Philadelphia Zoo

History

Philadelphia zoo is America's first zoo. Since the early 1700's, the idea of an American zoo was inspired by English settlers with a keen interest in wildlife and by sailors and hunters who returned from faraway lands with exotic animals they'd never seen before. People would gather and pay shillings to see animals such as lions and elephants displayed at places like general stores and museums.

As a hub of scientific inquiry and discovery over many years, Philadelphia's well-known leaders of the time began to formulate the idea of a zoo. In the mid-1850's, a prominent Philadelphia physician, Dr. William Camac - the Zoo's founding father - became involved and led the way to making America's first zoo a reality. The charter establishing the Zoological Society of Philadelphia was approved and signed on March 21, 1859. The Society's purpose was to establish a living collection of wild animals on a grand scale. Not only for the purpose of public exhibition, but it should also enable scientific observation. The site that was initially assigned to the Society in Fairmount Park was very unfortunate. It had no easy access, because it was located between two railroads and the Schuylkill River. Therefore the Society was reluctant to develop a zoo at that site. Furthermore the Civil War prevented any progress. So, it took another 15 years before America's first zoo was ready to open, located in a different part of Fairmount Park.

The Zoo opened its gates on July 1, 1874. The Frank Furness Victorian gates and gatehouses, and the Zoo's location, are the same today as they were on the day it opened. One of its assets, then and now, is John Penn's home, The Solitude, which sat on the land chosen for the Zoo. John Penn was the grandson of William Penn, founder of Pennsylvania. The Solitude is considered to be Philadelphia's most precise and elegant expression of neoclassical style. On opening day, flags flew, and a brass band welcomed more than 3,000 visitors. Admission was 25 cents for adults and 10 cents for children, a rate that held for the next half century. Visitors came on foot, on streetcars, by horse and carriage, and every 15 minutes by steamboat on the Schuylkill River, landing at the Zoo's own wharf. The Girard Avenue Bridge opened three days later. 282 mammals were at display on opening day, including antelopes, lions, zebras, kangaroos, an elephant, a rhinoceros, a tiger, some 50 monkeys, and numerous rare species from Asia and Australia. There were also 674 birds and 8 reptiles. Quite some of these animals were obtained from Frank J. Thompson, an animal collector in Australia, who was appointed the first superintendent of the zoo.

In its first year of operation, the Philadelphia Zoo received well over 228,000 visitors. Although these numbers did not increased a lot during the next years, the City of Philadelphia finally recognised the zoo's value to the city in 1891 with the first of its financial contributions.

The objective expressed by the Zoological Society that the animal collection should furnish scientific observation led to scientific work that began at a Zological Garden facililty. This eventually became the Penrose Research Laboratory, the first research center within an American zoo. It took some 50 years, but in 1928 the zoo had its first successfull birth of an orangutan and chimpanzee. Which also were the first births of these primates in U.S. Zoos. And in 1956 they had the first birth in a zoo ever of cheetah cubs. Unfortunately all three cubs died within three months. History recorded only one other litter born in captivity before. That was in the stables of the 16th-century Indian Mughal emperor Jahangir. Another remarkable breeding success was celebrated in 2004 with the first birth in captivity in North America of a giant river otter.

Today, the Philadelphia Zoo's 42-acre (16.9 ha) Victorian garden is home to 330 species and about 1,260 specimens (Int. Zoo Yearbook 2009), many of them rare and endangered. The Zoo, fulfilling its mission of conservation, science, education and recreation, supports and engages in conservation efforts to protect endangered species around the world. Their polar bear enclosure is one of the Polar Bears International Arctic Ambassador Centers. These Centers lead the way towards animal welfare and conservation, because they feature bear friendly exhibits with lots of enrichment activities to stimulate the bears to be active and content. And they teach about polar bears, climate change, the Arctic and how this can be supported. Moreover, they support PBI research projects to help conserve wild polar bears. Besides the polar bears, cheetahs, hippos, giraffes and many more make the Zoo Philadelphia's leading family attraction with over 1.2 million visitors last year.

(Sources: website Philadelphia zoo; website Smithsonian magazine; website PBI; Zoo and Aquarium History by Vernon N. Kisling, jr.)

