Philadelphia Zoo celebrates 150 years

AMERICA'S FIRST zoo has come a long way since it opened in the 1800s with "exotic" animals such as bears in a pit, a wandering elk and some prairie dogs.

The Philadelphia Zoo today begins a year-long celebration of the 150th anniversary of its birth with exhibits featuring "face to face" meetings between zoogoers and lions - separated by a thick pane of glass - and a new, modern aviary opening in May that will feature more than 100 spectacular birds from around the world, many of them endangered.

The birdhouse, the McNeil Avian Center, will replace a zoo birdhouse built in 1916.

The Philadelphia Zoological Society was chartered in 1859, the year Charles Darwin published "The Origin of Species." But the Civil War intervened and the zoo didn't actually open its doors until July 1, 1874.

It has been the site of the first successful births of an orangutan and chimpanzee - both in 1928 - in an American zoo. It also has been the site of the nearly 50-year reign of Massa, who was until 2008 the world's longest-living gorilla in captivity, and numerous other events, including the retirement of Leo, the MGM lion, after his 15-year movie career.

The zoo also has seen its share of tragedies, including the deaths of several elephants and the terrible Christmas Eve fire in 1995, sparked by faulty wiring, that killed 23 gorillas and other primates.

Although generations of children fondly remember the zoo, and its since torn-down monorail, it is not without its detractors.

Animal activists question the very idea of keeping animals captive.

A group of activists called Friends of Philly Zoo Elephants planned to demonstrate outside the zoo today, protesting the living quarters for the zoo's two elephants. The group's spokeswoman, Marianne Bessey, referred to the exhibit, built in 1941, as "postage-sized."

"Sadly, most of the animals at the zoo continue to be confined to decades-old exhibits," Bessey said.

Today and tomorrow, the zoo will commemorate its beginnings with a Victorian Festival harking back to its beginning in that era.

There will be a birthday-cake competition, storytellers and Victorian-era entertainment, including barbershop quartets and brass bands.

The new $17.5 million aviary, which includes walk-through habitats and a multiscreen display tracing the migration of an oriole called Otis, born in Fairmount Park, to Central America.

To build the aviary, the zoo "recycled" the historic facade of its 1916 birdhouse and also is using a geothermal system to heat and cool the building.

The zoo continues to raise money for a new children's zoo, which it hopes to open in 2011. *