Tuesday, April 3, 2012

Vintage Bronx Zoo



The caption on the back of this card from 1948 say's "The New York Zoological Society has the largest colony of Giant Galapagos Tortoises in the world at the North Miami Zoo." Was "North Miami Zoo" Crandon Park?

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

I found a reference on the internet to "Tiger" Proske's North Miami Zoo on NE 7th Avenue in 1955-1956, which is currently the site of a high school. Maybe you saw the same thing. Sincerely Paul

Anonymous said...

There's some stuff about a Roman Proske, owner of the North Miami Zoo and of a "tiger farm", which were maybe one in the same. I think he died in 1972 and there's a New York Times obituary which refers to him as a circus performer. There's also a lot of junk about tigers fighting lions in connection with his name. Sincerely Paul

Wade G. Burck said...

Paul,
I am wondering if it was animal dealer Bill Chase's place? He specialized in Herp's.

Wade Burck

Anonymous said...

Wade, I don't know. Roman Proske wrote a book titled "Lions, tigers, and me" which was published in 1956. The high school which now occupies the grounds is the North Miami High School. Crandon Park Zoo had those giant tortoises so maybe they came from North Miami Zoo after it closed. I tried to e-mail you a link to the Crandon Park Zoo "Vintage Brochure" on E-Bay. One of the pictures is of a giant tortoise. I watched Jack Hanna early this morning on safari in Botswana riding horses. They had a short segment on black rhino at Columbus Zoo at the end. Botswana really looks like Southern California. Have you seen the TV commercial with the giraffe in the hotel room? Sincerely Paul

Wade G. Burck said...

Paul,
I have watched all of about 3 hours worth of tv since coming to Mexico, and that was the farce called the Republican primaries. What a bunch of crap our electoral system is, so no I haven't seen the commercial with the giraffe. I have seen some sent to me on youtube of an elephant from LCS in Rockton though, done quite well by Charlie Gray and staff. I forget now what hotel chain it is that is using the elephant.

Wade