If there is an uglier example of exhibit design then the "monkey islands" of old, I don't know what it would be, except possibly the old bear pits.
Thursday, May 29, 2008
Livingston Park--Jackson, Miss.
Posted by
Wade G. Burck
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4 comments:
This was the first monkey island I ever saw - -that in June 1947.
I visited the Livingston Park Zoo again in November 1949 and the monkey island and its castle were still going strong. This was the first time I ever saw monkeys swimming. I believe they were common rhesus, for sure some species of macaque.
Back then Jackson zoo was pretty good when measured against other small city zoos. They had a large barless enclosure with zebras (breeding) and blackbuck. There was a single Asian elephant and a row of cat cages that included a black leopard.
I was there for the last time on March 6, 1971. I do not recall the monkey island from that visit. However it was a hurried trip and I was being shown around by the director, Bob Wagner. He later became Executive Director of AZA.
Livingston Park zoo bought the last common hippo to travel with RBBB under canvas. His name was August. Purchased by RBBB in 1955 and delivered to the show in Detroit, he was sold to the zoo in 1958 when RBBB was selling off its menagerie animals. He became a fine breeder in Jackson.
Richard,
Real nice to have you here for comments. Your expertize and knowledge will be of real value for "vintage" zoo history.
As you mentioned Bob Wagner, what if any was Lawrence Curtis from Oklahoma City's input into AZA in the early days.
Regards,
Wade
Have seen the feral rhesus monkeys in the Ocala National Forest swim in the Oklawaha River.
Jackson is certainly a nice park these days, active in AZA's red wolf SSP.
Wade, many of these pictures and illustrations of small town parks "once upon a time" tell a story of an era when a zoo was an institution of genuine civic pride. Still get that feeling in the little zoos in places like Garden City, KS, or Scotts Bluff, NE, or in Minot, or Fargo, or Wahpeton, ND...(Wade...How did ND end up with so many zoos?) Charles Goodrum wrote a book about his father's adventures at the Wichita Zoo in the '30's called "I'll Trade You an Elk." I'll bet that a bit of trading went into these various Monkey Islands.
Ben
Ben,
Don't forget Bismark, N.Dak. and Fargo, N.Dak. I don't know if it was so much civic pride, as what do we do with this thing, is how they started. With rare exception, small city zoos started with a bear pit, or pen of deer, in the city park where people gathered to boat or play in the leisure days of summer. Historically these "animal exhibits" were referred to by the name of what ever park they were located in. The animal was captured for what ever reason, as it was indigenous to the area, and displayed. In India, tiger pits were the norm. Also I think people take great liberties with the geriatric word zoo, even today, which explains the newer names like Zoological Park, Institution, Conservation Center, Museum,etc. My little home town of Hillsboro, N. Dak. stared a "zoo" in the city park 22 years ago, when the grounds manager found a fawn, and bottle raised it. He constructed a chain link fence and built a shelter for it. Over the years, he added more orphaned fawns, and the "zoo" now numbers 12 inhabitants. Each time I go home to visit, I am required to go to the "zoo", and it is duly recorded in the local newspaper, "that I was spotted last week, enjoying the Goose River Zoo." There is a well know circus family from England, that uses "their ownership of a zoo years ago, as qualifications for animal knowledge." That sounds impressive to the reporters, because the don't know that the "zoo" was beast wagons set up on blocks at the winter quarters. They became Directors, and an admission was charged to the locals to look at the animals. End of the winter, wheels went back on, and they had a circus, and they became animal trainers. LOL
And look at what distance "zoos" have come from the bear pits.
Wade
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