Historical footage of Basel Zoo

Footage of some of the highlights since the opening of Basel Zoo. Basel zoo opened its gates to the public, on 18 July 1874. At the time there were 94 mammals (of 35 species) and 416 birds (of 83 species) to be seen on a premises of 4.3 hectares. Soon the Zoo management started to exhibit exotic people as well, an idea first introduced and made popular by Carl Hagenbeck, an animal trader who opened his own zoo in Hamburg in the beginning of the twentieth century. These ‘Völkerschau’ became successful in those days in Europe, when colonialism was still common practice. It increased the turnstile numbers significantly. From 1879 until 1935 exotic people were – voluntarily but against payment – exhibited in Basel Zoo. In 1949 an aardvark was sourced from the wild in Tanganyika (now Tanzania), and transported to Basel by Dr. R. Geigy. In 1952 a female Indian rhinoceros, called Joymothi, was caught in India and transported to the Zoo in Switzerland. When her first calf was born on 14 Se