San Francisco Zoo

San Francisco Zoo

African Savannah
Coordinates	37°43′59″N 122°30′11″W / 37.73306°N 122.50306°W / 37.73306; -122.50306Coordinates: 37°43′59″N 122°30′11″W / 37.73306°N 122.50306°W / 37.73306; -122.50306
No. of animals	1000+ (2015)[1]
No. of species	250+ (2015)[1]
Memberships	AZA[2]
Major exhibits	African Savanna, Gorilla Preserve, Grizzly Gulch, Primate Discovery Center (Lemur Forest), Cat Kingdom, Penguin Island, Red Panda Treehouse, Insect Zoo
Public transit access	46th Ave. and Wawona
Website	www.sfzoo.org

The San Francisco Zoo is a 100-acre (40 ha) zoo located in the southwestern corner of San Francisco, California, between Lake Merced and the Pacific Ocean along the Great Highway. As of 2016, the zoo housed more than one thousand individual animals, representing more than 250 species. It is noted as the birthplace of Koko the gorilla, and, since 1974, the home of Elly, the oldest black rhinoceros in North America.^[3]

The zoo's main entrance (one located on the north side across Sloat Boulevard and one block south of the Muni Metro L Taraval line) is to the west, on the ocean side.

History[]

Originally named the Fleishhacker Zoo^[4] after its founder, banker and San Francisco Parks Commission president Herbert Fleishhacker, planning for construction began in 1929 on the site adjacent to what was once the largest swimming pool in the United States, the Fleishhacker Pool.^[1] The area was also already home to a children’s playground, an original (circa 1921) /Marcus Illions carousel, and the Mother’s Building, a haven for women and their children. Most of the exhibits were populated with animals transferred from Golden Gate Park, including two zebras, a cape buffalo, five rhesus monkeys, two spider monkeys, and three elephants (Virginia, Marjorie, and Babe).

The first exhibits built in the 1930s cost $3.5 million, which included Monkey Island, Lion House, Elephant House, a small mammal grotto, an aviary, and bear grottos. These spacious, moated enclosures were among the first bar-less exhibits in the country. In 1955, a local San Francisco newspaper purchased Pennie, a baby female Asian elephant, and donated her to the zoo after many children donated their pennies, nickels, and dimes for her purchase.

Over the next forty years, the Zoological Society became a powerful fundraising source for the San Francisco Zoo, just as Fleishhacker had hoped when he envisioned: "…a Zoological Society similar to those established in other large cities. The Zoological Society will aid the Parks Commission in the acquisition of rare animals and in the operation of the zoo."^{[citation needed]} True to its charter, the Society immediately exerted its influence on the zoo, obtaining more than 1,300 annual memberships in its first ten years (nearly 25,000 today). It also funded projects like the renovation of the Children’s Zoo in 1964, development of the African Scene in 1967, the purchase of medical equipment for the new zoo Hospital in 1975, and the establishment of the Avian Conservation Center in 1978.

In November 2004, Tinkerbelle, San Francisco Zoo's last Asian elephant, was moved to ARK 2000, a sanctuary run by PAWS-Performing Animal Welfare Society located in the Sierra Nevada foothills. She was later joined in March 2005 by the African elephant Lulu, the last elephant on display at the zoo. The moves followed the highly publicized deaths of thirty-eight-year-old Calle in March 2004, and forty-three-year-old Maybelle the following month.^[5]

In early 2006, the SF Zoo announced its offer to name a soon-to-hatch American bald eagle after comedian Stephen Colbert.^[6] The publicity and goodwill garnered from coverage of the event on the Colbert Report was a windfall for the zoo and the city of San Francisco.^{[citation needed]} Stephen Jr. was born on April 17, 2006.

Exhibit renovations[]

Animals and exhibits[]

Indian peafowl roam the zoo grounds freely and are acknowledged officially on the zoo's website.

African Region[]

African Savannah[]

• Grey crowned crane
• Black crowned crane
• Plains zebra
• Greater kudu
• Common ostrich
• Reticulated giraffe

African Aviary[]

• Hadada ibis
• Hamerkop
• Northern bald ibis
• Blue-bellied roller
• Long-tailed glossy starling

Gorilla Preserve[]

• Western gorilla

Primate Discovery Center[]

• François' langur
• Mandrill
• Squirrel monkey
• Bald eagle

Lemur Forest[]

• Black-and-white ruffed lemur
• Blue-eyed black lemur
• Crowned lemur
• Red-bellied lemur
• Red-fronted lemur
• Red ruffed lemur
• Ring-tailed lemur
• Coquerel's sifaka

Great Ape Passage[]

• Chimpanzee
• Bornean orangutan

Cat Kingdom[]

• Indian rhinoceros
• Black rhinoceros
• Hippopotamus
• Magellanic penguin
• Lion
• Bobcat
• Fishing cat
• Snow leopard
• Sumatran tiger
• Bongo
• North American River otter
• Aldabra giant tortoise
• Komodo dragon
• Wolverine

