zoos. The earliest zoos were miscellaneous private collections of animals for curiosity rather than scientific study. Monarchs occasionally offered strange beasts as gifts and courtesy necessitated that they should be cherished. Henry I had a menagerie at Woodstock which included lions, leopards, lynxes, camels, and a porcupine. From the 13th cent. onwards, lions were kept in the Tower of London. They were joined by an elephant sent to Henry III in 1254 by Louis IX of France. As diplomatic contacts became more permanent, housing the gifts caused problems. The Russian ambassador presented Charles II with two pelicans, which went to the menagerie in St James's Park, the Moroccan ambassador gave two lions (sent to the Tower) and thirty ostriches (sent to the park). Private citizens made their own collections. Sir Sanders Duncombe, a physician, had a small zoo in the 17th cent., and Pepys received from the consul at Algiers a lion cub, which he kept at Admiralty headquarters in Derby House. Animals were also exhibited for private gain. Evelyn in 1684 gives a detailed description of the first rhinoceros to be seen in England, and a crocodile. The governor of New South Wales in 1792 sent George III the first kangaroo to be trans-shipped.

Many of these menageries were open, at least to the respectable public, for a small fee, but public zoos waited until the 19th cent. The Zoological Society of London was founded in 1826, with Sir Humphry Davy as a supporter and Sir Stamford Raffles as first president. Its premises in Regent's Park were opened to the public in 1828. The society's collection was augmented in 1830 by the transfer of the royal menagerie from Windsor (one of William IV's cost-cutting exercises) and in 1834 when the animals from the Tower were brought across, including more than 100 rattlesnakes. In 1843 a reptile house was opened, an aquarium in 1853, and an insect house in 1881. The first hippopotamus arrived in 1850, a sea-lion in 1856, and a gorilla in 1887 (it died), but the first giant panda not until 1938. By that time the society had opened Whipsnade on Dunstable Downs (1931), still one of the most delightful of all zoos.

Meanwhile, private and municipal zoos multiplied. George Wombwell's travelling menagerie was very popular from the 1820s, though he pepped up the entertainment with animal fights and exhibitions. The Dublin Zoo opened in 1831, Bristol in 1835, and Manchester in 1836. The Royal Zoological Society of Scotland, founded in 1909, purchased the Corstorphine estate at Edinburgh in 1913 and completed the zoo by 1927. After 1945 safari parks and country-house zoos proliferated, the ‘Lions of Longleat’ leading the way. Though zoos are regarded primarily as amusement and treats for the children, their work in publishing, lectures, and seminars is of critical importance, and much of their income in recent years has been devoted to preserving species.

J. A. Cannon