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The Alipore Zoological Gardens (also informally called the Alipore Zoo or Calcutta Zoo) is India's oldest formally stated zoological park (as opposed to royal and British menageries) and a big tourist attraction in Kolkata, West Bengal. It has been open as a zoo since 1876, and covers . It is probably best known as the home of the now expired Aldabra giant tortoise ''Adwaita'', which was reputed to have been over 250 years old when it died in 2006. It is also home to one of the few captive breeding projects involving the Manipur brow-antlered deer. As of 2015, the latest births at the zoo are that of Grant's zebra, and Indian muntjac. In 2014, an animal smuggler's den was discovered in Baguihati, a North Kolkata suburb, where three chimpanzees, eight marmosets and around 250 birds including three endemic species were kept hidden. The Kolkata Police handed over all the animals to the Alipore Zoo Authority, and now these animals are on display for the public. In November 2014, the zoo moved out the three elephants which had been staying at the zoo for around 20 years, on terms laid by the Central Zoo Authority, which stated that adult elephants could not be kept in enclosures in any zoo. These elephants were sent to the Jaldapara Wildlife Sanctuary. In turn, two baby elephants and an orphaned rhinoceros calf was brought to the zoo. Another notable incident from 2014 was the escaping of a zebra, which ran out of its enclosure during early morning hours and led the zoo officials on a 45-minute chase. The zoo has been gifted a pair of Aldabra giant tortoise from Seychelles. A new reptile house has also started functioning and some new reptiles such as the tokay gecko have been introduced. The zoo presumably set a record when around 75,000 people visited the zoo on January 1, 2015. ==History== The zoo had its roots in a private menagerie established by Governor General of India, Richard Wellesley, established around 1800 in his summer home at Barrackpore near Kolkata, as part of the ''Indian Natural History Project''.〔Sally R. Walker; (The Indian Natural History Project (1801-1808) and the Menagerie at Barrackpore (1803-1878) ) ;Lost, stolen or strayed: the fate of missing natural history collections; Naturalis Museum, Leiden, The Netherlands. 10–11 May 2001〕〔Sally R. Walker; ( Descriptions and Drawings of Selected Quadrupeds of the Indian Natural History Project, Barrackpore ) ;Lost, stolen or strayed: the fate of missing natural history collections; Naturalis Museum, Leiden, The Netherlands. 10–11 May 2001〕 The first superintendent of the menagerie was the famous Scottish physician zoologist Francis Buchanan-Hamilton. Buchanan-Hamilton returned to England with Wellesley in 1805 following the Governor-General's recall by the Court of Directors in London. The collection from this era are documented by watercolours by Charles D'Oyly, and a visit by the famous French botanist Victor Jacquemont.〔Gautaman Bhaskaran, (Where past overshadows present ), The Hindu, 14 January 2001〕 Sir Stamford Raffles visited the menagerie in 1810, encountering his first tapir there, and doubtless used some aspects of the menagerie as an inspiration for the London Zoo.〔 The foundation of zoos in major cities around the world caused a growing thought among the British community in Kolkata that the menagerie should be upgraded to a formal zoological garden. Credence to such arguments was lent by an article in the now-defunct ''Calcutta Journal of Natural History'' July 1841 issue. In 1873, the Lieutenant-Governor Sir Richard Temple formally proposed the formation of a zoo in Kolkata, and the Government finally allotted land for the zoo based on to the joint petition of the Asiatic Society and ''Agri-Horticultural Society''. The zoo was formally opened in Alipore - a posh Kolkata suburb, and inaugurated on 1 January 1876 by Edward VII, then Prince of Wales. (Some reports place the inauguration on an alternate date of 27 December 1875).〔 The initial stock consisted of the private menagerie of Carl Louis Schwendler (1838 – 1882), a German electrician who was posted in India for a feasibility study of electrically lighting Indian Railway stations. Gifts were also accepted from the general public. The initial collection consisted of the following animals: African buffalo, Zanzibar ram, domestic sheep, four-horned sheep, hybrid Kashmiri goat, Indian antelope, Indian gazelle, sambar deer, spotted deer and hog deer It is not clear whether the Aldabra giant tortoise Adwaita was among the opening stock of animals. The animals at Barrackpore Park were added to the collection over the first few months of 1886, significantly increasing its size. The zoo was thrown open to the public on 6 May 1876.〔D. K. Mittra, (Role of Ram Brahma Sanyal in initiating zoological researches on the animals in captivity ), Indian Journal of History of Science, 27(3), 1992〕 It grew based on gifts from British and Indian nobility - like Raja Suryakanta Acharya of Mymensingh in whose honour the open air tiger enclosure is named the ''Mymensingh Enclosure''. Other contributors who donated part or all of their private menagerie to the Alipore Zoo included the Maharaja of Mysore Krishna Raja Wadiyar IV.〔(Article ), The Wellsboro Gazette, 1 May 1919〕 The park was initially run by an honorary managing committee which included Schwendler and the famous botanist George King. The first Indian superintendent of the zoo was Ram Brahma Sanyal, who did much to improve the standing of the Alipore Zoo and achieved good captive breeding success in an era when such initiatives were rarely heard of.〔 One such success story of the zoo was a live birth of the rare Sumatran rhinoceros in 1889. The next pregnancy in captivity occurred at the Cincinnati Zoo in 1997, but ended with a miscarriage.〔(Rhino loses fetus ), Cincinnati Post, 14 November 1997〕 Cincinnati Zoo finally recorded a live birth in 2001. Alipore Zoo was a pioneer among zoos in the 19th century and the early part of the 20th century under Sanyal, who published the first handbook on captive animal keeping.〔Walker, S.: Ram Brahma Sanyal – the first zoo biologist. Zoos' Print Vol. 15, No. 5 (1999), Back when . . . & then? section, p. 9.〕〔Kisling, V.N.: Zoo history and the Sanyal legacy. Zoos' Print Vol. 14, No. 4 (1999), Back when . . . & then? section, p. 2〕 The zoo had an unusually high scientific standard for its time, and the record of the ''Cladotaenia'' genus (Cohn, 1901) of parasites are based upon cestodes (flatworm) found in an Australian bird that died at the zoo.〔(Website ) of the Government of Australia〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Alipore Zoological Gardens」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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