Visit(s)

09.04.2010

Maintenance of the (old) buildings is good in Philadelphia Zoo, so its status of being the oldest zoo of the U.S.A is only to be recognised via some old-fashioned enclosures and the entrance. The Zoo is in the process of reorganising and making new choices on how to present what animals. For instance, they decided - for budgetary reasons - to stop keeping elephants and make the enclosure available for other animals, temporarily for the Poitou donkey (Equus asinus), a domestic donkey, which is considered to be one of the oldest purebred donkey breeds. The animal collection is not presented in groups according their geographical distribution, which currently is adopted by many zoos in the world to support their educational efforts. In Philadelphia they seem to move towards grouping the animals based on Families in the animal Kingdom, like with their award winning 'Big Cat Falls' with big cats from different continents - except the cheetahs, which are housed elsewhere. On the other hand there is the 'African plains' which obviously harbour animals from this African habitat. It is a bit confusing, but the majority of the visitors will not notice this mixed set-up, I suppose.A specific example of this, a mix of species with a different geographical background together in one enclosure, can be seen in the Rare Animals Conservation Centre. A giant elephant shrew (Rhynchocyon petersi) from Southern Africa is living together with a Bolivian gray titi monkey (Callicebus donacophilus), and some enclosures further down the hall such a shrew is housed in with a white-faced saki (Pithecia pithecia) from the South-American continent. The good thing is that they explain these animals will not be seen together in the wild, but that they can be kept together in zoos without any problems. They make good room mates, as they say. And they know what they are talking about, because Philadelphia Zoo was the 2^nd zoo in the world to breed giant elephant shrews. Apart from this milestone, Philly Zoo was the first in the U.S. to exhibit live reptiles. Mommy the Galapagos tortoise arrived in 1932 and can still be seen today.

Wa lking from the Rare Animals Conservation Centre to the Big Cats Fall, you pass some enclosures on the right hand side which stem from the early years. The two hippopotamuses seem to enjoy themselves in their basin, but the okapi and the Asian rhinoceros are not provided with a lot of enrichment in their bare surroundings. Especially, the sandy bottom in the okapi's house with only one tree is kind of depressing. Which cannot be said of the Big Cat Falls. This new and modernised set of enclosures shows an interesting system of bridges and tunnels that interconnect several enclosures. This enables the cats to explore several environments by taking turns, which is an enrichment by creating a virtual joint enclosure. The lions and the jaguar are very well-fed (fat!), but the condition of the others seems fine (cougars, amur leopard, snow leopard, amur tiger). Except from the lions and the tigers, all the felids are provided with high level observation posts. Climbing is supported in many ways, and all of the enclosures have a certain attraction that makes it a pleasure to look at. And I mean the enclosure itself, because the animals are always a pleasure to look at, but it is the environment that makes the difference in modern zoos. Without exception the cats are exposed to the public via glass window panes. But even when this creates lots of exposure, in case of the lions, it doesn't seem to bother the animals. They all behave like you expect them to do in their natural habitat.

Personally, I liked the snow leopard enclosure best, with its waterfall, shrubs and bare rock face. In this outdoor enclosure the snow leopard and the amur leopard swap places every other day. Having said earlier that sometimes the policy behind the exhibiton of the Zoo's animal collection is somewhat confusing, the fact that in Carnivore Kingdom again a snow leopard appears, does contribute to this opinion. Nevertheless, this part of the Zoo shows again a fine collection of animals (including giant river otter, Canadian lynx and fishing cat). The Zoo's breeding results with the giant river otter are great. Over the past five years they have raised 13 cubs (latest litter in 21 June 2009), and they have offspring living in quite a few other U.S. zoos. Philly Zoo was the first North-American zoo to have bred this species, in March 2004. These animals are lovely playful rascals, and their playful behaviour underwater can be watched closely. Another beautiful setting is the large meadow for the cheetahs, which seems to correspond with their natural environment, but it will never be big enough for these fast runners. Adjacent to this you find the painted dog enclosure, which has the same characteristics as the cheetahs'. Not far from there a brand new building, with indoor and outdoor capacity, has been erected for black & white colobus monkeys. Still empty, but ready to receive the animals, which were to arrive late spring.