Outback Trail[]

• Koala
• Red kangaroo
• Common wallaroo
• Emu
• Southern cassowary

South America[]

• Linnaeus's two-toed sloth
• Black-necked swan
• Black swan
• Capybara
• Giant anteater
• Greater rhea
• Red-footed tortoise
• Northern caiman lizard
• Plumed basilisk
• Boa constrictor
• Green anaconda
• Emerald tree boa
• Guanaco
• Blue-throated piping guan
• Blue-winged teal
• Blue-headed macaw
• Curl-crested aracari
• Great curassow
• Crested oropendola
• White-faced whistling duck
• Ruddy duck
• Red-and-green macaw
• Blue poison dart frog
• Golfodulcean poison frog
• Waxy monkey tree frog

Bear Country[]

• American black bear
• Grizzly bear
• Chacoan peccary
• Mexican wolf
• American white pelican
• Pink-backed pelican

Exploration Zone[]

• Meerkat
• Black-tailed prairie dog
• Red-rumped agouti
• Red panda
• Rosy-faced lovebird
• Spectacled owl

Safety incidents and animal deaths[]

March, 2015: Treatment of chimps endangers SF Zoo's accreditation: http://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/S-F-Zoo-s-remaining-chimps-endanger-6120334.php

November, 2014: Baby Kabibe, Western lowland gorilla crushed to death by automatic door, SF Zoo ignored safety: (https://web.archive.org/web/20141201183902/http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2014/11/12/investigator-of-baby-gorilla-death-says-time-to-dramatically-upgrade-sf-zoo)

2004: Elephant deaths and antiquated habitat (http://articles.latimes.com/2004/dec/12/local/me-elephants12)

2007 tiger attacks[]

Tatiana, a Siberian tiger that escaped her cage and attacked three people, killing one.

On December 22, 2006, Tatiana, the 242-pound Siberian tiger, attacked zookeeper Lori Komejan, causing the keeper to be hospitalized for several weeks with lacerated limbs and shock. The Lion House was closed for ten months as a result. California's Division of Occupation Safety and Health found the zoo liable for the keeper's injuries, fined the zoo, and ordered safety improvements.^[7][8][9]

On December 25, 2007, the same tiger escaped from her grotto and attacked three zoo visitors after being taunted and pummeled by sticks and pine cones by the visitors. Carlos Sousa, 17, of San Jose, California, was killed at the scene, while another taunter was mauled and survived. The tiger was shot and killed by police while hiding in the landscape after the attack. Three other tigers who shared Tatiana's grotto did not escape.^[10][11] Tatiana arrived at the San Francisco Zoo from the Denver Zoo in 2005, in hopes that she would mate.^[12] (This "Tatiana" is not the same as the one successfully breeding in the Toronto Zoo.) According to the Association of Zoos and Aquariums, the attack is the first visitor fatality due to animal escape at a member zoo in the history of the organization.^[13]

Other incidents[]

In October 2020, A 30-year-old man was arrested when he stole an endangered ring-tailed lemur named Maki. He was charged in July 2021 for a violation of the Endangered Species Act. He faces $50,000 in fines and as much as one year in prison. Maki was found the day after he was kidnapped at a playground in Daly City and was returned to the zoo.^[14]

Conservation[]

Two black bears were rescued as orphans in Alaska. The male was found on the edges of town near Valdez in May 2017 and the female cub was found near Juneau in June 2017. Both cubs were determined by the Alaska Department of Fish and Game to be motherless and were brought to Alaska Zoo and rehabilitated back to health. In 2017, the Alaska Zoo had more orphaned bear cubs than ever before, due to the repeal of bear hunting regulations by the Trump administration, which allowed for the hunting of hibernating bears in their dens. Mr. Lampi said. ^[15][16][17] The two bears were brought to the San Francisco Zoo in 2017 and a previously empty habitat was repurposed to host them.^[18]

The zoo housed Henry, a 10-year-old blind California sea lion who was found stranded on a beach in Humboldt County in 2010. In 2012, he was brought to the San Francisco Zoo, he was treated by veterinarians for his blindness. ^[19]

Species survival projects[]

The San Francisco Zoo participates in Species Survival Plans, conservation programs sponsored by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums. The program began in 1981 for selected species in North American zoos and aquariums where the breeding of a species done to maintain healthy, self-sustaining, genetically diverse and demographically stable populations.^[20] The zoo participates in more than 30 SSP programs, working to conserve species ranging from Madagascan radiated tortoises and reticulated giraffes to black rhinos and gorillas.

See also[]

• Citizens Lobbying for Animals in Zoos

References[]

External links[]

Wikinews has news related to: San Francisco, California Zoos and aquariums

Media related to San Francisco Zoo at Wikimedia Commons

• Official website

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