Early years

The Zoological Society of London was founded in 1826 by Sir Stamford Raffles with the aim of promoting the worldwide conservation of animals and their habitats. To this end London Zoo in Regents Park, London was established.

Almost 100 years later, Sir Peter Chalmers Mitchell (ZSL Secretary 1903–1935) was inspired by a visit to the Bronx Zoological Park to create a park in Britain as a conservation centre.^[7]

Hall Farm, a derelict farm on the Dunstable Downs, 30 mi (48 km) to the north of London was purchased by the Zoological Society of London in 1926 for £13,480 12s 10d.^[8] The site was fenced, roads built and trees planted.

The first animals arrived at the park in 1928, including two Lady Amherst's pheasants, a golden pheasant, and five red junglefowl. Others soon followed including muntjac, llama, wombats and skunks.

Whipsnade Park Zoo opened on Sunday 23 May 1931. It was the first open zoo in Europe to be easily accessible to the visiting public. It was an immediate success and received over 38,000 visitors on the following Monday. The brown bear enclosure is a surviving feature from the earliest days of the zoo.^[9]

The collection of animals was boosted in 1932 by the purchase of a collection from a defunct travelling menagerie and some of the larger animals walked to the zoo from Dunstable station.

The distinctive white lion hill figure was completed in 1933 and refreshed in 2018.^[10]

World War II

During the Second World War, the zoo acted as a refuge for animals evacuated from the Regents Park London Zoo. The celebrity giant pandas Ming, Sung and Tang were among these animals but were soon returned to London to boost morale in the capital. During 1940, 41 bombs fell on the park with little damage to the zoo structure; a 3-year-old giraffe named Boxer, which had been born at the zoo, was frightened to death by the explosions. Some of the ponds in the park are the remains of bomb craters from this period.

Recent developments

In 1996, a new elephant house and paddock was opened to replace the architecturally outstanding but cramped original elephant house designed by Lubetkin and Tecton in 1935. The old house remains at the zoo as a Grade II* listed building^[11] and its associated enclosure contains the zoo's lemurs.

In the early 2000s the zoo added new exhibits including Lions of the Serengeti in 2005, a walk-through lemur enclosure in 2007 (officially opened on 28 March 2007 by Dominic Byrne from The Chris Moyles Show on Radio 1, who is a regular visitor to the park), the Rhinos of Nepal exhibit in February 2007, Cheetah Rock on Easter 2008, a sloth bear exhibit in May 2008, and Wild Wild Whipsnade in May 2009. In July 2008, the Café on the Lake was reopened after remodelling, with its name changed to the Wild Bite Café.

In May 2009, William Windsor (known as Billy), a goat mascot of the British Army's Royal Welsh regiment, retired to the zoo after eight years' distinguished service performing ceremonial duties.^[12]

Butterfly House

The Butterfly House opened in 2016, the house is home to various species of butterfly and dwarf crocodiles, it is a walkthrough exhibit so the Butterflies are flying around when people go through the exhibit. This house is also home to one of the largest moths in the world; the atlas moth.^[13]

Passage Through Asia

Passage Through Asia is a large paddock with no boundaries between visitors and the animals. Visitors can only access the area by driving through it in their own cars or riding on the Jumbo Express train. The paddock houses herds of Bactrian camels, barasingha, fallow deer, sika deer, Père David's deer and yaks.

Lions of the Serengeti

Opened in 2005, Lions of the Serengeti was home to a pride of 7 African lions. The pride of African lions included two adult females named Mashaka-Lia and Kachanga, three younger males named Neo, Toto and Max, and a younger female named Kia. The four younger lions are the offspring of Spike, the zoo's former male lion and Mashaka-Lia, and were born in April 2006. In October 2021 Toto died at the age of 15 due to ill health. In December 2021 the remaining lions Neo, Kia and Max were euthanized after age related conditions were beginning to cause them pain and discomfort. The Lion habitat is now closed until a suitable breeding group can be sourced.^[14]

In early 2022, the zoo temporarily housed 5 lions named Zero, Tor, Jabu, Mo and Kaya from Africa Alive! Suffolk, after their enclosure suffered damage from Storm Eunice.^[15]

From May 2022, the zoo housed Khari, a male lion from the Blackpool Zoo. ^[16] Khari will leave Whipsnade Zoo in 2023 Summer to return to Blackpool Zoo. Whipsnade will continue to search for an appropriate breeding group. Later, two new lionesses from Belgium and a male from Germany will join the zoo's collection.

