Alaska Zoo

Logo of the Alaska Zoo

The Alaska Zoo is a 10 -acre zoo in Anchorage, Alaska. The approximately 100 birds and mammals draw annually to nearly 200,000 visitors. The main focus is on indigenous species, but also not native to Alaska species such as Siberian tigers living in the zoo.

Addition to the presentation of the animals, the zoo has specialized in education, research, conservation and reintroduction. Many of the surviving animals in the zoo were injured or orphaned found in the wild.

History

The origins of the zoo go back to 1966, when Jack Snyder, a grocer from Anchorage, in a contest " $ 3,000 or a baby elephant " won. He chose the animal and received a female Asian elephant named Annabelle. The elephant was initially housed at the Diamond H Ranch Horse of Sammye Seawell in Anchorage, since these had the only heated barn in the area.

The increasing popularity of the elephant caused Seawell establishing a non-profit society whose goal was a facility in which the public could observe animals and learn about them. On March 28, 1968, the Alaska Children's Zoo was founded, which was opened the following year on adjacent to Seawells ranch land. 1980, the name was changed in Alaska Zoo.

Controversy surrounding the keeping elephants

1983 was bought as a society for Annabelle an African elephant named Maggie. After Annabelle's death on 15 December 1997, the zoo animal welfare organizations has been severely criticized because without the opportunity for contact with other dogs in Alaska for elephants he kept Maggie to cool climate and they did not issue in a nature reserve, as and example, the zoos in Detroit San Francisco had done according to similar criticism. The Alaska Zoo argued with the risks of a move, doubled the size of Maggie's enclosure and installed a treadmill for elephants. In 2007, the zoo to public pressure but by and Maggie gave to the reserve of the Performing Animal Welfare Society in California.