New Haven Register (Sunday) (New Haven, CT)
As Beardsley Zoo prepares for 100th birthday, much has changed
BRIDGEPORT — Connecticut’s Beardsley Zoo has seen a lot of changes in its 100 years of existence. Director Gregg Dancho said the changes literally go from the ground up.
“The streets you see in the zoo, a lot of people when they walk through they see how wide the streets are,” he said. “Well the reason the streets are so wide is, back then, they were city streets.”
Walking around the zoo on April 13, with families visiting on a seasonably warm spring day, Dancho pointed out other things that have changed from when the zoo first opened its gates.
Back then, cars could drive around at will, and elephants occupied an enclosure that’s now home to black-handed spider monkeys, which weigh in at about 1/1000th the size of an elephant.
Connecticut’s Beardsley Zoo was founded in 1922, although because the zoo gradually came into existence there is no exact birthday. The staff, though, is planning an anniversary celebration in June.
In its existence, Dancho said, the zoo has constantly evolved and changed in many ways, from its layout to its animals, and even its very mission.
“Back in the (19)20s, zoos really were just menageries for people to come out and have a good Sunday and see some animals,” he said.
Over the years, the zoo turned away from its animals-as-entertainment focus, placing much more emphasis on education, he said.
That meant revising its standards of animal care, which led to re-homing of some of the zoo’s animals. Up until 1985 the zoo featured an elephant, but concerns over its small space led the zoo to send it to another facility.
“We knew that it wasn’t possible to have an elephant in the situation that would be good for its welfare and care,” Dancho said. “It just couldn’t happen.”
In its early days, the zoo, like just about all others, acquired as many animals as it could with no real logic behind the collection. But the Beardsley Zoo gradually professionalized over the decades, earning accreditation from the Association of Zoos and Aquariums in 1987. Dancho became the director the following year.
Jim Knox is the curator of education for the zoo. He said the changes started in the 1970s as zoos became more involved in conservation efforts.
“By the 70s, you definitely had to focus more on habitat, instead of animals in cages,” he said.
From improved habitat, the next logical step was animal preservation.
“It becomes, OK, if we’re providing a proper habitat for animals in a zoo setting, and then there’s a linkage to habitat protection and it’s not a leap of logic to connect the two,” Knox said.
At the spider money exhibit, which occupies the space where the two elephants used to live, monkeys crawled on tree branches in their enclosure while visitors and Dancho motioned to them. The spacious enclosure features outdoor and indoor sections to the animals can cool off or enjoy the sun.
The structure also has cameras so university students can learn about their behavior, Dancho said.
“I have cameras in here that 50 university students are watching the animals and learning about their behavior,” he said.
Visitors at the zoo also can learn. At first, the zoo wasn’t really concerned with educating guests. But Knox said that has radically changed and the zoo makes the exhibits more interactive for visitors using graphics and text.
“They’re not just signs, they’re informational portals to the worlds of these animals,” he said. “We share what it is, what makes these animals special and unique and fascinating, and worth learning more about. The graphics are there for people, if they want to, if they’re more or less readers and consumers of information,” he said.
But if the zoo has changed over the decades, so have the visitors. Although there are still plenty of families, now there are younger couples on dates, and lots of grandparents.
“The big change to us is grandparents bringing the grandkids out. I think that’s just a reality in socio-economics where parents are working now,” Dancho said. “And maybe the grandparents are retired and they start to be caregivers and they’re starting to bring the kids.”