Brookfield Zoo

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Coordinates: 41°49′58″N 87°50′01″W / 41.832671, -87.833462

Brookfield Zoo
Brookfield Zoo's Roosevelt Fountain, with Ibex Island in the background
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)
Accreditations/
Memberships		 AZA
Website

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
Brookfield Zoo's North Gate

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. 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.

Another current resident of the zoo as of 2007 is Cookie, a Major Mitchell's Cockatoo who has been part of the zoo's collection since the opening in 1934, making him at least 72 years old. Cookie was already an adult when the zoo opened, so he may well be older than 72.

Brookfield Zoo also had the first in captivity birth of the Okapi in the World.

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 had seasonal exhibits from Living Exhibits Incorporated.

Year Exhibit Name Animals
2007 Stingray Bay! Cownose Rays, Southern Stingrays,
2008 Sharks! at Stingray Bay! Cownose Rays, Southern Stingrays, Whitespotted Bamboo Shark, Nurse Shark

[edit] References

  1. ^ Brookfield Zoo (Chicago Zoological Park)
  2. ^ Brookfield Zoo - Britannica Online Encyclopedia

[edit] External links

[edit] See also

v • d • e
Zoos of Illinois
Aquaria
Zoos
v • d • e
Zoos, aquaria and aviaries