Explore Georgia: Zoo Atlanta

Atlanta’s oldest cultural attraction began the day a circus came to town – and never left. In March 1889, a traveling show bound for Marietta, Ga., stalled just south of its destination when cash flow problems forced its owner into bankruptcy. Left to languish in their cages by defecting circus employees, the animals began to draw crowds of curious onlookers. Two weeks later, businessman George Valentine Gress purchased the collection at public auction and donated the animals en masse to the city of Atlanta. City leaders relocated them to picturesque Grant Park, a favorite local picnic and promenade destination. Featuring a jaguar, a hyena, a black bear, a raccoon, an elk, a gazelle, a Mexican hog, lionesses, pumas, camels and snakes, Atlanta’s first zoological venue opened to the public that April.

Community involvement was part of the Zoo’s life from the beginning, with private citizens donating animals and Atlanta newspapers heralding new arrivals and spearheading fund drives. The largest of these resulted in the purchase of Clio, the Zoo’s first elephant, in 1890. What was by far the park’s grandest collection boost occurred over 40 years later, when an unusual stalemate proved fortuitous for the Zoo. By that time, philanthropist Asa G. Candler, Jr. had accumulated an impressively large private menagerie that he kept on his estate on Briarcliff Road. Candler’s neighbors were less tolerant of the animals, whose sounds, smells and occasional forays off the property tried the community’s patience. Already acquainted with Grant Park through previous animal donations, Candler proposed a solution for his problematic hobby. He would donate his wild things to the Zoo, provided the city raised sufficient funds to house and maintain them. Faced with the pleasant dilemma of accepting a donation that would more than double the size of the attraction, the city shifted into its first major fundraising campaign for the Zoo. In 1935, the park swelled with the arrival of the entire Briarcliff Road collection, which included elephants, leopards, water buffalo, elk, zebra, birds, a hyena and a sea lion, not to mention Jimmie Walker, Candler’s tiger and Grant Park’s first.

By the 1950s, a sweeping global trend had biologists and zoo directors questioning traditional hard, linear animal cages in favor of naturalistic enclosures. The period from 1951 to 1967 was one of the Zoo’s greatest times of construction and renovation. Still used for exhibits today, the World of Reptiles remains as an example from the Zoo’s first big facelift. This decade also marked the arrival of one of the institution’s most beloved animals, an infant gorilla that joined the collection in 1961. Named for Atlanta Mayor William B. Hartsfield, he would be known in perpetuity as “Willie B.”

Despite a decade of progress and ingenuity, it would not be long before many of the Zoo’s facilities came to be viewed as outdated. In 1970, a group of influential citizens united with the purpose of driving fundraising, recruiting volunteers and raising awareness of the Zoo’s education, conservation and research efforts. This contingent became the Atlanta Zoological Society (AZS), with Dr. Geoffrey Bourne as founding president and Dr. Duane Rumbaugh and Richard Reynolds, III, as founding vice presidents. One early undertaking of AZS was to raise the suggestion that the Zoo, which had always been a free venue, should begin charging admission. The organization grew rapidly in strength and membership through the 1970s, but a number of disappointments stymied AZS efforts to secure funding for the lengthening list of improvements needed at the Zoo. By the 1980s, a critical situation was rising to a head.

In 1984, a series of highly publicized events belied deteriorating conditions at the Zoo, prompting Parade Magazine to label the institution as one of the top 10 worst in the nation. A subsequent investigation lost the Zoo its accreditation, and an outraged public demanded that the facility be closed. Mayor Andrew Young appointed an emergency crisis team. In support of a new vision for the Zoo, Young appointed Dr. Terry Maple as interim director. The team set out to address immediate issues, beginning with reducing the collection in order to provide more appropriate living spaces for the animals.

