It’s a Bronxtail.
For 125 years, the Bronx Zoo has captivated and inspired visitors with gorillas, tigers, lemurs, and other exotic and beautiful creatures.
“Visitors see the care, dedication and passion of our staff to make sure these animals are properly cared for,” said Jim Breheny, 64, Bronx Zoo director and Throgs Neck native. I love it,” he told the Post.
“There is a connection and a bond between them.”
To celebrate its semi-centennial, the Bronx Zoo will roll out a new 400-meter walking trail of beastly art on Saturday called Animal Chronicles. The course includes 13 unique environmental scenes, 68 creature sculptures, and more artistic nods to the zoo’s illustrious history. animal rescue.
“It’s really amazing, you know?” Breheny said. “They say you can learn something by talking to anyone. It’s the same here. You can learn something by interacting with any animal.”
He has enjoyed this unique connection first-hand for quite some time. Breheny has worked at the zoo for 51 years, beginning his role at the children’s zoo when he was 14 years old in the early 1970s. As a young animal lover, Breheny admitted he was hired simply by filling out a form and making a phone call.
“Well, I never thought I’d be in this position,” he joked about his current role.
mane attraction
Mr Breheny has interacted with all of the zoo’s creatures during his 50 years of employment, including his early camel riding duties. However, some of the most outlandish stories with animals happened outside the zoo, but still at work.
In 2003, Breheny, who earned a graduate degree in biology from Fordham University, was inspired by the idea of responsible pet ownership when, ironically, he was called to remove a tiger that had been illegally kept inside a Harlem apartment. I attended a lecture on.
“I honestly couldn’t believe it. I thought it was some kind of ocelot or bobcat,” he recalled. “People always exaggerate.”
It turns out to be Ming, the infamous “full grown” tiger who “occupied the entire apartment”, leaving Breheny and his team responsible for evicting the tiger from the apartment. It took two doses of sedatives to knock the big man unconscious.
The Ming rescue was the most adrenaline-pumping incident of Mr Breheny’s tenure, but there have been other eventful incidents involving the Viper over the years.
Around 2005, Breheny was negotiating with the Pakistani government to acquire Leo, a rare snow leopard that introduced new genetics to the species population.
“His genetic contribution through breeding was extremely important to the North American snow leopard population,” Breheny said, noting that offspring from several generations ago are now on display.
Many animal habitats have also developed into famous attractions at the Fordham Road facility, dating back to the 1903 attraction that featured the first snow leopard in North America.
In 1990, Rapunzel, a Sumatran rhino now listed as endangered, remained a fan favorite until her death in 2005.
Ms Breheny is best remembered for her “easy going” demeanor and as a “great animal”.
There was also Patty Cake, the first gorilla born in New York. Born at the Central Park Zoo in 1972, he broke his arm at an early age and was moved to the Bronx Zoo. She became a very important permanent resident in her early 1980s and died in 2013 when she was 40 years old.
“That was the first gorilla we bred. She was certainly a charismatic animal,” Breheny said.
“We learned how infant gorilla infants resemble human infants.”
She was also one of the first gorillas to begin painting as the majestic gorillas grew, integrated, and reproduced. One of Mr. Breheny’s last works is in his office.
Born to be wild
Since 1899, this zoo has been blazing a trail in animal conservation, bringing together crocodiles, lemurs, penguins, poison dart frogs, and more from around the world.
“One of the biggest advances I’ve seen is how animals and staff interact through behavioral reinforcement and training advances,” Breheny said.
He noted that a few years ago, animals had to be anesthetized for blood test tests, but now trained workers can safely collect samples while the patient remains fully conscious. He added that it has become so.
Picking the tail and drawing blood from even large cats can be safely performed. \
Such efforts began in 1901. While still in its infancy, the zoo began America’s first veterinary medicine program within a zoo and developed into a full-fledged veterinary hospital in 1916.
What’s more, this oasis of beasts, originally called the New York Zoo, was purposely created to play a vital role in conservation and was nothing like what America had seen at the turn of the 19th century. It was a contrast. It was a happy coincidence that we became a tourist magnet.
“When we were planning zoos around 1895, Americans still had this idea that, ‘This is just some kind of circus,'” Angel Hernandez, official historian for the Bronx Borough President’s Office, told the Post. Told.
“There was no place to study the animals, their habitats, their countries of origin,” Hernandez said. “So the idea was born for the New York Zoo to be innovative and address these issues and give more animals space.”
