Kid Territory: How the Zoo and Wild Animal Park Began
Dr. Harry Wegeforth, the Zoo's founder, worked hard to build the Zoo’s reptile collection, which included Galápagos tortoises. Today, they’re some of the oldest animals in the Zoo!.
Belle Benchley, who took over after Dr. Harry, didn’t know much about animals when she started at the Zoo as a temporary bookkeeper. As her duties grew, however, she became more and more familiar with the Zoo and its animals, like these tiger cubs.
Dr. Charles Schroeder, a former Zoo veterinarian, presided over the creation of the Wild Animal Park.
The way the story goes, it began with a roar! Every year, over three million guests visit the San Diego Zoo. It's hard to believe that San Diego was once just a small town with a great climate—but without a famous zoo! That changed in 1916 when San Diego hosted an exposition (like a world's fair) to celebrate the opening of the Panama Canal. Among the exhibits were groups of animals scattered throughout San Diego's Balboa Park. On September 16, 1916 a local physician, Dr. Harry Wegeforth, was driving through the Park and heard—you guessed it—the roar of the Panama California Exposition's lions. Dr. Harry thought that San Diego needed a zoo, and decided to start one. He began with the animals left over from the exposition, and the rest, as they say, is history!
From this beginning, Dr. Harry spent the rest of his life developing the Zoo. He was a genius at collecting money, plants, and animals, and we still tell "Dr. Harry stories" about some of his more inventive episodes. He set us up as a Zoological Society, so it would be a privately-owned (not owned by the city, as many zoos are), not-for-profit corporation, and managed by a board of trustees.
Dr. Harry's travels
For years, Dr. Harry traveled around the country and the world, finding animals and plants from all over the globe, and building good business relations with other zoos. He rode his horse around the 100-acre (40.5-hectare) grounds of the Zoo, with its unique layout of mesas and canyons, deciding where to place the collections. He grouped enclosures according to animal type, and he wanted to build the most modern habitats possible. San Diego is a coastal desert, so most of the natural vegetation in Balboa Park was low and sparse, but Dr. Harry wanted to provide lush plantings for our animals and guests. Today, the Zoo has grown to house to over 850 types of animals and over 6,500 varieties of plants!
The Zoo continues to grow
As you can see, Dr. Harry was a busy person. He had his own medical practice, plus he traveled extensively on behalf of the Zoo. Luckily, he had a "right arm" in Mrs. Belle Benchley, who was hired in 1925 as a temporary bookkeeper. She gradually took on more and more duties, and when Dr. Harry died in 1941, she continued running the Zoo for 12 more years. She was the first woman in the world to hold such a position! When she retired, Dr. Charles Schroeder, who first worked for the Zoo as a veterinarian, took over as director until l972.
The Wild Animal Park is born
Dr. Schroeder had a dream of a larger branch of the San Diego Zoo. Due to his vision and persistence, much like the earlier efforts of Dr. Harry, the 1,800-acre (728.4-hectare) Wild Animal Park opened in 1972. A few years later, in 1975, we opened the third branch of the Zoological Society of San Diego, the department of Conservation and Research for Endangered Species, or CRES. The CRES facility is off-limits to the public, but you can see results of the CRES team's work everywhere in the Zoo and Park.
Although much has changed since the early days, you can still see mementos from our history. Just as you go through the Zoo's turnstiles, look to the left, and you'll see a bust of Dr. Harry, set into the side of the Benchley/Old Administration building. If you go to the sea lion show, try to find the commemorative plaque at the top of the Wegeforth Bowl stadium, which was dedicated in 1936. You might even see Belle, one of our most popular camels (named after Mrs. Benchley), on a walk around the Zoo with her keepers. When you visit the Wild Animal Park, you'll see the Schroeder Administration Building in Nairobi Village. In either place, if you hear our lions roar, remember how it all began!
More
San Diego Zoo: Animal
Shows
Wild Animal Park: Journey into Africa tour, Nairobi Village
CRES
