Brookfield Zoo history

The district added 98 acres (400,000 m) to that plot and in 1921, the Chicago Zoological Society was established.

Serious construction did not begin until 1926, after a zoo tax was approved.

By the end of September 1934, over one million people had visited the new zoo; the four millionth visitor was just two years later.

1937 Su-lin becomes the first panda in a United States zoo and is a sensation.

The twin brown bear cubs inspired a "Twin Day" celebration in the zoo in 1940.

1941 Georgie-Joe is the first black rhino born in a zoo.

1943 The Society offers to sell animals to private citizens to raise money due to low attendance during war years.

1948 The zoo acquires Kamala Rani and Kashi Ram, two rare Indian rhinos, in the wild.

1952 The first animal hospital opens.

1953 Children’s Zoo opens, beginning decades of connections between Chicagoland children and domestic native animals.

1954 Roosevelt Fountain is created to honor President Theodore Roosevelt for his conservation efforts.

The first curator of research, George B. Rabb, was hired in 1956.

Another first too place when Mr G an okapi was born during 1959.

1961 The original Seven Seas Panorama (located where The Living Coast now stands) opens as the country’s first inland dolphinarium.

1966 The first Mold-A-Rama machine is installed.

1969 The sale of marshmallow is discontinued.

1971 The Volunteer League is created.

1973 Work begins on Tropic World.

1974 The first Boo! at the Zoo is held.

1977 The Parents Program (now Share the Care program) begins.

1982 The first Holiday Magic is held and soon becomes an annual tradition with Chicagoland families.

1984 The zoo celebrates its 50th anniversary with concerts by the Osmond Family, the Beach Boys, Jonny Cash, and others.

1985 The Society further solidifies its conservation efforts by establishing a Conservation Biology Department staffed by world-renowned scientists and researchers.

1987 The new Seven Seas Panorama opens and becomes as popular as the original exhibit.

1990 The Society helps found the Declining Amphibian Populations Task Force to help save amphibians around the world.

1993 A new animal hospital opens, enhancing animal care efforts and making the Society a leader in zoological medicine.

1996 The Society becomes a founding member of Chicago Wilderness, a leading group that restores and protects hundreds of acres of wild areas in Chicagoland.

2000 The Society helps launch a new discipline called conservation psychology, which is the scientific study of the relationship between people and nature.

2001 Hamill Family Play Zoo opens.

2006 The Center for Conservation Leadership is launched, focusing the Society’s efforts on creating conservation leaders, protecting the natural world, and outreach and education around Chicago.

2008 The Center for the Science of Animal Welfare opens.

2009 The Dinosaurs Alive! seasonal exhibit opens.

Great Bear Wilderness, a new, sprawling habitat, opened in 2010.

Because of the expense of constructing Great Bear Wilderness and protests from In Defense of Animals over the deaths of the zoo's African elephants, the Pachyderm House was closed for a year in 2011 for modifications and no longer exhibits Elephants or river hippopotamuses.

2012 The Xtreme Bugs exhibit opens.

In 2015 the children’s zoo was replaced by the Hamill family wild encounters exhibit.