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Dates: Tuesday, May 27th OR Thursday, May 29th
Location: San Diego Zoo
Walking: Walking/viewing animals
It all started with a roar
It all started with a roar
Legend has it that the San Diego Zoo began with a roar, much like the one you just heard, not long after the Panama-California Exposition in 1915. As with most of the amazing features of Balboa Park, and indeed Balboa Park itself, the Zoo was the realization of the vision and drive of a number of forward-thinking philanthropists and architects of early San Diego. As the story goes, Dr. Harry M. Wegeforth was returning from a surgery when he and his brother heard the lions roaring from their cages, still nestled in the heart of Balboa Park after the Exposition’s close. He turned to his brother and said “Wouldn’t it be splendid if San Diego had a zoo! You know… I think I’ll start one.” Though this tiny spark would one day become a zoo and botanical famed throughout the world for its collections and ecological work, the road to such fame was anything but smooth.
While starting a zoo sounds like a wonderful gift for the city and the animals, it certainly takes a significant amount of work, and not to mention animals! Part of the reason animals were languishing in Balboa Park after the Exposition was that many of them had been on loan from Wonderland Park, an amusement park in Ocean Beach that had opened in 1913. The Park had featured 28 cages for different animal species, including the now-infamous lion, bears (no tigers, sadly), leopards, wolves, and 56 varieties of monkeys.
When the Exposition opened, Wonderland Park loaned the animals out for $40 a day. Somewhat ironically for Wonderland Park, the Expositions attendance hurt Wonderland Park’s attendance, only in its second season. Coupled with a run of bad weather and punishing ocean waves, Wonderland Park closed its doors in 1915, leaving their loaned animals with the Exposition until its conclusion. Those animals became storied foundation of the zoo we know today.
the zoo began with a roar - and paperwork
the zoo began with a roar - and paperwork
Even before the Panama-California Exposition officially came to a close, Dr. Wegeforth became the president of the newly formed San Diego Zoological Society in November of 1916. But even as the Society formed, there was no real home for the animals they had, or the animals they planned to acquire. While a number of locations were suggested within Balboa Park, while the Society and the city, the animals remained in their Exposition location, without surrounding fences, meaning anyone could visit them, free of charge. Small signs were added to the cages with bits of information about the animals (still a common zoo practice), and visitors could even watch the animals being fed.
The first official acquisition, aside from the leftover Exposition animals was a female bear named Caesar in 1917. The young bear had been serving on a Navy ship as its mascot, but after she ran through the ship corridors one day, knocking sailors and even the captain down, the sailors realized she might not be the best shipmate as she continued to grow. They helpfully donated her to the brand-new zoo – a zoo so brand new it didn’t even have animal transport trucks. Caesar arrived at the new San Diego zoo in the front seat of the zoo director’s roadster! Caesar would continue to cause a stir at the zoo – as Dr. Harry and the other zoo leaders decided to experiment with open habitats, a trend that had originated in Germany.
In 1921 the first open air grotto, surrounded by a moat instead of a fence, was built for Caesar and the polar bear. The bears moved in and seemed content. The next morning, Dr. Harry went for a drive to inspect Caesar’s new habitat to discover that she had dug a giant hole in the floor of her space overnight. It took a team of men with heavy equipment 3 days to refill the hole that she had dug overnight.
Eventually, the Zoological society agreed that the city of San Diego would own the animals, equipment, and property, while the Zoological Society would control the site. Though a few locations were initially discussed (including the space below the Reuben H. Fleet Science Center where the playground now resides), Cabrillo Canyon was eventually selected. Ellen Browning Scripps provided $9,000 for a fence, so that the new zoo could charge admission to help raise funds for the zoo development and upkeep.
The San Diego Zoo officially opened its doors in 1923. Adults paid 10 cents to enter and children were free. Visitors entered through the reptile house and were treated to the new open-air exhibits and the plants that Dr. Wegeforth had been planting for nearly a decade.
As the zoo responsibilities continued to increase, Ellen Browning Scripps, the first major benefactor, stepped in to serve as a temporary director. We will see an aviary on our tour named after the first director and major donor. In 1924, another lady joined the ranks of zoo administration: Belle Benchley.
