budget cut that took $4.7-million from the funding of the zoo and the New York Aquarium, also run by the WCS. This cut represented more than half of what the collections were receiving. However, Bloomberg also passed an energy subsidy that brought the cuts down to $3.7-million.
In the summer of 2014, New York Representative Carolyn B. Maloney visited the Chengdu Panda Base in Sichuan, China and announced her plan to bring giant pandas to New York City. Initially, she aimed to exhibit them at the Central Park Zoo, though switched her attention to the Bronx after deciding the 6.5-acre zoo didn't have the resources to care for the animals. Maloney and her supporters, which included Maurice R. Greenberg, Newt Gingrich, and John A. Catsimatidis, were met with many obstacles throughout their campaign. Initially, the largest issues were the lack of support from Mayor Bill de Blasio and City Hall, and Chinese officials insisting that no more pandas be brought to the United States. However, in October 2015, Chinese Ambassador Cui Tiankai announced that his country was willing to enter preliminary talks with the city over the matter, and soon after de Blasio and City Hall signed a letter appealing to Chinese officials, drafted by Maloney in 2014. Despite her efforts, Maloney's campaign still has yet to overcome two critical steps in acquiring pandas: funding and the zoo's consent. Both de Blasio and the Wildlife Conservation Society refuse to fund the project, not wanting taxpayer or vital zoo money to go towards the highly expensive project. David Towne, chairman of the American-based Giant Panda Conservation Foundation, estimated that the cost of bringing pandas to the city would be around $50 million.
The foundation has also said that the cost of keeping just one such animal is about $1 million a year, including food, trainers, and habitat upkeep. Additionally, China loans out their pandas for a hefty fee. A study published by The Washington Post in 2005 found that the four U.S. zoos holding pandas—the Memphis Zoo, the San Diego Zoo, the National Zoological Park and Zoo Atlanta—had spent $33 million more on their animals than revenue made off of them between 2000 and 2003. Despite the figures, Maloney believes pandas in her city will do better since the city has a higher population than those four cities combined, and received a record-breaking 56.4-million visitors in 2014. Still, the WCS continues to steer away from bringing in these pandas. In 2014, a senior official from the WCS said Maloney's campaign had reached "a new level of absurdity" when it was announced she intended to bring a Chinese delegation to the Central Park Zoo. In November 2015, Jim Breheny, WCS Executive Vice President and Bronx Zoo Director, released a statement saying: