ANIMAL MAGNETISM
Bronx Zoo is still a draw after 125 years
It’s a Bronx tail. For 125 years, the Bronx Zoo has dazzled and inspired visitors with exotic and beautiful creatures like gorillas and tigers and lemurs — oh, my!
“Guests love to see the care, the dedication and the passion that our staff have for making sure that these animals were well cared for,” Jim Breheny, director of the Bronx Zoo and a Throggs Neck native, 64, told The Post.
“There’s the connection and the bond they have between each other.”
In honor of the quasquicentennial jubilee, the Bronx Zoo is rolling out a new quartermile walking trail of beastly art Saturday called “Animal Chronicles,” which features 13 unique environmental scenes, 68 sculptures of critters and more artistic nods to the zoo’s history of animal rescue.
“It’s just amazing, you know?” Breheny said. “People say you can learn something from talking to anybody. It’s the same thing here. You can learn something from interacting with any animal.”
He’s enjoyed this unique connection firsthand for quite some time: Breheny has been at the zoo for 51 years, starting with a role at the children’s zoo when he was 14 in the early 1970s. As a young animal lover, Breheny admitted he simply filled out a form, made a call and was hired.
During his five decades on the job, Breheny has interacted with all of the zoo’s creatures, including working the camel rides in his early years. However, some of the wildest stories with the animals happened outside the confines of the zoo — but still on the job.
Call him the tiger man
In 2003, Breheny, who has a graduate degree in biology from Fordham, was attending a speech on responsible pet ownership when, ironically, he was summoned to yank a tiger illegally kept inside a Harlem apartment.
“I honestly didn’t believe it. I thought it would be like an ocelot or a bobcat,” he recalled. “People exaggerate all the time.”
It turned out to be Ming, the infamous “fully grown” tiger who “took up the entire apartment,” and Breheny and his team were responsible for getting the tiger out of the apartment. It took two doses of sedatives to knock the big guy out.
While the Ming rescue has been the most adrenaline-pumping incident of Breheny’s tenure, there were other eventful incidents involving “venomous snakes” over the years, too.
Around 2005, Breheny had been in talks with the Pakistani governto ment obtain Leo, a rare snow leopard who brought new genetics into the species populatainly tion.
“His genetic contribution through breeding was really important to the snow leopard population in North America,” said Breheny, who noted cubs of a few generations past are currently on display.
Numerous animal inhabitants also evolved into celebrity attractions at the Fordham Road institution, going all the way back to the 1903 snow leopard attraction, North America’s first showcasing of the species.
Starting in 1990, Rapunzel the Sumatran rhinoceros — a currently endangered species — was a fan favorite until her death in 2005.
Breheny most remembers her “easy-going” demeanor and as a “great animal.”
There was also Pattycake, the first gorilla born in New York City. In 1972, she was born in the Central Park Zoo, but broke her arm young and was transferred to the Bronx Zoo. She became an incredibly important permanent resident in the early 1980s before she died at 40 in 2013.
“That was the first gorilla that we raised. She was cercharismatic a animal,” Breheny said.
“We learned how much infant gorillas are like inmajestic fant humans.”
As the gorilla grew, integrated and bred, she also was one of the first to start painting. Brehas heny one of her final works inside his office.