History of Zoos
History of Zoos Worldwide Speech
A zoo (short for zoological park or zoological garden, and is also similar to a menagerie) is an establishment that maintains a collection of wild animals, typically in a park or gardens, for study, conservation, or display to the public. The predecessor of the zoological garden is the menagerie, which has a long history from the ancient world to modern times. In ancient times having a collection of animals meant you were wealthy and very powerful because it showed you ruled vast amounts of territory. Soon after this desire to acquire animals to show your wealth and power menageries began spawning in Asia, Africa, and Europe. In Africa the oldest known zoological collection was revealed during excavations at Hierakonpolis, Egypt in 2009, of an approximately 3500 B.C. menagerie. The exotic animals included hippos, hartebeest, elephants, baboons and wildcats. In the year 1500 B.C Queen Hatshepsut kept a small zoo which included baboons, giraffes, leopards, monkeys and domesticated animals such as dogs and cattle. The idea of menageries soon spread to Asia and the first zoological gardens is built in 1000 B.C. by the Chinese emperor Wen Wang. The Gardens were called Ling-Yu which meant Garden of Intelligence and it consisted of 1,500 acres with antelope, deer, white birds and many fish. At about this same time in the Near East, King Solomon’s menagerie in Jerusalem included deer, apes, horses, and peacocks and the kings of Babylonia kept rhinos, monkeys, camels and antelopes. Soon after in Europe the Greeks started collecting animals around 700 B.C. and, within 300 hundred years, most Greek city states had zoo. Most of them contained birds housed in sophisticated aviaries. Alexander the Great was known to have sent animals that he found on his military expeditions back to Greece. These animals were soon placed in a zoo in Alexandria run by one of his generals, Ptolemy I, and consisted of large African animals such as Rhinos,
A zoo (short for zoological park or zoological garden, and is also similar to a menagerie) is an establishment that maintains a collection of wild animals, typically in a park or gardens, for study, conservation, or display to the public. The predecessor of the zoological garden is the menagerie, which has a long history from the ancient world to modern times. In ancient times having a collection of animals meant you were wealthy and very powerful because it showed you ruled vast amounts of territory. Soon after this desire to acquire animals to show your wealth and power menageries began spawning in Asia, Africa, and Europe. In Africa the oldest known zoological collection was revealed during excavations at Hierakonpolis, Egypt in 2009, of an approximately 3500 B.C. menagerie. The exotic animals included hippos, hartebeest, elephants, baboons and wildcats. In the year 1500 B.C Queen Hatshepsut kept a small zoo which included baboons, giraffes, leopards, monkeys and domesticated animals such as dogs and cattle. The idea of menageries soon spread to Asia and the first zoological gardens is built in 1000 B.C. by the Chinese emperor Wen Wang. The Gardens were called Ling-Yu which meant Garden of Intelligence and it consisted of 1,500 acres with antelope, deer, white birds and many fish. At about this same time in the Near East, King Solomon’s menagerie in Jerusalem included deer, apes, horses, and peacocks and the kings of Babylonia kept rhinos, monkeys, camels and antelopes. Soon after in Europe the Greeks started collecting animals around 700 B.C. and, within 300 hundred years, most Greek city states had zoo. Most of them contained birds housed in sophisticated aviaries. Alexander the Great was known to have sent animals that he found on his military expeditions back to Greece. These animals were soon placed in a zoo in Alexandria run by one of his generals, Ptolemy I, and consisted of large African animals such as Rhinos,