Downs' Zoological Gardens is the oldest North American scientific

zoo A zoo (short for zoological garden; also called an animal park or menagerie) is a facility in which animals are kept within enclosures for public exhibition and often bred for Conservation biology, conservation purposes. The term ''zoological g ...

north of Mexico, and opened to the public the same year as the

London Zoo London Zoo, also known as ZSL London Zoo or London Zoological Gardens is the world's oldest scientific zoo. It was opened in London on 27 April 1828, and was originally intended to be used as a collection for science, scientific study. In 1831 o ...

Opening

It was opened in

Nova Scotia Nova Scotia ( ; ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is one of the three Maritime provinces and one of the four Atlantic provinces. Nova Scotia is Latin for "New Scotland". Most of the population are native Eng ...

in 1847, and was originally intended to be used as a collection for

scientific study Scientific study is a kind of study that involves scientific theory, scientific models, experiments and physical situations. It may refer to: *Scientific method, a body of techniques for investigating phenomena, based on empirical or measurabl ...

. By the early 1860s, the zoo grounds covered 40 - 100 hectares. It became a popular place for many people of Halifax to visit.

Features

The Zoo had many fine flowers and ornamental trees, picnic areas, statues, walking paths, The Glass House (which contained a greenhouse with an aviary, aquarium, and museum of stuffed animals and birds), a pond, a bridge over a waterfall, an artificial lake with a fountain, a wood-ornamented greenhouse, a forest area, and enclosures and buildings.

Closing

The zoo closed in 1868, when zookeeper

Andrew Downs Andrew Downes may refer to: * Andrew Downes (composer) (1950–2023), British classical composer * Andrew Downes (scholar) Andrew Downes, also known as Dounaeus (2 February 1628), was an England, English classical scholar. Life He was born in ...

was offered a job to set up a zoo at

Central Park Central Park is an urban park in New York City located between the Upper West Side, Upper West and Upper East Sides of Manhattan. It is the List of New York City parks, fifth-largest park in the city, covering . It is the most visited urban par ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

. The land and animals were sold and Downs moved his family to New York. In three months, Downs had quit the job in New York and moved back to Nova Scotia and attempted to rebuild the old zoo.

References

{{Zoos of Nova Scotia Zoos in Nova Scotia Former zoos 1847 establishments in Nova Scotia Zoos established in 1847 Zoos disestablished in 1876