Zoological garden

A zoo (short for zoological garden or zoological park and also called an animal park or menagerie) is a facility in which animals are confined within enclosures, displayed to the public, and in which they may also breed.

The term "zoological garden" refers to zoology, the study of animals, a term deriving from the Greek zōon (ζῷον, 'animal') and lógos (λóγος, ‘study’). The abbreviation 'zoo' was first used of the London Zoological Gardens, which was opened for scientific study in 1828 and to the public in 1857. The number of major animal collections open to the public around the world now exceeds to 1,000, around 80 percent of them are in cities. In the United States of America alone, zoos are visited by over 180 million people annually.

London Zoo, which opened in 1826, first called itself a menagerie or "zoological forest," which is short for "Gardens and Menagerie of the Zoological Society of London." The abbreviation 'zoo' first appeared in print in the United Kingdom around 1847, when it was used for the Clifton Zoo, but it was not until some 20 years later that the shortened form became popular in the song "Walking in the Zoo" by music-hall artist Alfred Vance. The term "zoological park" was used for more expansive facilities in Washington, D.C., and the Bronx in New York, which opened in 1891 and 1899 respectively.

Relatively new terms for zoos coined in the late 20th century are "conservation park" or 'biopark'. Adopting a new name is a strategy used by some zoo professionals to distance their institutions from the stereotypical and nowadays criticized zoo concept of the 19th century. The term 'biopark' was first coined and developed by the National Zoo in Washington D.C. in the late 1980s. In 1993, the New York Zoological Society changed its name to the Wildlife Conservation Society and rebranded the zoos under its jurisdiction as "wildlife conservation parks."

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