Zoo Atlanta

From Free net encyclopedia

Image:Zoo Atlanta logo.jpgZoo Atlanta is an American Zoo and Aquarium Association-accredited wildlife park and major attraction in Atlanta, Georgia, USA. The 40 acre (16 hectare) zoo, founded in 1889, is located in Atlanta's Grant Park and attracts around one million visitors a year. The zoo features almost 1,000 animals representing 250 species from around the world.

Among the zoo's most notable holdings are two giant pandas, Lun Lun and Yang Yang, on loan from China's Chengdu Zoo until 2009. A captive breeding program to produce offspring from the pandas has thus far been unsuccessful. The $4.5 million Ford African Rain Forest habitat is home to 23 western lowland gorillas, one of the two largest collections of the species in North America. The zoo was also home to the popular Willie B., a gorilla named for former Mayor of Atlanta William B. Hartsfield (as was the Hartsfield International Airport). Recently, one of Willie. B.'s daughters has given birth to twins, a very rare occurrence among gorillas in general, and extremely rare in captive ones.

Zoo Atlanta is a participant in the AZA's Species Survival Program with efforts for the red panda, and the Sumatran Tiger — one of the most endangered species in the world. Other significant animal exhibits include Sumatran orangutans, black rhinos, African savanna elephants, Komodo dragons, and big-mouthed African dwarf crocodiles. The Children's Zoo allows visitors to pet and feed several species of animals.

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History

The zoo was founded in 1889 as Grant Park Zoo, when local lumber merchant George Gress bought a traveling zoo that had gone bankrupt (the manager had absconded with all the money) and was stranded in the city. Gress also bought the cyclorama painting, "The Battle of Atlanta," which he moved next to the zoo as the Atlanta Cyclorama. The zoo was expanded by the addition in the early 20th century of the animal collection of Asa Candler, founder of The Coca-Cola Company, who had built a private zoo on the grounds of his estate but had to sell it when it became a nuisance to his neighbors.

The Municipal Zoo, as it came to be called, gradually fell into disrepair and in 1984 was named one of the ten worst zoos in the country. Ashamed of this, Atlanta hired a new administrator, Dr. Terry L. Maple of Georgia Tech, to rehabilitate the zoo. Dr. Maple pressed to change the name to Zoo Atlanta and brought in corporate sponsors to raise needed money, as well as many good people to help in his work of making the zoo one that the city could be proud of. One of Dr. Maple's proudest accomplishments was the building and opening of the aforementioned Ford African Rain Forest. Within it Willie B., who had lived alone in an indoor cage since being brought to the zoo in 1963, was able to go outdoors for the first time since he was captured in Africa, and was introduced to and allowed to interact with other gorillas. Willie had five offspring before his death in 2000. A memorial service held at the zoo attracted an overflow crowd of more than 3,000 people. Today, the zoo is recognized as one of the best in the nation.

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