Alaska Zoo
| Alaska Zoo | ||
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| place | The Alaska Zoo, 4731 O'Malley Road, Anchorage |
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| surface | 10 hectares | |
| opening | March 28, 1968 | |
| Visitor numbers | approx. 200,000 annually | |
| organization | ||
 Alaska Zoo logo |
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| https://www.alaskazoo.org/ | ||
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Coordinates: 61 ° 7 ′ 29 " N , 149 ° 47 ′ 32" W.
The Alaska Zoo is a 10 acre animal park in Anchorage , Alaska . The approximately 100 birds and mammals attract almost 200,000 visitors annually. The main focus is on native species, but also non-Alaskan species such as Siberian tigers live in the zoo.
In addition to the presentation of the animals, the zoo specializes in training, research, species protection and reintroduction . Many of the animals in the zoo have been injured or found orphaned in the wild.
history
The zoo's origins go back to 1966 when Jack Snyder, an Anchorage grocer, won a "$ 3,000 or a baby elephant" contest. He chose the animal and received a female Asian elephant named Annabelle. The elephant was initially housed at Sammye Seawell's Diamond H Horse Ranch in Anchorage, as it had the only heated stable in the area.
The increasing popularity of the elephant led Seawell to found a not-for-profit organization that aimed to provide a facility where the public could observe and learn about animals. The Alaska Children's Zoo was established on March 28, 1968, and opened the following year on land adjacent to Seawell's Ranch. In 1980 the name was changed to Alaska Zoo .
Controversy about keeping elephants
In 1983, an African female elephant named Maggie had been purchased as a company for Annabelle. After Annabelle's death on December 15, 1997, the zoo was heavily criticized by animal welfare organizations because he kept Maggie in a cool climate for elephants without the possibility of contact with conspecifics in Alaska and did not give her to a nature reserve, such as the zoos in Detroit and San Francisco after doing similar criticism. The Alaska Zoo argued the risks of moving, doubled the size of Maggie's enclosure, and installed a treadmill for elephants. In 2007, however, the zoo gave in to public pressure and gave Maggie to the Performing Animal Welfare Society's sanctuary in California.
Web links
- The Alaska Zoo website (English)
Individual evidence
- ^ History and Mission. Alaska Zoo, archived from the original on September 25, 2012 ; accessed on November 26, 2019 (English).
- ↑ Corporation filings. (PDF) (No longer available online.) State of Alaska, formerly in the original ; accessed on November 26, 2019 (English). ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )
- ↑ Maggie's Now A California Girl . Friends of Maggie, archived from the original on March 24, 2008 ; accessed on November 26, 2019 (English).