Zoo History: The Three Zoos of Jean Delacour

In the early days of the War in Ukraine, one of the most compelling stories in the media was the plight of the Kyiv Zoo.  A zoo is a difficult facility to manage in the best of times, and in times of warfare, especially of invasion, it can become almost impossible.  Jean Theodore Delacour would certainly agree.

Bon in France in 1890, Delacour was one of the world's leading ornithologists, with a career spanning almost a century.  Young Delacour was from a wealthy family with extensive landholdings and enjoyed trekking through the woods and orchards in search of birds.  Over the course of his life, he actively explored the world searching for rare birds, traveling through Latin America, Southeast Asia, and Africa, and describing several species.  (One of the most beautiful of his discoveries, alas, was later determined not to be a genuine species, but a hybrid between the silver pheasant and the Vietnam pheasant).  He collected many of these birds and brought them to Picardy, where he used his inheritance from his father to establish a private zoo, heavily focused on birds.  By 1916, his aviaries boasted over 1300 birds of more than 340 species, a variety that would dazzle many modern zoo curators.

The rise of his zoo, unfortunately, also coincided with the Great War.  While away fighting in the French Army, the estate - and the zoo - was completely destroyed.  The horrors of the War left Delacour jaded, vowing never to have his own family so that he wouldn't be affected by such terrible losses.  He left France for England, but eventually returned to France.  He purchased the Chateau de Cleres in Normandy and began to rebuild his zoo.  Within years, it was quickly growing and had such a worldwide reputation that the 9th International Ornithological Congress was held there in 1938.  Delacour went traveling around the world to study and collect birds.

Then, war broke out again.  Again, the zoo was a casualty of war, completely destroyed in 1940 by German bombers.  Once again, Delacour (now too old for combat) fled, this time to America.  By the end of the year, he was in New York, working at the Bronx Zoo and the American Museum of Natural History.  He continued his scientific work in America after the war, later crossing the country to take on the directorship of the natural history museum in Los Angeles.  He immortalized his knowledge of bird life in several highly regarded books, as well as detailing his own personal story in his memoirs.

Once again, however, after peace had been established the pull of the homeland - and zoo-building - proved strong.  Delacour split his time between America and France, working with other conservationists to rebuild his zoo (again at Cleres), assisted by Frank Fooks, his zoo manager before World War II.  Delacour died in 1985 in Los Angeles, with the satisfaction that the third iteration of his zoo (built around the 14th century chateau) was still going strong.  It has, in fact, more birds now than its predecessor did when it was destroyed in World War I, and is still famed for its bird collection.

The third time proved to be the charm.