Brookfield Zoo

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Coordinates: 41°49′58″N 87°50′00″W / 41.832671°N 87.833462°W / 41.832671; -87.833462

Brookfield Zoo
BrookfieldZoo.jpg
Brookfield Zoo's Roosevelt Fountain, with Ibex Island in the background
Date opened July 1, 1934
Location Brookfield, Illinois, USA
Land area 216 acres (0.87 km²)
Number of animals 2300
Number of species 450
Memberships AZA
Website http://www.brookfieldzoo.org

The Brookfield Zoo is a zoo located in the Chicago suburb of Brookfield, Illinois. The zoo covers an area of 216 acres (874,124 m²) and houses around 450 species of animals. Brookfield Zoo, also known as Chicago Zoological Park,[1][2] opened on July 1, 1934 and quickly gained international recognition for using moats and ditches, instead of cages, to separate animals from visitors and from other animals. The zoo was also the first in America to exhibit giant pandas, one of which (Su-Lin) has been taxidermied and put on display in Chicago's Field Museum of Natural History. In 1960, Brookfield Zoo built the nation's first fully-indoor dolphin exhibit, and in the 1980s the zoo introduced Tropic World, the first fully-indoor rain forest simulation and the then-largest indoor zoo exhibit in the world.

Perhaps the most famous resident of Brookfield Zoo was Ziggy, a 6.5 ton bull elephant that was kept in an indoor enclosure for nearly thirty years after it attacked its trainer in 1941. During the 1960s and 1970s, Ziggy attained a cult following in the Chicago area, and the elephant was finally released in 1970 amid much fanfare. Unfortunately, the elephant fell into his exhibit's moat in March 1975 and died seven months later.

1938 WPA poster

Another well-known Brookfield zoo animal was Olga the Atlantic walrus. She was a favorite of thousands of visitors between 1962 and 1988, entertaining them with her antics. She is remembered by a large bronze statue in the current sea mammal exhibit.

One of the zoo's most well-known current residents is Binti Jua, a female Western lowland gorilla. On August 16, 1996, a young boy fell into the gorilla exhibit of Tropic World, and Binti Jua carefully cradled the boy and brought him to her trainers. The incident received international attention, inspiring a lively debate as to whether Binti Jua's actions were the result of the training she received from her keepers (who had taught her to bring her own baby, Koola, to zoo curators for inspection) or some instinctive sense of animal altruism.

Another current resident of the zoo is Cookie, a Major Mitchell's Cockatoo who has been part of the zoo's collection since the opening in 1934. He was given to Brookfield Zoo when he was one year old. He is now permanately off-exhibit. Brookfield Zoo also had the first captivitive birth of an okapi in the world.

Brookfield Zoo's North Gate

In the past decade, the zoo has undergone significant capital upgrades, constructing the Regenstein Wolf Woods, the Hamill Family Play Zoo, butterfly tent, sheltered group catering pavilions, and the largest non-restored, hand-carved, wooden carousel in the United States. Great Bear Wilderness, a new, sprawling habitat, is scheduled to open in 2010. The interiors of several existing buildings were reconfigured into immersion exhibits, based upon eco-systems rather than by clades; these include The Swamp, the Fragile Rain Forest, Fragile Desert (the Sahara desert of North Africa) the Living Coast (the shores of Chile and Peru), the African Savanna, and Australia House.

Brookfield Zoo recently lost Affie, a female African Bush Elephant, who was 40 years of age. She was the sixth oldest African elephant in an accredited North American zoo at the time of her passing.[3] Affie Elephant is replaced with Joyce, a 26 year old elephant. She was received from an AZA accredited facility in California.

On October 1, 2009, Brookfield Zoo lost a very famous resident. Carver, the oldest southern hairy nosed wombat on record, even in the wild outback, died. Carver sired nine offspring, seven of which have been to the three other AZA accreditted zoos that house hairy-nosed wombats. His other two offspring are currently on exhibit in the larger part of the outback part of the Australia House. Carver's part will be turned into a monument.

On December 22, 2009, Brookfield Zoo euthanized Christy African Forest Elephant due to renal (kidney) failure. Her left kidney was normal, roughly the size of a watermelon. Her right kidney, however, was the size of a flattened softball. Christy lived 29 years.


The Brookfield Zoo is owned by the Cook County Forest Preserve District and managed by the Chicago Zoological Society. The Society sponsors numerous research and conservation efforts globally.

Contents

[edit] Gallery

Ibex Island

Ibex

Habitat Africa - Giraffe Enclosure

Giraffe Overlook 1

Giraffe Overlook 2

Swamp - American Alligator

Bird House - Greenwing Macaw

Tropic World - Africa

Tropic World - Africa, Gorilla Enclosure

Seven Seas Dolphinarium

The Living Coast

Pachyderm House - Pygmy Hippopotamus

Aardvark House - Aardvark

Major Mitchell's Cockatoo - Cookie

[edit] Partial list of Animals

[edit] A — J

A

B

C

D

E

G

H

I

[edit] K — T

K

L

M

N

O

P

R

S

T

V

[edit] W — Z

W

[edit] Seasonal Exhibits

Since 2007, Brookfield Zoo has offered seasonal exhibits available from late April through September/October.

Year Exhibit Name Animals
2007 Stingray Bay! Cownose Ray & Southern Stingray
2008 Sharks! at Stingray Bay! Cownose Ray, Southern Stingray, Whitespotted Bamboo Shark, Nurse Shark, & Horseshoe Crab
2009 Dinosaurs ALIVE! 18 animatronic dinosaurs, including: Stegosaurus, Triceratop, Pteranodon, Tyrannosaurus Rex, etc.

[edit] References

  1. ^ Brookfield Zoo (Chicago Zoological Park)
  2. ^ Brookfield Zoo - Britannica Online Encyclopedia
  3. ^ Template:Citation \

[edit] External links

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[edit] See also

v • d • e
Zoos of Illinois
Aquaria
Zoos
v • d • e
Zoos, aquaria, and aviaries
Types of zoos
Conservation
Lists
Animals
Other topics
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