Detroit Zoo history

A September 1930 News article told how director Millen was tearing his hair out over the latest births, "trying to figure out how he was going to buy 27 dead horses to feed the lions when the city only allowed him enough to buy 18 carcasses."

In 1931 a miniature railway system was donated to the zoo by The Detroit News.

But in 1932-33, the zoo's one-mill tax was temporarily suspended and the zoo was forced to start charging for services, such as 25 cents to park and a nickel to ride Paulina.

Proving that fame is fleeting, the zoo started training four new chimps in December of 1933 to eventually take Jo's place.

Jo died in 1934 from hoof and mouth disease.

Queenie, the handsome big Siberian tiger, gave birth to two beautiful cubs in May of 1935 but they died shortly after from too much love.

In March of 1936, "Little Joe", as he had been named, made his debut at the Detroit Zoo, peeking from behind his mother's legs, becoming only the second bear in the United States to be born and raised in captivity.

* Sammy, an Indian elephant given to the zoo by Ringling Brothers, had become quite mean and had to be destroyed in 1937.

Despite many financial ups and downs, by the end of 1938, the zoo boasted a collection of 481 major mammals of 61 species, 176 minor mammals; 800 waterfowl and 500 birds.

In 1939, the Zoo’s most famous icon was installed, with the opening of the Rackham Memorial Fountain, sculpted by Corrado Parducci.

Paulina died in 1950 at the age of 69.

* The News reported in 1954 that Blackie, a mynah bird stolen from the zoo, was recovered in 1954 after acquiring a few exotic expressions that made him unfit company for children.

* A headline in the Detroit News in 1957 read, "A Seal with Zeal in a Deal for a Meal. " The story announced the arrival of Roland, the elephant seal who weighed 900 pounds.

The penguin center replaces the Penguinarium (which itself was revolutionary when it was built in 1968) and became the largest facility on Earth dedicated to the study of penguins.

Until 1982, trained chimpanzees performed for visitors, but the act was discontinued at the insistence of animal rights activists.

Today the Detroit Zoo features the world-renowned National Amphibian Conservation Center, opened in June 2000, and one of the largest polar bear exhibit in the world – the Arctic Ring of Life.

The Arctic Ring of Life, one of North America's largest polar bear habitats, opened to the public in 2001.

The zoo made additional news in 2005 when it became the first United States zoo to no longer keep elephants on ethical grounds, claiming the Michigan winters were too harsh for the animals and that confining them to the elephant house during cold months was psychologically stressful.

An uproar ensued and the council, on March 1, 2006, voted to transfer operations to the Detroit Zoological Society with a promised $4 million grant from the Michigan Legislature.

In August 2008, voters in three metropolitan Detroit counties approved a millage to help fund the Zoo’s operations.

The Penguinarium was temporarily renamed the "Winguinarium" in 2009 while the Detroit Red Wings played the Pittsburgh Penguins in the 2009 NHL Stanley Cup Final.

In 2016, the award-winning Polk Penguin Conservation Center was opened, the largest penguin enclosure in the world.