It was a bucolic Summer’s day and a short train ride to the Brookfield Zoo with a picnic to be savored. I wanted to take photographs of the Zoo animals for my next children’s book with a working title of “A Zoo Menagerie.”
The Chicago Zoological Society manages the Zoo, but it is owned by the Cook County Forest Preserve District. In 1919 Edith Rockefeller McCormick donated land she had received from her father as a wedding gift for development as a zoological garden. Then Cook County Forest Preserve District added 98 acres to that plot and in 1926 serious construction began. Construction slowed during the Great Depression, but by late 1931 further work began.
The Zoo opened July 1, 1934 and there were more than one million visitors to the Zoo that year. Two years later four million visited the Zoo.
Brookfield was the first in America to exhibit giant pandas, one of which Su Lin, has been taxidermized and put on display at Chicago’s Field Museum. In 1960 Brookfield was the Nation’s first fully indoor dolphin exhibit.
In the 1950s a veterinary hospital, a children’s zoo and the central fountain were added. The fountain is named for the 26th president of the United States, Theodore Roosevelt. The fountain’s spouting water can reach up to 60 feet high.
In the 1980s Tropic World became the first fully indoor rainforest simulation and the then largest-indoor zoo exhibit in the world. Designed by French architect Pierre Venoa, it was opened in three phases (Africa, Asia, and South America) between 1982 and 1984.
On this Summer’s day the Zoo, naturally, was busy with families enjoying each other and showing their children the magnificent animals. I captured fabulous images of the Amur tiger named Whirl, 16 years old, and their snow leopard age 8, named Malaya.
A flock of geese numbering dozens sauntered past the Roosevelt Fountain without a care in the world. They passed the toucans who were enjoying the slight breeze that Summer’s morning. I always find visiting a zoo to be a delightful experience, walking about, enjoying the scene.
I sometimes wonder if the animals are content to be living enclosed rather than in cold Siberia or Manchuria. Tigers usually live in snow-covered mountain forests, where I must surmise that the tigers enjoy the Chicago Winters! And being fed and well cared for by staff who pay attention to them.
There is still plenty of great weather to plan a visit to a zoo, including the free Phillips Park Zoo in Aurora, the Cosley Zoo in Wheaton, the free Paul Vilas Zoo in Madison, the Peoria Zoo, the Bloomington Zoo, the Milwaukee Zoo, or the free Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago.
The Brookfield Zoo is an expensive visit at $25 adult/senior ticket and $20 parking. I wonder how some zoos can be free and others charge exorbitant rates.
So, take the BNSF train which is a short ride to the Zoo stop and saunter past the dragonfly marsh, the habitat Africa! The Savannah, the family play zoo, or tropic world. Sit at one of the many outdoor cafes, or bring your own picnic, watch the world go by. Volunteers are all about the Zoo to help you in any way. You may walk for hours and return home quite satisfied.