Brookfield Zoo Chicago, also known as the Chicago Zoological Park, is a zoo located in the Chicago suburb of Brookfield, Illinois. It houses around 450 species of animals in an area of 216 acres (87 ha). It opened on July 1, 1934, and quickly gained international recognition for using moats and ditches instead of cages to separate animals from visitors and from other animals. The zoo was also the first in America to exhibit giant pandas, one of which has been taxidermied and put on display in Chicago's Field Museum of Natural History. In 1960, Brookfield Zoo Chicago built the nation's first fully indoor dolphin exhibit, and in the 1980s, the zoo introduced Tropic World, the first fully indoor rainforest simulation and the then-largest indoor zoo exhibit in the world.
Brookfield Zoo Chicago, North Gate
Entrance to Brookfield Zoo Chicago, c. 1930s
Zookeeper with baby animals, c. 1940s
Dolphinarium, 2000
A zoo is a facility in which animals are kept within enclosures for public exhibition and often bred for conservation purposes.
Sea lion and keeper at the Welsh Mountain Zoo
London Zoo, 1835
The Tower of London housed England's royal menagerie for several centuries (Picture from the 15th century, British Library).
The Versailles menagerie during the reign of Louis XIV in the 17th century
