The collection of animals that resides in Druid Hill Park is part of a millenniums-old human tradition.
"It depends on how you define a zoo, but if you take the broad aspect of the keeping of wild animals, native or exotic, you can trace its origin all the way back to the earliest civilizations of Mesopotamia, Egypt and China," says Vernon Kisling, editor of Zoo and Aquarium History: Ancient Animal Collections to Zoological Gardens. "Back then, virtually every civilization had a collection of wild animals."
And elephants - just as they are in the story of the Baltimore Zoo's financial problems - were often on center stage.
FOR THE RECORD - An article in last Sunday's Perspective section incorrectly stated that protests by animal rights groups stopped zoos in San Diego and Tampa, Fla., from importing 11 African elephants from Swaziland. Though delayed by protests, the elephants eventually arrived at those zoos.
The Sun regrets the error.
"Elephants have always fascinated people throughout history," Kisling says. "In the old days, if some ruler wanted a favor from another ruler, the gift of an elephant always made an impression."
Keeping such collections was expensive, so it was the province of the wealthy. In the Middle Ages, European royalty had exotic animals in their palace gardens. When U.S. troops moved into Baghdad, they found that Saddam Hussein had a similar collection on his palace grounds. The phenomenon crossed cultural boundaries - in 1519, Cortez found 300 people tending to a menagerie in Mexico.
The term "menagerie" fell out of favor with the Enlightenment. The animal displays that opened in various European cities in the 18th century were known as zoological collections.
That was soon shortened to zoo. But because that word has developed negative connotations, many zoos are "conservation centers." Whatever the name, historian Jeff Hyson says the bottom line is still the same. "When you get right down to it, people still want to see animals do entertaining things," says Hyson, an assistant professor at Saint Joseph's University in Philadelphia whose book on the history of American zoos will come out next year.
And therein lies the difficulty facing Baltimore's zoo and many other such facilities across the country. Once, zoos were a source of a city's pride, underwritten by its government and provided free to the citizenry. Now, that type of image-enhancing investment goes to sports stadiums.
The financial difficulties of the Baltimore Zoo that led to cutting 20 staff positions, lending out its two elephants and removing 400 other animals came after a $700,000 reduction in state aid. A sniper alert that canceled school trips and a rainy summer that kept down attendance, along with a sagging economy, were also blamed.
