Celebrating 95 years of inspiring a love for wildlife and the great outdoors, take a look at this gallery of iconic images from our history.
The nostalgic gallery includes a photo of two elephants and two camels being walked to Whipsnade Zoo from Dunstable railway station, a trio of brown bear cubs being hand-reared by zookeepers, and one of the earliest photographs of the Zoo’s iconic chalk white lion from 1933.
The Zoo is run by international conservation charity ZSL, which is celebrating its 200th anniversary this year. ZSL opened Whipsnade on Sunday 23 May 1931, pioneering Europe’s first ‘open zoo’ –the first wildlife park in Europe designed specifically to give large herd animals huge habitats in which to roam.
An iconic opening
When Whipsnade Zoo opened on 23 May 1931, it was an immediate success and welcomed tens of thousands of excited visitors in its opening week. The bank holiday Monday after Whipsnade opened was so busy, it welcomed almost 30,000 visitors.
What is Whipsnade Zoo like today?
The UK’s largest Zoo, Whipsnade is a hive of conservation activity, from vital conservation breeding programmes for endangered species like the scimitar-horned oryx, Asian elephants and white rhinos – Whipsnade Zoo has welcomed 60 white rhino calves as part of the conservation breeding programme. It’s also the hub for ZSL’s globally-important freshwater fish conservation projects, for species including the Extinct-in-the-Wild Potosi pupfish.
Want to know more?
Walk and Talks
Join us on a relaxing guided walk around the zoo. Each tour has a different theme.