Famous Zoo Animals From Before the Internet Age

Jumbo the elephant London Zoo first showed Jumbo in 1865. Children rode on the African elephant, and many Londoners opposed his sale to P. T. Barnum. He left for the United States in 1882. The outcry was a measure of how much the public felt attached to an animal the zoo could sell.

Martha the passenger pigeon At the Cincinnati Zoo, visitors stood in long lines for a bird believed to be the last of her species. Martha died there in 1914, four years after the last males at the zoo. Her preserved body went to the Smithsonian, where one small specimen became the public face of a continent-wide extinction.

Winnie the black bear A Canadian army veterinarian left a young black bear at London Zoo in 1914. Winnie, named for Winnipeg, was one of the animals Christopher Robin Milne visited. He gave her name to his stuffed bear, and his father, A. A. Milne, used it for the bear in his stories.

Obaysch the hippopotamus Obaysch arrived in London in 1850 after being captured near an island in the Nile. His arrival drew unusually large crowds to the zoo, and Queen Victoria came to see him. In this early photograph, he rests by the water while visitors gather behind a row of bars.

Zarafa the giraffe A diplomatic gift to Charles X, this giraffe reached Paris in 1827 after wintering in Marseille and walking north. The Jardin des Plantes drew crowds to see her. A watercolor made that year presents her with an attendant, a record of how Paris commemorated the first giraffe seen alive in France.

Snowflake the gorilla Pictures of the young gorilla’s white hair and pink skin spread well beyond Barcelona. Snowflake arrived at Barcelona Zoo from Equatorial Guinea in 1966, and his appearance in National Geographic the following year helped make him famous internationally. Barcelona knew him by his Catalan name, Floquet de Neu.

When bombing destroyed the zoo’s pool during the Second World War, keepers poured water over Knautschke several times a day. Berliners donated food. The hippo survived and became one of Zoo Berlin’s most popular residents. The 1952 photograph shows him back in an outdoor pool with people watching from the rail.

Jessie gave rides to generations of Sydney children at Moore Park Zoo and later at Taronga. In 1916, she crossed Sydney Harbour by ferry during the move to the new zoo. The photograph of her crossing captures one of the hardest jobs in moving an entire zoo and a moment Taronga later commemorated.

The fire-prevention character already existed when a real black bear cub survived a wildfire in New Mexico in 1950. Given the name Smokey, he spent the rest of his life at the National Zoo in Washington, D.C. His fan mail became so heavy that the bear received a ZIP code of his own.

Chi Chi the giant panda Chi Chi was a London Zoo attraction when the World Wildlife Fund was founded in 1961. The panda helped inspire its mark, which could be printed in black and white. The zoo’s photograph shows the animal behind a drawing that became familiar around the world.

Bobo the gorilla For much of the 1950s and 1960s, Bobo was Woodland Park Zoo’s most famous animal. At a birthday filmed for local television, one of the people who had lived with him recalled that he paid more attention to his former family than to the cake. His preserved mount later went on display at Seattle’s Museum of History & Industry.

Colo the gorilla The Columbus Zoo made headlines in 1956 when Colo became the first gorilla born in human care. Her birth made gorilla breeding part of that zoo’s identity. She remained at Columbus as later generations were born, so the event became a family story people could follow over decades.

Goldie the golden eagle For nearly twelve days in 1965, a golden eagle held the attention of London from the trees of Regent’s Park. Goldie had escaped from the zoo, and the newspapers and television followed the chase. The excitement reached the House of Commons before he was caught and returned.

Ken Allen San Diego Zoo’s Bornean orangutan became famous for his escapes in the 1980s. He acquired a fan club, appeared on T-shirts and inspired a local folk song. Keepers even posed as visitors in an attempt to work out how he was getting out of his enclosure.

Kashin the elephant Years before this elephant arrived in Auckland, a New Zealand bank used the name Kashin for an elephant-shaped money box. The bank helped bring the real Kashin to Auckland Zoo in 1972. She became a draw for families, and the living animal and the money box became tied to the same childhood memories.

Keiko the orca Keiko was living at a marine park in Mexico City when he played the title role in the 1993 movie Free Willy. The attention helped fund a move to the Oregon Coast Aquarium in 1996, where he could recover in cold seawater. His fame brought the question of how captive orcas lived before a far wider audience.