| 10th | Top dolphinariums |
Coordinates: 41°49′58″N 87°50′00″W / 41.832671°N 87.833462°W
 Brookfield Zoo's Roosevelt Fountain, with Ibex Island in the background |
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| 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[3]) 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.
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.
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In 1919, Edith Rockefeller McCormick donated land she had received from her father as a wedding gift to the Cook County Forest Preserve District for development as a zoological garden. The district added 98 acres to that plot and in 1921, the Chicago Zoological Society was established. Serious construction did not begin until 1926, after a zoo tax was approved. Construction slowed during the Great Depression, but regained momentum by late 1931. Construction went on at an increased pace[4] and the zoo opened on July 1, 1934.[5] By the end of September 1934, over one million people had visited the new zoo[6]; the four millionth visitor was just two years later.[7]
The 1950s saw the addition of a veterinary hospital[8], a children's zoo[9], and the famous central fountain[10] The zoo went through a decline in the 1960s until a large bond issue from the Forest Preserve District, close attention to zoo governance and visitor services saw the zoo recreate itself as one of the nation's best. Tropic World, the then-largest indoor zoo exhibit in the world, was designed by French architect Pierre Venoa and opened in phases during the 1980s.[11]
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 ecosystems 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.
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.[12]
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.[13] 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.[14] 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 permanently off-exhibit. A much younger current resident is Esmerelda, the only black spider monkey in North America.
Brookfield Zoo lost four of its well-known residents in 2009, Alpha, a female Western lowland gorilla who was 47 years of age, Affie, a female African Bush Elephant who was 40 years of age[15], Carver, the oldest southern hairy nosed wombat on record, and Christy, a 29 year old African Forest Elephant. Out of an expressed fear of protest activities from animal rights activist groups, the zoo has indefinitely closed the Pachyderm house where the elephants were exhibited.
Since 2007, Brookfield Zoo has offered seasonal exhibits available from late April through September/October.
Grace Olive Wiley briefly worked as a reptile curator at the zoo in 1935.[16]
Brookfield has had exceptional success in breeding the sitatunga, a type of antelope; it also bred the world’s first captive-born black rhinoceros (1941)[17] and gray-headed kingfisher (1980), the first okapi born in the United States (1959)[18], and the first wombat born outside Australia (1975).
 Ibex Island-Demolished |
 Ibex |
 Habitat Africa - Giraffe Enclosure |
 Giraffe Overlook 1 |
 Giraffe Overlook 2 |
 Swamp - American Alligator |
 Perching Bird House - Greenwing Macaw-Paco |
 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 |
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The Brookfield Zoo is a large zoo near Chicago, Illinois. The zoo is about 216 acres (874,124 m²), and has around 450 species of animals.
Coordinates: 41°49′58″N 87°50′00″W / 41.832671°N 87.833462°W
   | Brookfield Zoo web site - Chicago Zoological Society - Zoo Home |
| | Ziggy, An Elephant With Issues - Ziggy the elephant. Roadside Pet Cemetery |
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