Zoo History: Wildlife Conservation Society

New York City has seldom been accused of modesty, and its residents often like to boast that it's the greatest city in the world.  Certainly it has one of the world's great zoos in the Bronx.  The Bronx Zoo, however, was predated by the Central Park Zoo by several decades, which made the Manhattan facility one of the oldest zoos in the country.  In the 1930s, zoos cropped up in Brooklyn's Prospect Park (though a menagerie has existed in Brooklyn since the 1890's), as well as Staten Island.  In 1968, Queens joined the other four boroughs in opening its zoo in the aftermath of the World's Fair.

Since its founding in the late nineteenth century, the Bronx (New York Zoological Society, to give it its proper name) was determined to be something different from the other zoos which were cropping up around the country.  While standards of animal care and housing were far different from what they are today, the zoo had an early focus on conservation, education, and scientific research.  The Central Park Zoo, at the time, was little more than a dirty, cramped menagerie, featuring many of the same large species as the Bronx - gorillas, elephants, lions, hippos - in tiny quarters.  Whereas the Bronx Zoo was built on an enormous campus with lots of room to build, the other boroughs has zoos that tried to cram as much as they could into smaller footprints.

Eventually, the dichotomy between the zoos became too obvious for the public to ignore.  In the 1960s and 70s, the Bronx was increasingly a progressive facility building newer, bigger, and better habitats.  The other boroughs (and especially Central Park) looked increasingly worse in contrast.  Calls arose for the other zoos to be shut down.  How many zoos did New Yorkers need, anyway?

Apparently, all of them - because the zoos of the other boroughs did not shut down.  Instead, they simple came under new management.  

A deal was struck with the city.  The city would help renovate the Central Park, Prospect Park, and Queens Zoos, one by one - and then turn over management of the facilities to the Bronx; Staten Island Zoo remains independent, managed by the Staten Island Zoological Society.  The New York Zoological Society was not only operating the Bronx Zoo, but also the New York Aquarium, so there was precedent for managing more than one campus.  In 1993, the year the Prospect Park Zoo, the last of the three smaller zoos, was came under the umbrella, the New York Zoological Society was rebranded as the Wildlife Conservation Society.

The reopened smaller zoos lack many of the larger animals that they previously housed - changing standards recognized the fact that there was no room for so many big animals in such small spaces.  Instead, they serve as satellite campuses for the flagship Bronx, while still managing to house and display a variety of smaller animals in larger, more natural habitats.  Their shared name under the WCS banner reflects the organization's new priority of promoting the protection and study of endangered species around the globe, with a mission that extends far beyond their gates.

The San Diego Zoo and Safari Park have a similar organizational arrangement, as does the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium with The Wilds.  I would love to see similar cooperative organizations appear between other geographically close zoos.  I feel it could result in more efficient cooperation, better planned collections, and more integrated operations, both in the zoo and in field projects abroad.