All About San Diego Zoo

Founded in 1916, the world famous San Diego Zoo has attracted visitors from far and wide year after year. It has been at the forefront of zoological issues since the beginning. It has great public relations opportunities and very good press coverage, which helps it to create learning opportunities for both children and adults alike. The zoo aims to enforce the importance of zoos for the protection of animals by showing them in their natural environment.

The San Diego Zoo started with the Panama-California International Expedition way back in 1916. Dr. Harry Wegeforth brought animals from all over the world to Balboa Park in San Diego where he wanted to make a permanent zoo. He set up a board of directors consisting of his brother and a standing member of the Natural History Society, and held the first meeting in early October 1916 to discuss the development of the zoo.

San Diego Zoo was finally alloted a place in Balboa Park and began to shift into its new home. Its natural canyons and mesas proved to be of great help in setting up paddocks and cages in natural confines. Two elephants, Empress and Queenie arrived from India three years later and proved a great hit among the visitors of the zoo.

Bus tours were started in the year 1926. These buses were manned by experts and they would provide facts and figures about the animals to the enthusiastic visitors as the bus passed them. These buses also provided an opportunity for the underprivileged children to see the zoo. The zoo continued to flourish until the World War II. World war II forced the Board of Directors of the zoo to start doubting its viability.

After the lull period during the war, the zoo saw more visitors than ever before. In the late 1940s and early 1950s, the zoo’s attendance went up to two million visitors a year! As always, the zoo became the favorite haunt of children in and around the San Diego area who love to come there with school trips or as afternoon treats with parents.

In the 1970s and 1980s when the animal expert and goodwill ambassador Joan Embery made his appearances of the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson the zoo gained immense popularity. More visitors started visiting the zoo after watching these memorable appearances.

Also during this time, the zoo began to make the transition from a place that shows animals to the public to a place that looks out for the welfare and well being of animals all over the world. By implementing breeding programs and installing natural habitats, the zoo began to shift their focus from the visitors to the animals.

Today, the San Diego Zoo is a great place to learn about animals from all corners of the globe. You get to learn some valuable lessons about the state of our planet and the animals that live on it. Of course, it still holds great charm for everyone from eight to eighty.

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Lucille Linhares is the chief editor for F san diego, the web's premier resource for information about san diego. For more articles on san diego visit: www.fsandiego.com/articles
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