It began with a roar

A film with historical footage covering the period from the opening in 1916 to 1972. The title is the well-known phrase used to refer to the moment Dr Harry Wegeforth drove past Balboa Park grounds where the temporary animal collection of the Panama California Exposition was kept, and a lion roared. Wegeforth, hearing the lion roaring, said to his brother in the car: “Wouldn’t it be splendid if San Diego had a zoo! You know…I think I’ll start one.” And so it began. The footage of 1916 shows several species, such as leopard, puma, bear and lion, at the brand new Zoo. The animals are kept and exhibited in a row of cages, which soon would be aborted when Hagenbeck’s philosophy of bar-less enclosures was introduced. Stills with images of Dr. Harry Wegeforth, San Diego Zoo’s founder, commemorates the local physician who became zoo director from 1916 until 1941. In the 1920s cages made way for modern enclosures where some species could be kept in groups according to their natural behaviour,