Millbrook School - The Trevor Teaching Zoo

The Trevor Teaching Zoo

If there was one thing that separates Millbrook from any other secondary school in the country it is the Trevor Teaching Zoo. It was founded in 1936 by Frank Trevor, the schools famed first biology teacher. According to Pulling, Trevor pulled up to his house directly from Cornell University with a car full of caged animals and told him "These used to be my animals, tonight they became the Millbrook Zoo". With the help of students Trevor began construction of the Zoo across School Road on six acres (24,000 m²) that backed up against a large horse farm. In the early days the zoo was mostly local animals, but soon the occupants became more exotic. In 1973 Jonothan Meigs '65 arrived back on campus 6 years after Trevor retired. He began to expand the zoo, building new cages and collecting new animals. In the early 1980s he was named Director of the Zoo. Since then the Trevor Zoo has gotten every stamp of approval from national agencies and in 1989 was accredited by the AZA, which only 214 zoos have the distinction. There are now well over 100 species with exhibits separated by continents, all but Antarctica represented. There are currently over a dozen endangered species such as Red Wolves, White Naped Cranes, lemurs, red pandas and tamarins. The zoo participates in many rehabilitation and conservation programs locally, nationally and internationally. The staff is somewhat unusual with 5 full-time faculty including an animal behavior expert, but most of the grunt work is performed by "zooies", students who choose to work at the zoo as their community service. Trevor Zoo mimics the practices of larger zoos by beginning students off feeding animals and cleaning cages. As their experience grows, a select few are promoted to curators to take charge of the younger "zooies". One head curator is also elected.