Encyclopedia of the World’s Zoos

Collections of living animals have been in existence since the days of the Chinese emperors and the Egyptian pharaohs, but the history of the modern zoo began in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries with the formation of the zoos in Vienna (1752), Paris (1793) and London (1826). Many other institutions followed. Originally, they were not open to the public but later it became clear that the general population had a strong interest in exotic animals and this, with people having more free time and access to better transport, led to the establishment of even more zoos in the...