The Denver zoo is the most popular cultural attraction in all of Colorado and is constantly ranked as one of the top zoos in the country thanks tom its diverse amount of animals it has. Denver doesn't need much help in selling itself really as it has an average of 300 days of sunshine so you can bet that it is an ideal place when choosing Colorado rentals. The Denver zoo is just one of the attractions of the city you can't missed as its part of the city's history and character.
The history of the zoo stated when the mayor of the city (Thomas S. McMurry) was given a black bear cub as a gift in 1895. The bear cub who was called Billy Bryan was hard to manage so so he gave it to the keeper of the Denver city park Alexander Graham. He started the zoo with just this animal and then as time went on he began to add additions such as waterfowl that would gather at the lake, Prairie dogs and Antelope that would roam the park. Also Chinese Pheasants which were beginning to populate parts of the state. There was a short Bird epidemic thanks to a growth of population of red squirrels which were added to the zoo in at the beginning of the 20th century. It got so bad that there was a plan to shoot the squirrels but thankfully those plans didn't come to fruition as citizens had protested against the barbaric ways. Instead they were many of them were captured and relocated to the Denver Mountain Parks.
It was around this time that the mayor (Robert W Speer) decided that the park should change its encasing of animals 'Prison bars can be done away with' which lead to the park calling an architect in to draw up plans to renovated and improve the park. The result of this was a new Bear Mountain exhibit that cost $50,000 to build and featured hidden moats rather than cage bars. The south part of this exhibit was meant to house monkeys but dues to their mischievous ways of escaping it became home to sea lions and now today Conti with Grizzly bears and Asiatic Black bears located in the other parts of the exhibit. This was built and opened in 1918 and was just the start of many things to come as the next thing to be built was Monkey Island in 1936 as part of a WPA project. 14 years later Monkey Island was renovated with a moated added in order to accommodate birds such as pelicans.
There are many more exhibits that house many more animals that range from various species. At this zoo you can see Bears like Grizzly and Asiatic, primates like Gorillas and Orangutans. Cats big and small Tigers and Meerkats. There are many others that are popular with visitors such as the wolves that can be found in Wolf Pack Woods and the Polar bears. In total there are approximately 3,500 animals and over 650 species and the zoo is always looking to expand them numbers.
The zoo also has other facilities that caters to its visitors such as the Endangered Species Carousel that is wooden replicas of some of the animals at the zoo. There is also the Pioneer train which travels around the zoo and is the first natural gas powered train in the United States. There is also the Gates Wildlife Conservation Education Centre and the Wild Encounters outdoor amphitheatre. So you can visit animals and get a dose of information and entertainment at the same proving why it is one of the top zoos in the country.
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