In its early days, the Bronx Zoo received many animals as donations. In 1914, the Bronx Zoo received an animal gift that stands out today as it was from a former President of the United States. On March 26th, the zoo became home to Teddy, a Brazilian giant tortoise, and the gift of Theodore Roosevelt.
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In this week’s Throwback Thursday on WCS’s photo blog Wild View we look back at the 1948 opening of Jackson Hole Wildlife Park in Wyoming, which WCS played an active role in developing. Research done by field scientists at Jackson Hole helped with the management of future wildlife Parks, like Grand Teton, of which JHWP would later become part of.
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The Wildlife Conservation Society has a collection of approximately 54,000 historical photographic negatives that date back to the opening of the Bronx Zoo in 1899. In order to preserve the integrity of these negatives and enhance access to their historic imagery, the WCS Archives has undertaken an enormous negative re-housing and evaluation project, which began in 2016. The bulk of the collection features photographs of the various inhabitants of the zoo but also documents other aspects of WCS’s history, including images of the New York Aquarium and of early field expeditions. The chronological assessment of these negatives has illuminated important milestones in the Bronx Zoo’s history and evolution to the zoological park it has become today. One such milestone occurred in 1961 in the Small Mammal House.
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Over on WCS’s photo blog Wild View, we highlight how sea lions have been part of the Bronx Zoo since the Wildlife Conservation Society opened the park in 1899, and sea lions are part of all five zoos and the aquarium that WCS operates.
Over on WCS’s photo blog Wild View, check out a post by Julie Larsen Maher on WCS’s first staff photographer, who deemed photography “an exact and exacting science.” To celebrate the 125th anniversary of WCS, Wild View will be running special Throwback Thursdays regularly in 2020. #wcs125 #WCSWildView #tbt #bison #zoohistory #historyofphotography
In 1969 WCS established the Whale Fund. Under the direction of Roger Payne, the Whale Fund provided resources for the study and conservation of endangered whales.
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We are celebrating the 90th Anniversary of the WCS Department of Education! In this photo, the first Curator of Education, Claude Leister, lectures school children in 1931. Today, the Education Department works to inspire a diverse, inclusive movement of conservation advocates through their programs and activities across the five WCS parks.
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Happy World Snow Leopard Day! This poster was used by WCS and partner organizations in the 1970s to foster snow leopard preservation in Pakistan. The text translated from Urdu says “Snow Cheetah, This beautiful animal is protected by law but it cannot survive without your help and cooperation. Let it remain alive. It is a precious treasure of Pakistan.”
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A visitor at the @nyaquarium listens to an audio recording that describes the exhibits as she explores. June 12, 1957.
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A frog sits perched on the branch of a plant in Venezuela. This frog was observed by WCS’s Department of Tropical Research, who spent time studying wildlife in Venezuela in the 1920s and 1940s.
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