Nostalgia: Zoo continues to drive the crowds wild

Published on Saturday 21 March 2009 10:19

IT is difficult to imagine Edinburgh without its world famous zoo. Home to 1000 animals from more than 150 species, it brings in around 600,000 visitors a year.

The Royal Zoological Society of Scotland is celebrating its centenary year, having been founded in 1909 by Edinburgh lawyer Thomas Gillespie.

Within four years, enough money had been raised to buy the estate of Corstorphine Hill House. The society bought the 85-acre site for 17,000 with help from Edinburgh City Council and Edinburgh Zoo was opened to the public on July 22, 1913.

The concept of an "open zoo" was adopted, with as few bars as possible and large natural enclosures with moats and ditches, where required, used to separate the animals from the visitors.

As late as 1964, zoo director Gilbert Fisher would even take Scrap the cheetah out for evening strolls along Corstorphine Road.

Scooter and motorbike riders were often given a fright as the three-year-old cat crouched poised for take-off in a bid to match her speed against the two-wheeled vehicles.

It is penguins which are most commonly associated with Edinburgh Zoo and a king penguin even features on its logo.

The zoo's first three king penguins arrived in January 1914 from the Christian Salvesen whaling expedition which docked in Leith. These were the first penguins ever seen outside of the South Atlantic, and the first successful hatching of a king penguin chick took place at the zoo in 1919.

The popular penguin parade started completely by accident in 1951 when a keeper left a gate open by mistake. The event has happened daily ever since.

Throughout the zoo's history, even children of keepers have taken care of the animals, as our picture of Nicola and Andrew Clarke, whose father was head of the animal section in 1975, feeding Papoose, a puma cub abandoned by its mother, demonstrates.

As well as breeding, the zoo has always also made sure to take care of its animals.

In fact, in December 1988, rhino Floosie wore a horn warmer to protect her from the cold. Edinburgh Woollen Mill, which had previously supplied socks for Dali the elephant, came up with the idea to stop the rhino's horn from cracking in the cold climate.