Bristol Zoo opens up it's archives

Treasures unveiled from Bristol Zoo's archives – 19/01/11 ...

The fifth oldest zoo in the world has unveiled previously unseen artefacts and old footage as it marks its 175th anniversary.

Bristol Zoo Gardens first opened its doors in July 1836 and since then has welcomed six generations of visitors, helped to save more than 175 species from extinction and has given more than 90 million visitors a great day out.

The zoo's archive room has been opened up to the media to reveal photographs, signs, records and film that has not been seen in decades.

Don Packham, 78, who worked at the zoo for 50 years before retiring as head keeper in 1998, described the pleasure working with animals had brought him.

"It was a great privilege to work with many of the animals we had here, the rhinos, the polar bears, the elephants," he said.

"Being part of that, only a very small cog in the wheel if you like, but being part of it was a wonderful privilege."

Among the zoo's more famous animals were Roger, a rare black rhino the first ever born in the UK in 1958, and Alfred the gorilla, who lived at the zoo from 1930 to 1948 and at the time was the only gorilla in captivity in the country.

But many people remember Bristol Zoo's elephants - Zebi the Asian elephant, who arrived in 1868 and became known for removing and eating straw hats, and Rosie who gave rides to children in the 1940s and 50s.

During the 1960s elephants Wendy and Christina were known for being taken for walks to Whiteladies Road.

"We first of all started walking them around the zoo until they became lead trained, they weren't on a lead, but we used to put a collar around their neck so we could hold on to them if we needed to," Mr Packham said.

"Once we did that we started going further afield and we took them around Clifton, usually on a fairly regulated walk, the same each day.

"This was good for the public as they knew where they were going to be at roughly the right time so they would come out of their houses to offer them some food of some kind.

"This went on for a very long time, I forget exactly how long, but I do remember the occasion that they stopped it.

"We were walking down one of the roads off Pembroke Road, which is the main road leading down from the zoo, and a little Pekingese dog came running out of a house and yapping as these dogs do, and this dog frightened Wendy, the elephant, and she bolted.

"She ran down to the end of the road and straight across the main road.

"By pure good fortune there was nothing coming, no-one on the pavement, no cyclists or motorbikes or anything like that and she got across to the other side perfectly safely.

"We were able to get her back again and bring her back to the zoo, but after that we decided it was too risky to continue.

"The walks were contained within the zoo after that and they were still taken out several times a day and they enjoyed that just as much."