Akron Zoo

The Akron Zoo is a 50-acre (20 ha) non-profit zoo located just west of downtown in Akron, Ohio, United States.

The Akron Zoo is home to over 700 animals representing over 90 different species and it has over 1 million visitors annually. The animal exhibits are divided into six different themed areas containing animals from different regions of the world. The zoo is the most visited attraction in Summit County and rated in the top 10% of all zoos and aquariums in the United States.

The Akron Zoo is accredited by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA) and is a member of the World Association of Zoos and Aquariums (WAZA). As an AZA member, Akron Zoo participates in breeding programs to save endangered species.

History

In 1900, the 79 acres (32 ha) that is now Perkins Woods Park was donated to Akron by George and Ann Perkins, for "...the sole purpose of devoting the same to the uses of a public park, especially as a place for recreation for children." To this end, the Akron Museum of Natural History was incorporated in 1950, and the Akron Children’s Zoo was opened in 1953 in association with the Museum. The children's zoo illustrated Mother Goose rhymes with live animal exhibits.

Akron, Ohio

Akron /ˈækrən/ is the fifth-largest city in the U.S. state of Ohio and is the county seat of Summit County. It is in the Great Lakes region approximately 39 miles (63 km) south of Lake Erie along the Little Cuyahoga River. As of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 199,110. The Akron, OH Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) covers Summit and Portage counties, and in 2010 had a population of 703,200. Akron is also part of the larger Cleveland-Akron-Canton, OH Combined Statistical Area, which in 2010 had a population of 3,515,646.

Akron was co-founded in December 1825 when suggested by Paul Williams to Simon Perkins. In 1833, "South" was temporarily added to the name when Eliakim Crosby settled a bordering North Akron. After Summit County formed from portions of Portage, Medina, and Stark counties in 1840, Akron succeeded Cuyahoga Falls as county seat a year later. The Akron School Law of 1847 created the K-12 system. In 1851, Sojourner Truth attended a convention and extemporaneously delivered the original "Ain't I a Woman?" speech. During the Civil War, Ferdinand Schumacher supplied the Union Army with oats produced by his mill along the Ohio Canal. Between the 1870s and World War I, numerous churches across the nation were built using the Akron Plan.

Zoo

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

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 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 1,000, around 80 percent of them in cities.

Etymology

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 UK 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 on Sunday" 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.