Western Daily Press (Saturday)
As one chapter ends, a new one will begin
Dr Justin Morris, chief executive of Bristol Zoological Society, reflects on its 185th anniversary, which will be the penultimate one at its home in Clifton before the zoo moves
IT was 185 years ago tomorrow on July 11, 1836, that Bristol Zoo Gardens welcomed its first visitors.
Founded by Henry Riley, a local physician, it was designed to facilitate “the observation of habits, form, and structure of the animal kingdom, as well as affording rational amusement and recreation to the visitors of the neighbourhood”.
As I stand at the front entrance I wonder how they must have felt walking through the gates that day to come face to face with animals they may have only seen before in drawings. Their eyes must have opened wide in wonder and their heartbeats would have quickened.
Times may have changed but our visitors today have a definite connection with those Georgians of 185 years ago, because they also get the same excitement as they walk in knowing in a few moments they will get close to some of the most amazing animals on the planet.
Like probably every family in Bristol we came to the zoo when I was a boy. I remember that thrill as I stepped inside. It’s a feeling I still have today. It never leaves you.
Walking around the zoo I think of the hundreds of thousands of people who have visited over the years.
The gasps of awe, the excited screams of children, the sighs of people as they watch animals with their infants. Young and old – they are all moved.
I pass Gorilla Island and catch sight of the plaque celebrating one of the zoo’s most famous animals, Alfred the gorilla.
He lived at the zoo from 1930 until 1948 and became internationally famous as visiting American troops sent letters home, telling loved ones about him during the Second World War.
People still talk about him and they still remember the elephants too. Rosie in the 1940s and 1950s, then Christina and finally Wendy who died in 2002 – our last elephant.
If I stop for a moment I can picture them and the years seem to melt away.
There is a timelessness to this place. I can almost imagine Animal Magic presenter Johnny Morris walking around the corner in his Bristol zookeeper uniform with a lemur sitting on his shoulder!
I turn towards the heart of the zoo and the main lawn where families have sat eating ice-creams and enjoying a day out for almost 185 summers.
And then I think of how the zoo has changed during those years. The animals today live in enclosures that reflect their natural habitats and many represent species that in the wild are threatened with extinction – one species, the socorro dove, is extinct in the wild.
We work with many other zoos across the world on breeding programmes to safeguard some of the rarest species.
Since 1836 we have helped save more than 175 species through breeding programmes, established more than 30 conservation and research projects across the world, showed 40 million children the value of nature, and given more than 90 million people a great day out.
We are proud to be the first to use the term ‘zoo’ and the first zoo in Europe to breed chimpanzees.
But what of the future? We announced last November that we intend to leave this site.
It was a decision taken by the zoo’s trustees with heavy hearts. They, like me and you, love this place.
But we have a duty to ensure that Bristol Zoological Society and Bristol Zoo will continue long into the future and so we have to let our heads rule our hearts and move.
Our new home, at what is now Wild Place Project on the northern edge of the city, will give us almost 12 times as much space and allow us to create a world-class zoo for the 21st century.
We are aiming to officially open the new Bristol Zoo in 2024. Before that, in autumn next year, we will close Bristol Zoo Gardens for the final time.
Will there be tears shed on that day? Of course there will and some of them may well be mine.
But as much as it will be the end of one chapter it will be the start of another for Bristol Zoological Society.