LONDON ZOO CENTENARY

Evening Star, Issue 19320, 5 August 1926, Page 1

LONDON ZOO CENTENARY

STARTED WITH TWO BIRDS. LONDON, June 19. Although the annual meeting of the Zoological Society this year was only the ninety-seventh, the fact remains that on that day the Jxuidon Zoo had been in existence exactly 100 years. _ Centenary celebrations, however, will not take place until 1929, as, although the society started in 1826, it was not till 1829 that a Royal charter was granted. There are more than 3,000 animals in the Zoo to-day; 100 years ago a start was made with a griffin vulture and a white-headed eagle, with an Indian deer to follow. Joshua Brookes, a famous anatomist, presented the vulture, which for nearly forty years was known as Dr Brookes. The Zoo at first was more of a living museum than anything else. There were offices at Bruton street, and some of the animals were kept there. It was two years after the inception of the society that the gardens were opened at Regent’s Park; Fellows did not welcome the outside public in those days, and it was not until Whitsuntide, 1847, that public admission hy payment was introduced. The first year’s income of the society was £4,000; last year, according to the animal report, it was £120,000. When the gardens were thrown open to the public the attendance for the vear was 13,094; last year it was 1,823,613. This attendance is not, however, n. record. That was achieved in 1924, when 2,057,156 visitors passed the turnstiles. ■

The quantities of food officially consumed in the Zoo are enormous. There is no computation of flic tonnage of buns, bananas, turnips, potat<>eK, treacle, fish, fowls’ beads, rabbits’ Jogs, and other tit-bits daily thrown to the inmates by the public. The report records among a mass of miscellaneous foods given at regular meals the following Hay, 157 ions; clover, 108 tons; oats, 860 quarters; rolled oats, 6081 b; horses, 441 (or approximately 220stons) ; goats, 135 ; plaice, 1 ton 2ewt; herrings and whiling, 41 ions 6cwt; shrimps, 1,825 pints.