The African plains consists of spaces for the zebras, the southern white rhinoceros and ostriches, adjacent but separated. So, where other zoos are creating mixed species exhibits with these animals, Philly Zoo has not yet arrived to that level of exhibition. On the other hand they do mix addax with the saddle-billed stork, west-african crowned crane and the Mhorr gazelle (Gazella dama mhorr). This last species is a success story. As this species was extinct in the wild, but survived in zoos, and Philly Zoo bred several specimens and therefore contributes to the successful reintroduction of this animal into the wild.As Philly Zoo is a polar bear ambassadors centre, I was really looking forward to see their polar bear enclosure. Expecting it to set a standard and being an outstanding example. It was a bit disappointing to see that, again, these polar bears are also very much exposed to the public, like the big cats, and lack hide-outs. But it can be my ignorance of course, that I do not qualify the exhibit as top ranked on my list of polar bear enclosures. For instance I prefer Central Park Zoo's polar bear exhibit. Nevertheless, the Zoo is paying a lot of attention to enrichment in all bear exhibits, also in the large enclosures of the American black bear, the Andean bear and the sloth bear.Regarding the unavoidable primates, enrichment is also a theme there. In 1995 the primate house was destroyed by a terrible fire, in which most primates were lost. In the newly built PECO primate reserve, designed by the renowned John Coe and opened in 1999, the Zoo goes to great lengths to provide toys and climbing materials, state-of-the-art fire protection and smoke evacuation. Perhaps that is why the indoor enclosures have a very sterile look with all its concrete and steel beams and poles. While inside separated from each other, the gibbons and orangutans share an outdoors space. This outside enclosure seems inadequate for the gibbons with only three trees very close together, and therefore hampering any serious movement of these arboreal animals. The western lowland gorillas also have access to the indoors and outdoors. The indoor exhibit has two viewing levels for the public, to provide opportunity to get into contact with these magnificent animals, of which the Zoo has six.

Gallery

Video

More info

Location

Directions

Directions to Philadelphia Zoo

The Zoo is located at the corner of 34th Street and Girard Avenue in Philadelphia's historic Fairmount Park, the world's largest landscaped city park. The Zoo is just two miles from downtown Philadelphia and parking is available along Girard Avenue at 38th Street and at the south end of the Zoo along 34th Street. Public transportation is available using SEPTA, which runs bus and trolley routes to the Zoo area.

Address:
3400 W Girard Avenue
PA 19104
Philadelphia
Pennsylvania
United States of America

public transport

The Philadelphia Zoo is serviced by SEPTA via Route #15 trolley and the nearby Route 38 bus.

The Phlash (see 'Philadelphia in a Phlash') is the quick, easy and “green” connection to Philadelphia historic attractions and cultural institutions - including the Zoo! Leave your car at home and get to the Zoo in a Phlash. Through December 31, Phlash is operating daily from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., with a special Holiday Evening loop operating a route to key holiday destinations and attractions throughout Center City from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. Download a map of the Phlash route here.

by bicycle

Philadelphia is promoting cycling and it looks like a city that should be easy to navigate by bike, though I didn't try it myself. There are many bike (rental) shops and it is an environmental friendly mode of transportation, so why don't you give it a try when you visit the Zoo.

by car

From the East

Access Interstate-76 by exiting PA Turnpike at Neshaminy. Take US RT1-S to 76E. Take Interstate-76 to exit 342 Girard Avenue. Turn left at Girard Avenue for parking.

From the West

Access Interstate-76 by exiting PA Turnpike at Valley Forge. Follow 76 to exit 342 Girard Avenue. Follow directional signs to turn left or right on Girard Avenue for available parking.

From City centre

Take the West River Drive to Sweetbriar Drive and turn left. At South Concourse Drive, turn left and go one block to Girard Avenue. To park, turn right on Girard Avenue or continue straight to the Tiger parking lot. Note that on weekends from April through October, West River Drive is closed at certain times to vehicular traffic. During this period, follow the above driving directions from the east.

Directions from Airport

Take the I-95 N ramp toward I-76/PA-291/Philadelphia/New Jersey. Merge onto Penrose Ave/PA-291 E via EXIT 13 toward I-76 W/Valley Forge. Turn left onto S 26th St/PA-291 E. S 26th St/PA-291 E becomes I-76 W. Take the US-13/US-30 W/Girard Ave exit, EXIT 342, toward Phila Zoo. Turn slight right onto US-13/N 34th St/US-30. Turn left onto W Girard Ave/US-30. Make a U-turn onto W Girard Ave/US-30. 3400 W GIRARD AVE is on the right.

For additional routes to the Zoo, visit the Alternate Routes page.

Parking

There is Zoo parking along both Girard Avenue and 34th Street. Parking in a Zoo lot (see map) will cost $15. Handicap spaces and spaces for vans are available in both Tiger Lot and the Parking Garage.

Reviews - Zoos outside Europe