Memphis Zoo--Giant Panda Exhibit Interior

Obviously the exhibit was inspired by Elvis Presley's bedroom, complete with 3 inch shag carpeting. Assisting as part of the creative team was Jimmy Yee, manager of the Golden Dragon Buffet and Take Out.

Memphis Zoo--Giant Panda Exhibit

Who else besides a zoological doctorate would pay a fortune for realism, so that they can "enrich" it with Tupperware and Walmart?

Memphis Zoo--Primate Canyon

Memphis Zoo--Yesterday and today.

1901 above, and 2001 below

Memphis Zoo--Yesterday and today.

Entrance above in 1951, and below, obviously inspired by Berlin and Antwerp, today.

Memphis Zoo--Yesterday and today.

Old Carnivora Building above and the new Carnivora Building below

Vintage Memphis Zoo--Not Overton Park's proudest moment.

Vintage Memphis Zoo

You should be able to double click, for a better look.

Vintage Memphis Zoo

Vintage Memphis Zoo

J. C. Levy and a Memphis Zoo elephant, year unknown. Note the "bracelet" on the left front.

Vintage Memphis Zoo

Frank's Green Beetle Tavern matchbook, on left, advertising the Memphis Zoo, year unknown.

Vintage Memphis Zoo

Poster stamp, second row second from the left advertising the Memphis Zoo, year unknown.

Vintage Memphis Zoo

Statue commemorating Volney the MGM lion who lived at Memphis Zoo.

Vintage Memphis Zoo

Memphis Zoo

The Carnivora Building, built in 1909, is now the Cat House Cafe.

A marker where Natch the bear was chained in 1906. The old elephant building behind, built in 1910, is now the zoo's education library.

Leipzig Zoo

Feline house, built in 1901 now used as an art museum.

Ghost Exhibits--Original Hoof Stock Area--Maryland Zoo, Baltimore, Maryland.

Ghost Exhibits--Original Hoof Stock Area--Maryland Zoo, Baltimore, Maryland.

Oradea Zoo

This is about the only thing worth saving at the Oradea Zoo. Try as I might, I can't find any information about this building. Was it an animal building/house, or was it a St. Francis of Assisi patron saint of animals and ecology church? Any thoughts from folks in Europe?

There is good and bad in everything in the world

Oradea Zoo's "Old MacDonalds Farm and Petting Zoo."

There is good and bad in everything in the world

Oradea Zoo's "Birds of the Amazon" flight cages.

There is good and bad in everything in the world

Oradea Zoo's "Okavango Trek". Note the high tech security system installed on the exhibit above.

There is good and bad in everything in the world

Oradea Zoo's highly endangered Seal Point Persians, featured in the Small Feline Habitat.

There is good and bad in everything in the world

Oradea Zoo's "Yukon Wilderness" exhibit

There is good and bad in everything in the world

Oradea Zoo's "Canine Habitats"

There is good and bad in everything in the world

There is good and bad in everything in the world

This wolf looks strangely hybrid?



This is the Oradea Zoo, in Oradea Romania, the "nasty piece of business" I mentioned yesterday, which houses the cremiline buffalo. A Romanian travel guide describes it as "depressing an advertisement for a zoo as you could possibly imagine." This is their wolf exhibit.