What happened to London Zoo animals during the Blitz?
During WW2, many of London Zoo's animals were moved to Whipsnade to escape the Blitz, and the building where Viewpoint Kitchen and Deli stands today was turned into an air raid lookout post.
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Second World War 1939–1945In January 1941 the Camel House was also hit, and the aquarium could not open until May 1943 due to extensive bombing. No animals were harmed during the incidents, although a zebra, a female ass, and her foal escaped from the zoo during the bombings.
A number of German and Japanese zoos were either bombed into near oblivion or suffered such severe shortages—of food, supplies, medicine, and replacement animals—that they entered the postwar period as mere skeletons of their prewar selves.
During the Great Depression, the zoo fell on hard times. Most of the collection was given away to other zoos. The buffalo and deer were butchered to help feed the poor. Only a few aging animals remained.
Only in very special circumstances do zoos obtain animals from the wild, which is illegal in many nations. Thus, zoos are not in the practice of actively capturing animals in the wild from their natural habitats.
Four African long-tailed shrikes escaped from an aviary at the Minnesota Zoo last summer when a worker inadvertently left open a door to the enclosure. The previous year the zoo lost a Eurasian eagle owl that escaped its enclosure. It was later found dead along a roadside.
L ondon Zoo's three elephants, involved in the recent crushing to death of a keeper, are leaving the capital, ending a 170-year presence at the Regent's Park site.
In a comically unfortunate series of events, five African lions recently escaped their enclosures at Sydney's Taronga Zoo during an overnight guest program.
There are dedicated species survival programs which have helped species come out from the brink of extinction, good examples of that being the black-footed ferrets, the red wolves, the Przewalski's wild horse, and the California condors.
Even a lifetime in the most humane zoo will have left animals too affected by years of sheltered existence. Captive animals seldom learn crucial survival skills and often are too habituated to human contact. Lacking a natural fear of humans, they are vulnerable to poachers and ill equipped for life in the wild.
Most animals confined in zoos are not endangered, nor are they being prepared for release into natural habitats. In fact, it is nearly impossible to release captive-bred animals, including threatened species like elephants, polar bears, gorillas, tigers and chimpanzees into the wild.
Opened in 1828 by ZSL (Zoological Society of London) London Zoo is the world's oldest scientific zoo and the brainchild of Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles, who was also renowned for founding Singapore.