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Brookfield Zoo Chicago

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Brookfield Zoo Chicago
Brookfield Zoo's Roosevelt Fountain, with Ibex Island in the background
Map
Date openedJuly 1, 1934
LocationBrookfield, Illinois, USA
Land area216 acres (0.87 km²)
MembershipsAZA
Websitehttp://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's North Gate Photo by Derek Taylor

Brookfield Zoo opened on July 1, 1934 and quickly gained international recognition for using moats and ditches, instead of cages, to separate animals from visitors. 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.

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 1973 amid much fanfare. Unfortunately, the elephant fell into his exhibit's moat in March 1975 and died seven months later.

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.

  • Ibex Island
    Ibex Island
  • Ibex
    Ibex
  • Habitat Africa - Giraffe Enclosure
    Habitat Africa - Giraffe Enclosure
  • Giraffe Overlook 1
    Giraffe Overlook 1
  • Giraffe Overlook 2
    Giraffe Overlook 2
  • Swamp - American Alligator
    Swamp - American Alligator
  • Bird House - Greenwing Macaw
    Bird House - Greenwing Macaw
  • Tropic World - Africa
    Tropic World - Africa
  • Tropic World - Africa, Gorilla Enclosure
    Tropic World - Africa, Gorilla Enclosure
  • Seven Seas Dolphinarium
    Seven Seas Dolphinarium
  • The Living Coast
    The Living Coast
  • Pachyderm House - Pygmy Hippopotamus
    Pachyderm House - Pygmy Hippopotamus
  • Aardvark House - Aardvark
    Aardvark House - Aardvark

Partial list of Animals

A - J

A

B

C

D

E

G

H

I

K - T

K

L

M

N

O

P

R

S

T

V

W - Z

W

See also

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