Last night Dr Andy Flack presented a fascinating lecture based on his new book ‘The Wild Within’. He looked at the ways animals in the zoo have been seen as commodities, spectacles and objects for our emotions over time from the start of the Zoo in the 1830’s to the 21st century. A large audience that included HA Branch and National members, Bristol University and Bristol Zoo staff, family and friends of Dr Flack and Bristolians who remembered their experience of the zoo learnt about how the zoo had evolved over time. In particular Andy brought out the different stories of Alfred the Gorilla who began as young gorilla who was photographed playing with children and evolved into a Bristol institution who was linked with Bristol’s war time experiences and whose death in 1948 was seen as major event across the city. He then went to examine the lives of the elephants Rosie, Wendy and Christina and their close relationships with the public, their even closer relationships with their keepers and the way by the time of Wendy’s death in 2002 attitudes were changing so that visitors in the condolences book questioned keeping animals in zoos. He mentioned along the way Bristol Zoo’s close relationship with BBC’s Animal Magic and its presenter Johnny Morris which made the animals of the zoo the “pets” of children across Britain. Finally Andy told his fascinated audience about the controversy around Misha the Polar Bear and how the reaction to Misha’s unhappiness caused a change of direction at the zoo in the 1990’s with smaller animals on display and a much greater emphasis on conservation. The lecture reminded all of us what a unique zoo Bristol is and how it’s history showed us insights into how humans react to animals across time.
Bristol Historical Association 