Figure 1.--Here we see an English boy enjoying a zoo favirite, the penguins. The phoyograoh has no accompanying informtion. We would guess it was taken in the 1950s, probbly he London Regent's Park Zoo.

England has several major urban zoos and in recet years has also developed wildlife, often described as safari parks in the country side. Since ancient times, it had been popular for powerful rulers to maintain menageries of animals, commonly powerful preators like lions and tigers. European rulers began opening their menageries to visitors (late-18th century). The first English zoo was the London Zoo (1828). It was not the first zoo, but it was the World’s oldest scientific zoo. Iwas situated in the northern edge of Regent’s Park. The London Zoo has a current population of 755 different species and a total count of over 16,800 animals. It counts with many firsts desides being the oldest scientific zoo it is also the first zoo to open a Reptile house, Aquarium, Insect house and Children’s zoo. The London Zoo is managed by the Zoological Society of London which also manages Whipsnade Zoo where many of the their larger animals have been moved. There are quite a number of other zoos and willife parks located throughout England. Most of the larger cities hve zoos, but not on the same scale of the London Zoo. A medium-size zoo of importance is the Chester zoo. They are olaying n inportant role in breeding enfangered species. Another zoo worth mentioning is the Whipsnade Zoo (1931). It is located near Dunstable in Bedfordshire. The collection includes nearly 230 different species with a population of over 6,400 animals. Whipsnade is a medium size zoo, but it is notble because of the herds of elephants that are allowed to freely roam within the grounds of the zoo. England also has some great Wildlife Park where visitors can enjoy wildlife in natural settings.

Created: 5:30 AM 3/20/2006
Last updated: 3:23 PM 10/15/2020