Our place in history: historical brief.

The Los Angeles Zoo is located in the heart of the nation's second-largest city. Each year 1.4 million visitors pass through the gates to view a collection of more than 1,200 animals from around the world.

When the Los Angeles Zoo opened in 1966 it was the fourth zoo to serve the city. In 1885, the city-owned Eastlake Zoo opened in East Los Angeles Park, and in 1912 the Griffith Park Zoo opened up a few miles from the current Los Angeles Zoo site. By 1915, colorful "Colonel" William Selig opened his combination movie studio and zoo, the Selig Zoo, in Lincoln Park.

By 1956, the citizens of Los Angeles realized their city had outgrown the small Griffith Park Zoo and passed a $6.6 million bond measure to help build a new one.

A 113-acre site in Griffith Park was chosen, and in 1964 a private, nonprofit organization was created to support the new effort. Before the new zoo even opened, the Greater Los Angeles Zoo Association (GLAZA) had already graduated a class of trained, volunteer docents; produced several issues of a quarterly magazine called Zoo View; and had begun raising money and acquiring animals.

When the Los Angeles Zoo debuted in November 1966, 80,000 Angelenos attended the opening. (Several of the animals that were at the Zoo on opening day are still with us: our Asian elephant Gita, and an alligator, appropriately named Methuselah.) In the interest of health and safety, the L.A. Zoo was the first major zoo in the United States to bar visitors from feeding the animals.

In 1967, GLAZA President Margaret Taylor wrote a check for $75,000 to acquire for the Zoo three endangered Arabian oryx. The animals were quickly becoming extinct in the wild, and over the ensuing years the Los Angeles Zoo cooperated with the Phoenix Zoo-the only other American zoo to house oryx-and successfully bred the gazelle-like animals. Later, descendants of those animals were reintroduced to the wild in Israel, while other descendants of that original L.A. Zoo herd live on here.

The first Beastly Ball, a safari-themed dinner-dance and a major fundraiser for the Zoo, was held in 1970.

In 1972 the Zoo became an accredited member of the American Zoo and Aquarium Association (AZA), and in 1974 welcomed Dr. Warren D. Thomas as Zoo Director.

During his 17-year tenure, Thomas assembled one of the world's most acclaimed animal collections, adding rare and endangered species such as the Sumatran rhino, Jentink's duiker, zebra duiker, yellow-footed rock wallaby, giant eland, gerenuk, emperor tamarin, and bongo. In 1975, curators decided to sell several of the oryx to a wildlife preserve in Israel, and the funds raised helped the Zoo to acquire other rare and endangered species.

During the 1970s, the Zoo built the Andrew Norman Education Center, launched ZooMobile-a docent program that took animals to schools-built Wolf Woods and Monkey Island, as well as new exhibits for gorillas, orangutans, flamingos, and bongos.

By 1980 the replacement value of the Zoo's animal collection was valued at $4 million. The Zoo became part of the new California Condor Recovery Program and in 1982 built the extensive "condominiums," one of the finest and largest facilities in the condor program.

The Ahmanson Koala House, opened in 1982, made the Los Angeles Zoo the only zoo in the world to exhibit these nocturnal animals in a darkened setting. The facility won a Significant Achievement Award from the AZA.

In 1984, Los Angeles hosted the Olympics and the Zoo became a temporary home for two giant pandas. The China Pavilion that was built specifically to house these endangered bears was later modified to house rare golden monkeys, and still later, snow leopards. Today, it is a powerful animal holding facility that provides a place for animals--most recently our mandrill--to live safely while their exhibits are being refurbished.

A $3 million challenge grant from the Weingart Foundation provided a major source of funding for Adventure Island. This new children's zoo housed bats and skunks in darkened exhibits, sea lions in a pool with a waterfall, and prairie dogs in an exhibit that children could see from prairie dog level. Included with Adventure Island was a nursery with incubators and other equipment to provide special care for young animals.

After a generous donation from Alice C. Tyler in 1988, a new exhibit was built to house meerkats for the first time at the Los Angeles Zoo. Later, artists from Watt Disney Studios would sketch those meerkats and the Zoo's warthogs and lions to help create the animated characters in "The Lion King."

The 1990's saw an increase in educational programs at the Zoo: Wild About Science, Dreams Come True at the L.A. Zoo, Zoo Discovery Kits, and Critters 'n' Kids all helped children better experience the wonders of the Zoo. A five-year grant from the ARCO Foundation funded ZooReach, a program that brings children from low-income neighborhoods to the Zoo, and helps them return with their families. Zoo Discovery Kits helped teachers teach their students about the Zoo, and provide curriculum for follow-up lessons. The program received a Significant Achievement Award from the AZA.

Meanwhile, new signs appeared at the tiger and elephant exhibits. People could compare the size of an elephant's foot to their own, or the size of a tiger's paw to their pet cat's.

New graphics in the play park explained Zoo life to children. A gift from the Ray Rowe Trust for Animals paid for 81 new exhibit graphics in the Reptile House.

With a major gift from Nestle USA, the World of Birds Show began in a wonderful new theater. Keepers continue to improve the show, which features many different animals-including some that fly in from a hillside behind the theater.

After research from scientists such as Jane Goodall showed that the psychological welfare of animals was an important component of their physical welfare, the Zoo created what has become one of the largest volunteer behavioral enrichment programs in the country. B.E. volunteers work with keepers to find ways to promote natural behaviors in animals: Chimpanzees dig food out of logs with twigs. Tigers track scents of rabbits around their exhibits. Sea lions play with giant, indestructible plastic "ice cubes." In 1993, a gift from Purina paid for the refurbishment of the tiger exhibit and the addition of a waterfall. A $1.3 million elephant barn was built in 1994 with private donations and concessions revenue. The new barn better met the needs of the animals and provided new and improved ways for keepers to care for them.

The Zoo's future projects include a state-of-the-art reptile house and a multi-level Central and South American rain forest exhibit, Rain Forest of the Americas

Source: Los Angeles Zoo