Линкольн Парк зообағы: тарихы мен жануарлар әлемі

Zoo in Chicago, Illinois, United States
the zoo in Manitowoc, Wisconsin
N. Cannon Drive, Chicago, Illinois, United States
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|date opened=1868
|num species= 200
|members=AZA The zoo is an accredited member of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA). The zoo also became an accredited arboretum in 2019. Lincoln Park Zoo is home to a wide variety of animals. The zoo's exhibits include big cats, polar bears, penguins, gorillas, reptiles, monkeys, and other species totaling about 1,100 animals from some 200 species. Also located in Lincoln Park Zoo was a burr oak tree which was estimated to be 250+ years old. The tree was cut down on May 2, 2023, due to poor health. Thirty six scions of the tree were grafted onto root stock and are growing at the Morton Arboretum.

The zoo was founded in 1868, when the Lincoln Park Commissioners were given a gift of two pairs of swans by Central Park's Board of Commissioners in New York City. Other animals were soon donated to the park, including, a puma, two elk, three wolves, four eagles, and eight peacock. In 1874, a bear cub from the Philadelphia Zoo was the first animal purchased by the zoo, for US$10. The bear became quite adept at escaping from its home and could frequently be found roaming Lincoln Park at night. In 1884, reportedly the first American bison born in captivity was born at the Lincoln Park Zoo. At this time, the species had been hunted almost to extinction in the wild—in 1896, the United States government purchased one bull and seven cows from the Zoo's bison herd to send to Yellowstone National Park to assist in the species' revival. From 1920 until a Zoo expansion in 1994, the 1893 World's Fair Viking ship was located at the zoo. The zoo's great apes were moved to the Lester E. Fisher Great Ape House in 1976, named for the zoo's outgoing director, and the original Primate House was later renovated and reopened in 1992 as the Helen Brach Primate House, featuring more naturalistic settings. Marlin Perkins, who gained fame as the host of the television program Zoo Parade, and later Wild Kingdom, was director of the zoo from 1944 until 1962. He created and recruited a citizens group, the Lincoln Park Zoological Society, to support the Zoo's mission. The facility underwent a dramatic transformation in the 1970s and 1980s, with the additions of many new, naturalistic exhibits. In 1995, the Zoological Society assumed management of the zoo from the Chicago Park District, which is the land owner Zoo administration is currently housed in the nearby building previously used by the Chicago Academy of Sciences, which moved to a new facility in 1999. The Kovler Sea Lion Pool opened the same year after an extensive renovation, and it is now home to the zoo's harbor seals. Regenstein African Journey, a renovation of the zoo's former Large Mammal House, opened in 2003, turning the zoo's largest building from concrete showcases for a few large mammals into a series of naturalistic settings that tell the story of the wildlife of the African continent, welcoming the return of the zoo's African elephants and giraffes as well as new additions such as the aardvark, ostrich, and African wild dog. Two years later, the zoo renovated its Great Ape House, opening the Regenstein Center for African Apes, which focused on the zoo's troops of common chimpanzees and western lowland gorillas, putting a special emphasis on researching the behaviors of both species and creating new, naturalistic habitats. In 2003, the book The Ark in the Park: The Story of Lincoln Park Zoo was also published by the University of Illinois Press. The book was written by Mark Rosenthal, Carol Tauber, and Edward Uhlir. In 2010, Lincoln Park Zoo transformed the adjacent South Pond to create the Nature Boardwalk, an ecological habitat designed by Studio Gang Architects that features native wetlands plants and wildlife. It was soon announced it would be replaced with a newly renovated West Gate, featuring a children's train and an all new exhibit, Regenstein Macaque Forest, featuring Japanese macaques, or "snow monkeys", in a state of the art exhibit with a hot spring, set to open in fall 2014. It was announced in March 2014 that the zoo's Robert R. McCormick Bear Habitat, or "Bear Line", would be torn down and rebuilt with a large and significantly improved habitat for the zoo's lone polar bear, with much more land area for the bears and a behind the scenes den for breeding. The new exhibit would also feature a new African penguin habitat, a new species for the zoo from the tropical coasts of Africa, enabling them to stand the zoo's harsh summers as well as its cold winters. This exhibit would also be fully outdoors and equipped for over a dozen penguins with a behind the scenes breeding area. Construction began after the opening of Regenstein Macaque Forest in fall 2014, with Robert and Mayari Pritzker Penguin Cove opening in late 2016. In 2016, the Zoo announced the Pride of Chicago fundraising campaign, which sought $125 million in funding, and lead to the construction of Regenstein Macaque Forest, Robert and Mayari Pritzker Penguin Cove and Walter Family Arctic Tundra, would conclude with a long awaited $30 million renovation of the aging Kovler Lion House as part of the Pride of Chicago fundraising campaign, acknowledging the public perception problems with the exhibit, which had been constrained by its Historic Landmark status during previous renovations, most recently in 1992. The new exhibit opened in late 2021 and focuses squarely on lions as opposed to other big cat species it had previously held, such as tigers .