After her divorce, Belle found herself in need of employment to support her son. She joined as a bookkeeper and administrator but she devoted herself to learning about the zoo and reporting back to “Dr. Harry”. She brought her lunch every day and spent her lunch break wandering the zoo and observing. By 1927, she had established herself as such an important and reliable zoo figure that Dr. Wegeforth appointed her Manager and Executive Secretary, reportedly telling her to “go ahead and run the place”. He relationship with the animals and concern for their well being made her a zoo legend; she could often detect an animal illness even before the keepers and vets.
This legendary woman is largely responsible for the success of the San Diego Zoo. To learn a little more, click here:
a world famous zoo
a world famous zoo
Over the last 100+ years, the San Diego Zoo has moved from being called “Wegeforth’s Folly” to a multi-park wildlife conservancy that is popularly known as the “World Famous San Diego Zoo”. The San Diego Zoo is rated as the most popular and most visited zoo in the world, welcoming approximately 3.2 million visitors a year. The San Diego Safari Park, the zoo’s northern neighbor, welcomes 1.2 million people a year (it ranks 19th on the list of America’s most visited zoos).
In 2010, the Zoological Society, Dr. Harry Wegeforth’s legacy, rebranded, quite possibly into an entity that he would be stunned to learn has a world-wide reach. The Zoological Society of San Diego became San Diego Zoo Global, while renaming the Wild Animal Park to San Diego Zoo Safari Park and adding San Diego Zoo Institute for Conservation Research.
This rebranding was done, in part, to recognize the extraordinary impact the Zoo has had on worldwide zoo practices and conservation efforts. Many endangered species have made remarkable strides under the care of the San Diego Zoo, including great successes with the Panda and the California Condor.
In 2015, the San Diego Zoo had to say farewell to its oldest/longest-living resident; a Galapagos tortoise named Speed. Speed arrived in San Diego in 1933, already a full-sized adult male, weighing in at 475 pounds. Dubbed “Old Number 5”, he remained at the zoo through its myriad of changes until he passed away, it is thought at the ripe old age of 150+ years. If only that tortoise could talk!
The San Diego Zoo is a 100-acre home to more than 3,500 rare and endangered animals, with more than 650 species and sub species represented. It is also home to more than 700,000 exotic plants, making it a sizeable botanical garden in its own right. As the zoo continues to grow, it seems sure that Dr. Wegeforth would be proud of his legacy and his gift to San Diego and the World. That infamous roar continues to echo across the decades and it is still felt the world over.
works cited
works cited
Sarah Matteson. “The San Diego Zoo After 100 Years”. The Journal of San Diego History. Spring 2016, Vol 62, No. 2. https://sandiegohistory.org/journal/2016/april/san-diego-zoo-100-years/
Jeffrey Stanton. “Wonderland Park – Ocean Beach 1913-1914”. National Amusement Park Historical Association. http://lostamusementparks.napha.org/Articles/California/WonderlandPark-OceanBeach,%20CA.html
Richard. H. Peterson. “The Zoo Lady: Belle Benchley and the San Diego Zoo.” The Journal of San Diego History. Fall 1980, Vol 26, No. 4. https://sandiegohistory.org/journal/1980/october/br-zoo/
San Diego Zoo Global. Zoo History: A Timeline. https://www.sandiegozooglobal.org/timeline/
Heather Eng. “America’s Most Visited Zoos”. Travel and Leisure. https://www.travelandleisure.com/slideshows/americas-most-visited-zoos
“Where is the Largest Zoo?”. Wonderopolis. https://www.wonderopolis.org/wonder/where-is-the-largest-zoo
https://www.sandiegozooglobal.com/timeline
Darlene G. Davies. “Celebrating 100 years of the San Diego Zoo”. http://www.ranchandcoast.com/2016/05/12/celebrating-100-years-of-the-san-diego-zoo/amp/
John. Wilkens. “How San Diego Zoo Evolved Into a Powerhouse”. San Diego Union Tribune. May 9, 2016. https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/zoo/sdut-zoo-timeline-anniversary-san-diego-animals-2016may09-story.html
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