Sea Lion Splash (closed)

A sea lion performing in Sea Lion Splash.

Formerly the zoo's Dolphin Pool, Sea Lion Splash was a daily demonstration in which the zoo's three trained California sea lions (two females named Bailey and Lara, and a male named Dom) perform tricks and stunts in their pool (referred to as the 'Splash Zone'). In June 2015, Dom and Bailey gave birth to a male sea lion called Oscar.^[17] In February 2021, the zoo's sea lions were transferred to Yorkshire Wildlife Park, in South Yorkshire.^[18]

Elephant herd

Elephants being led around ZSL Whipsnade Zoo

ZSL Whipsnade Zoo keeps a herd of nine Asian elephants, consisting of cows Lucha, Kaylee, Karishma, Kaylee's female calf Donna, and bull elephant Ming Jung, who arrived in November 2019 as part of the European Endangered Species Programme. Their paddock is seven acres, and features three pools, mud wallows and dust baths. One of the female elephants, named Karishma, and her pregnancy with her first calf George, featured heavily in the first series of the ITV documentary programme The Zoo, which follows the daily lives of the staff at both Whipsnade and London Zoo. Another female calf was born during the Queen's birthday celebrations and was named Elizabeth. The elephant herd moved to a new indoor facility, the Centre for Elephant Care, which opened in Easter of 2017.

Rhinos of Nepal

Nepalese rhino feeding at Whipsnade

Opened in February 2008, Rhinos of Nepal houses a group of four Indian rhinoceros – Hugo, Beluki, Behan and a young male called Bali (born to Behan in September 2015). The building aims to be environmentally friendly, using rain water captured on the roof to fill the pools, heating the pools with solar energy and featuring barriers that are made from recycled wooden railway sleepers instead of metal bars.

Birds of the World

A daily educational show in which keepers present various bird species demonstrating their natural abilities to an audience of visitors.

Cheetah Rock

A Sudan cheetah at Cheetah Rock.

Opened in 2008, this exhibit is home to a group of cheetahs, and features displays that inform visitors about ZSL's cheetah conservation project in Tanzania. Despite ZSL's conservation project being focused on East Africa, the Cheetahs at Whipsnade are in fact Sudan cheetahs from Northeast Africa.^[19] The zoo is now home to three male cheetahs who moved in 2022 from Ireland.

Children's Farm

A West African pygmy goat at the Children's Farm.

An area aimed primarily at children and housing domesticated livestock such as turkeys, llamas, alpacas, cows, silkie chickens, horses, donkeys, and goats, most of which are free-roaming. The Children's Farm is also home to a female Bennett's wallaby named Pip, who was abandoned by her mother and hand-reared by keepers.

Wild Wild Whipsnade

Wild Wild Whipsnade was opened in 2010. This exhibit is home to several species of animal that lived in the wild in Britain hundreds of years ago. These include Eurasian brown bears, wolverines, Eurasian lynx, reindeer, wild boar, and European bison.

Other animals

Other species in the zoo's collection that are not part of a themed exhibit include Amur tigers, blesbok, Asian small-clawed otters, red pandas, great white pelicans, gemsbok, sloth bears, meerkats, aardvarks, Cape porcupines, common ostriches, reticulated giraffes, southern white rhinoceroses, Przewalski's wild horses, chimpanzees, American flamingos, northern rockhopper penguins, Grévy's zebra, African wild dogs, bongo, hippopotamus, scimitar-horned oryx, waterbuck, African penguins and ring-tailed lemurs.