DC Pages / History of DC / National Zoological Park
The National Zoo, established by Congress in 1889, maintains a large and varied animal collection for exhibition, study, propogation, and preservation of endangered species. The animals are housed along Washington's Rock Creek on 163 acres laid out by the firm of Frederick Law Olmsted, the renowned landscape architect. The Zoo also manages a 3,150 acre center near Front Royal, Virginia, for the propagation and conservation of endangered species, and the training of biologists form developing countries in the methods of wildlife conservation. This facility is not open to the public.
Before 1889, the third Secretary Samuel Pierpont Langley and chief taxidermist William Temple Hornaday created a Department of Living Animals for species, like the bison, that were disappearing from North America. A small menagerie behind the Smithsonian Institution Building becam the nucleus of the original Zoo collection.
Animal-collecting expeditions in the 1920's and 1930's along with gifts from individuals and foreign governments and exchanges form other zoos, all contributed to the Zoo's population. Star residents today include Hsing-Hsing, a gian panda, and Kraken, on of 13 Komodo dran lizards-the first hatchlings ever produced outside their Indonesian homeland.
Today, the National Zoo is evolving into a Bio Park, which focuses on the natural interdependence of life on Earth and integrates elements of the natural sciences, human cultures, and the arts.
Exhibition highlights inclide Think Tank, which encourages animals to demonstrate their cognitive skills; Pollinarium, with illustrates the relationship between flowering plants and their animal pollinators; and Amazonia, which features a lush tropical rain forest.