Zoo 23

Zoo, Artis at Amsterdam the netherlands .

Artis was founded on May 1, 1838 as Zoological Society Natura Artis Magistra initiated by bookseller Westerman, along with commission Werleman Wijsmuller and watchmaker.
The aim was to nature in both living and non-living form closer to its citizens. They bought a site in the Plantation, when the green suburb of Amsterdam, and let it drop and building a garden setting. The name was quickly simplified to Artis, the part of the name at the top of the gate with gilded eagles found. On May 1, 1852 received the Royal Society the predicate.

Initially, the ever-growing collection of so-called "natural history", in spirits out specimens, skeletons, stuffed animals, shells, fossils and rocks, as important as the zoo. The museum moved in 1855 to the 'Great' Museum, Plantage Middenlaan, which swiftly became too small. Eventually the naturaliaverzameling merged with the collection of the University of Amsterdam and in 1882 the collection went to the Zoological Museum.

The extensive ethnological collection Artis long possessed, moved in 1921 to nearby Tropenmuseum. A third component, the zoological library of 20,000 titles eventually, got its own building on the ground and remained there in 1939 when she went to the University, including the famous zoological print room (90,000 prints). This unit is now part of the Special Collections of the UBA.

In the first year Artis was almost only to members, who jointly funded the garden. Non-members were only allowed to visit the zoo in September.

Artis started as a garden with a pond and a conservatory of sixty to eighty meters in the place of the current farm. The first animals were monkeys, deer, parrots and a "wildcat Surinam" (probably a species Leopardus) supplemented with the kind of government lien Reindert Dragon. In the first year we bought for four hundred guilders a panther.

In 1839 there was the purchase of the menagerie of Cornelis van Aken, which includes a striped hyena, an elephant and an Indian idol long included, for 30,000 guilders. This led to the first expansion of the Zoo: The old middle court was expanded with the Wooded banks on both sides of the Nieuwe Prinsengracht.

A ferry transported visitors between the two parts of the zoo. The canal was in fact still used for commercial shipping between Amstel and Entrepotdok, what night was a problem because sailors or even a free trip to the zoo brought.

In 1866 the canal property of Artis and converted into three large ponds with bridges between the architect Salm. Artis in 1877 reached an area of ​​ten hectares, located between the Plantage Kerklaan, Plantage Plantage Middenlaan and Doklaan. Meanwhile the original zoo in Plantation expanded to include building a predator (1859) and an aquarium (1882), long been a leader in the world.

Shortly after the centenary in 1938 threatened bankruptcy and closure for Artis because of high debts, aging and declining attendance. The "Salvation Committee Artis, the zoo financially supported, was founded. The land and buildings were sold to the city of Amsterdam. The livestock remained of the Zoo. In 1940, around the beginning of World War II, the weather improved with Artisteer. Even after the outbreak of the war there was enough food for the animals and enough building materials.

With nearly one million guilders that the sale had been completed new projects such as the Camel Field, the Rock Apes (both from 1940) and the Rocky Mountain Animals (now Capricorn Rock) (1941).

An important role in this was Director Armand Jean Louis Sunier, who was born Swiss, German language very well controlled and also a good negotiator and so the Germans could turn to supply the required materials.

On the night of 13 on June 14, 1941 Artis was hit by Allied incendiary bombs that were intended for railway land adjacent to the Plantation Doklaan. There was surprisingly only damage to buildings.

In September 1941 the zoo was ordered by the occupying Jewish members, many of whom traditionally were their access. In 1945 the zoo was also difficult and there was a shortage of food and fuel pump for the aquarium.

To commemorate the 150th anniversary in 1988 the zoo opened the Planetarium (formerly located in the Gaasperpark). In 1992 came the geological museum. Artis began in the late nineties with a series of innovations, made possible by the acquisition of the adjacent railway land of four acres at the Plantation and Doklaan Entrepotdok. In 1997 it was completely renovated with a coral reef aquarium, a tidal wood from the Amazon and the fauna of an Amsterdam canal.

The first innovation was the construction of the Wolvenbos in 1999, followed by a recreated African savannah landscape at the Entrepotdok later that year. On the spot by the relocation of the zebra and wildebeest was released, the South American pampas built, which opened in 2004. In 2005, the new Insectarium opened, followed by a large butterfly pavilion in 2006. Since then the zoo has the world's largest insectarium.

hope you like it , greetz len