New governance followed, and the nonprofit “Atlanta Fulton County Zoo, Inc.” was created with the Zoo’s privatization in 1985. The first governing board convened that same year, and the rebounding institution emerged with a fresh new name – Zoo Atlanta. Thanks to a stellar capital campaign and an ambitious renovation plan, the Zoo was in redevelopment mode by the following year. A number of high-profile projects, including Flamingo Plaza and the Wildlife Theater, were completed in the late 1980s. Notably, The Ford African Rain Forest opened in 1988, providing the now 30-year-old Willie B. with his first foray outdoors since infancy. The Ford exhibits also created lush habitats for a collection of gorillas loaned by the Yerkes National Primate Research Center at Emory University. Willie B.’s social life became an immediate source of public attention, and Atlantans were delighted when the former bachelor’s first offspring, Kudzoo, arrived in 1994. The silverback would sire four more offspring – Olympia, Sukari, Kidogo and Lulu – over the next five years.

Zoo Atlanta debuted several impressive new exhibits in its centennial year: Masai Mara, featuring a recreation of the African savanna; Mzima Springs, with elephants grazing near an authentic watering hole; and new naturalistic habitats for animals like black rhinos, drills and Sumatran tigers. The Zoo that had once disgraced the city was now a point of pride, receiving awards at the local, state and national levels. Just 10 years after losing its accreditation, Zoo Atlanta hosted the national conference of the American Zoo and Aquarium Association (AZA).

1999 was an unforgettable year for the Zoo, when years of hard work and forging of important relationships both in China and in the United States culminated in the arrival of the giant pandas Lun Lun and Yang Yang. When a widely publicized cavalcade transported the animals to Zoo Atlanta, where they would be housed in a state-of-the-art exhibit, the Zoo joined only two other zoos in housing giant pandas. The institution’s reputation as a leader in research and conservation catapulted to global status.

Atlanta joined the Zoo in mourning Willie B., who passed away in 2000 at the age of 42. The gorilla that had become the symbol of the Zoo’s resurgence was eulogized by Ambassador Andrew Young, memorialized by a crowd of over 5,000 people and remembered by media throughout the country, including Time magazine.

In many ways, the early years of the 21 st century were challenging for Zoo Atlanta. Like many of the nation’s cultural attractions, the Zoo felt the impact of the September 11 attack on the World Trade Center in 2001. During this time, Zoo leaders embarked on an important period of evaluation, seeking to align the Zoo’s mission of conservation, education and family experience with a solid strategic plan that would guide the institution forward in a growing and changing city and state.

In 2002, Dr. Terry Maple announced his retirement to accept a position as Director of the newly formed Georgia Tech Center for Conservation and Behavior. Atlanta native Dennis W. Kelly assumed leadership of the Zoo as President & CEO in 2003. A year later, the Zoo opened Outback Station, the final phase of the Orkin Children’s Zoo. Outback Station was followed in 2004 by The Living Treehouse, a new addition to The Ford African Rain Forest.

Gorillas’ names became household words once again in 2005, when Kuchi delivered a rare set of twins on Halloween. Zoo staff watched with great excitement and a little trepidation; no mother gorilla had ever successfully reared twins in captivity without benefit of human intervention. Kuchi proved a record-breaker, becoming the first captive gorilla to ever accomplish this feat. Later that year, the Zoo celebrated the birth of another baby gorilla – and this was one with a famous bloodline. Never had the legacy of the late Willie B. been more apparent than when the Zoo announced that his first offspring, Kudzoo, had given birth to his grandchild.

Over a century removed from its circus origins, Zoo Atlanta has evolved from a quaint picnic stop where people gawked at wild animals to a modern-day destination seeking to teach the public about its animal ambassadors and work for the preservation of their wild counterparts. Evidenced by the opening of the interactive children’s exhibit Wild Like Me in 2006, the Zoo remains dedicated as always to a wholesome family experience, with a 21 st-century focus on educating young people, raising awareness of the natural world and bridging empathy for animals. Zoo Atlanta’s long journey from Victorian curiosity to powerhouse of conservation and research has not been without its challenges, but the institution’s mission will ensure that history will continue to be made.

Zoo Atlanta
800 Cherokee Avenue, SE
Atlanta, GA 30315
404.624.WILD
http://www.zooatlanta.org/