Stanley Park Zoo – a little bit of history
In 1994, when plans were developed to upgrade the Stanley Park Zoo, Vancouver voters decided in a referendum to phase out the zoo.
The zoo began much earlier with a bear kept on a chain, but grew into a collection of over 50 animals, including snakes, wolves, emus, buffalo, kangaroos, monkeys and the famous Humboldt penguins.
The Stanley Park Zoo closed completely in December 1997, after the last remaining animal, a polar bear named Tuk, died at age 36.
He had remained after the other animals had left because of his old age.
The polar bear pit, which was often criticized by Animal Rights Activists, was converted into a demonstration salmon hatchery.
Even without the zoo, Stanley Park remain the largest and most popular park in the Vancouver area.
It is estimated that 8 million people visit the park yearly and the Project for Public Spaces ranked Stanley Park as the sixteenth best park in the world and sixth best in North America.
photo credit
polar bear
4 Comments
I visited the zoo back in 1990. It was a great zoo for this park. At the time of my visit, it was free to the public. Zoos can be costly to maintain and to have it open to the public would mean that tax revenue would have to cover the expense and I can understand the concern of local tax increase was not welcome. There could have been an option of charging an admission to the zoo after the proposed renovation to cover costs.
Stanley park Zoo through the fifties and sixties, when I frequented it, was a wonderful place for young people and the old alike. In my recollection of the many Zoos I have seen throughout the world it stands out as an early example of an integrated low key type of place.
The old bear stockade was an unfortunate remnant of the european menagerie ideal. In my opinion the construction of the new bear grotto in about 1961 could easily have been omitted and a lot of money saved.
In any case the times move on, and zoos have become anachronistic and have their true values primarily in the gleaning of scientific information regarding inbreeding depression, and as repositories of disappearing species.
I do wonder though, how many modern youngsters ever get to look a monkey in the eyes up close. And marvel at the look they get back. I think both the youngsters and the monkeys lose in this new world. I somehow doubt the digital representation could ever be as heartfelt.
I have a question. As a child I remember seeing a white bear in a cage in the park. I think it was called Pinky. Do you know anything about it? I think it was an albino not a spirit bear. This was years before the polar bears came to the park.
Yes, I remember pinky well, and am pretty sure she was an albino as you say.
Do you remember the big Hoolock Gibbon named Drew? After Dr. Drew, the zoo veterinarian of the time? Who escaped from his cage on a busy sunday and couldn’t wait to get back in, away from the madding crowds?