San Diego Zoo - History

History

"Wouldn't it be wonderful to have a zoo in San Diego? I believe I'll build one."

—Harry M. Wegeforth, after hearing a lion roar at the 1915 Panama-California Exposition

The San Diego Zoo grew out of exotic animal exhibitions abandoned after the 1915 Panama-California Exposition. Dr. Harry M. Wegeforth founded the Zoological Society of San Diego, meeting October 2, 1916, which initially followed precedents set by the New York Zoological Society at the Bronx Zoo. He served as president of the society until 1941. A permanent tract of land in Balboa Park was set aside in August 1921, and the zoo began to move in the following year. Ellen Browning Scripps financed a fence around the zoo so that it could begin charging an entrance fee to offset costs. The publication ZooNooz commenced in early 1925.

Frank Buck went to work as temporary director for the San Diego Zoo on June 13, 1923, signed to a three-year contract by Dr. Wegeforth. Dr. William T. Hornaday, director of the Bronx Zoo, had recommended Buck for the job. But Buck quickly clashed with the strong-willed Wegeforth and left the zoo after three months to return to animal collecting.

In 1932, a San Diego county assessor hosted an auction to sell the animals to pay for the zoo's unpaid property taxes. The stunt resulted in no bidders and the zoo then fell under the city's ownership.

After several other equally short-lived zoo directors, Dr. Wegeforth appointed the zoo's bookkeeper, Belle Benchley, to the position of executive secretary, in effect zoo director; she was given the actual title of zoo director a few years later. She served as zoo director from 1925 until 1953. For most of that time she was the only female zoo director in the world. She was succeeded as director by Dr. Charles Schroeder.

The San Diego Zoo has been a pioneer in building "cageless" exhibits. Dr. Wegeforth was determined to create moated exhibits from the start, and the first lion area at the San Diego Zoo without enclosing wires opened in 1922.

Until the 1960s, admission for children under 16 was free regardless of whether they were accompanied by a paying adult.

The zoo's Center for Reproduction of Endangered Species (CRES) was founded in 1975 at the urging of Dr. Kurt Benirschke, who became its first director. CRES was renamed the division of Conservation and Research for Endangered Species in 2005 to better reflect its mission. In 2009 CRES was significantly expanded to become the Institute for Conservation Research.

An orangutan named Ken Allen was reported in several newspapers in the summer of 1985 for repeatedly escaping from the supposedly escape-proof orangutan enclosure.

The world's only albino koala in a zoological facility was born September 1, 1997, at the San Diego Zoo and was named Onya-Birri, which means "ghost boy" in an Australian Aboriginal language. The San Diego Zoo also has the largest number of koalas outside of Australia.