The zoo together with technological help from the Adler Planetarium is aiming to expand its survey of Chicago area wildlife with public assistance at an interactive website, Zooniverse. The zoo has positioned motion sensing cameras in the Chicago area to catch images of wildlife, and the public is asked to help identify the animals. The Zoo operates a number of youth focused programs including a number of year round camps, facilitated school program field trips, and a number of community engagement initiatives that prioritize the Little Village and North Lawndale communities. Both the Little Village and North Lawndale outreach programs include community gardening programs that focus on creating green spaces in Chicago and on promoting healthy eating habits. Like many other zoos and aquariums nationally, Lincoln Park Zoo adapted many of their programs to the digital format during the COVID 19 pandemic. This included creating modified versions of their local program offerings, such as running their Artecito program, which connects Little Village families with nature through the arts, in conjunction with the OPEN Center for the Arts through free biweekly programs.

A historic zoo landmark first built in 1912, the Kovler Lion House building stands at the heart of the zoo near its entrance, and has housed a variety of big cat species over the years, most notably many lions as well as Siberian tigers, which inhabited two grottos on the northern exterior of the building, each having access to multiple indoor areas alongside the interior main hall, and a glass window viewing areas on the end of each grotto for guests to get a closer view. Other big cats, such as the jaguar, were allowed rotating access to two to three indoor window exhibits at a time. The southern exterior included five lush habitats that housed a variety of different cat species over the years. In addition, they also held a pair of red pandas, which were part of the Species Survival Plan. The indoor area also has a large gift shop where visitors can purchase plush toys of big cats, bears, and other animals. Many of the species in the southern habitats shifted over the years, including Amur leopards, Eurasian lynxes, a Pallas's cat, and a puma in the exhibit's later years, with the last major addition being a one year old snow leopard named Taza who arrived on December 11, 2014. One of the exhibit's notable residents was Adelor the African lion, who lived at the zoo from 1995 until his death in February 2012 and was one of the zoo's most popular animals. Upon his death, an anonymous donor paid for a statue of Adelor which now stands at the East Gate. Another notable individual was a beloved black leopard, Marta, who was euthanized due to kidney problems in 2010. The zoo was also once known for having some of the only Asiatic lions in the United States, but these were later found to have received African Asian hybrids. In 2016, the zoo announced a $30 million renovation of the habitat as part of the Pride of Chicago fundraising campaign, acknowledging the public perception problems of the historic building, and confirming that the focus would be a more naturalistic space for African lions, along with spaces for the Canada lynx, Snow leopards, and red pandas. The exhibit closed in 2019 for the renovation and reopened as the Pepper Family Wildlife Center in the fall of 2021. On March 15/16, 2022, a male lion cub was born following a 3 1/2 to 4 month gestation period. The cub is named Pilipili, meaning Pepper in Swahili language, and he is the offspring of lioness Zari and male Jabari. It was the zoo's first lion cub birth in 20 years. Three additional lion cubs were born January 9, 2023 to the same African lion pairing, bringing the total number of lions in the pride up to eight.