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mommamea13 · 11-07-2009, 07:39 AM

My daughter is going to the Zoo today. So, I thought that we could talk about zoos. Have you ever been? I have been to a couple and love them.

According to Wikipedia.com:
"A zoological garden, zoological park, menagerie, or zoo is a facility in which animals are confined within enclosures, displayed to the public, and in which they may also be bred.
The term zoological garden refers to zoology, the study of animals, a term deriving from the Greek zωο (Zōo – "animal") and λóγος (lógos – "study"). The abbreviation "zoo" was first used of the London Zoological Gardens, which opened for scientific study in 1828 and to the public in 1847.[1] The number of major animal collections open to the public around the world now exceeds 1,000, around 80 percent of them in cities.[2]"

Research shows that zoos have been around for a long time, before the above mentioned London Zoological Gardens in 1828.
"The predecessor of the zoological garden is the menagerie, which has a long history from the ancient world to modern times. In the second century BCE, the Chinese Empress Tanki had a "house of deer" built, and King Wen of Zhou kept a 1,500-acre zoo called Ling-Yu, or the Garden of Intelligence. Other well-known collectors of animals included King Solomon of the Kingdom of Israel and Judah, Kings Semirami and Ashurbanipal of Assyria, and King Nebuchadrezzar of Babylonia.[2] By the fourth century BCE, zoos existed in most of the Greek city states; Alexander the Great is known to have sent animals that he found on his military expeditions back to Greece.

I hope that everyone will have an amazing weekend!!!