Penang had a zoo?

𝑫𝒊𝒅 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒌𝒏𝒐𝒘 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝑨𝒚𝒆𝒓 𝑰𝒕𝒂𝒎 𝒐𝒏𝒄𝒆 𝒉𝒐𝒖𝒔𝒆𝒅 𝒂 𝒛𝒐𝒐, 𝒊𝒏 𝒘𝒉𝒊𝒄𝒉 𝑱𝒂𝒍𝒂𝒏 𝒁𝒐𝒐 𝒊𝒏 𝑨𝒚𝒆𝒓 𝑰𝒕𝒂𝒎 𝒊𝒔 𝒏𝒂𝒎𝒆𝒅 𝒂𝒇𝒕𝒆𝒓?


𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝑛𝑜𝑤-𝑑𝑒𝑓𝑢𝑛𝑐𝑡 𝑃𝑒𝑛𝑎𝑛𝑔 𝑍𝑜𝑜𝑙𝑜𝑔𝑖𝑐𝑎𝑙 𝐺𝑎𝑟𝑑𝑒𝑛𝑠 𝑐𝑜𝑢𝑙𝑑 𝑤𝑒𝑙𝑙 𝑏𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑒𝑎𝑟𝑙𝑖𝑒𝑠𝑡 𝑧𝑜𝑜 𝑖𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑐𝑜𝑢𝑛𝑡𝑟𝑦!


Built by a flamboyant monk named Fa Kong ("Empty Dharma" in Chinese) in the 1920s, the Penang Zoological Gardens had a collection of more than 10 types of animals. The animals included tigers and lions, which were kept in separate artificial caves. The rest of the zoo was landscaped with Chinese-styled decorative bridges spanning fish and lily ponds. [1]



In 1929, Pinang Gazette criticized the management of the zoo for the mistreatment of the animals under the management's care, particularly the orangutans. Twenty orangutans were reported to be confined in small spaces to the extent that they cannot stretch their arms out from their shoulders; neither can they lift their arms over their heads. In one small box, three of the apes were huddled up together. [2]

In 1932, the head priest of the Burmah road temple were charged with assisting in the carrying on of a public lottery by the collection of tickets for the admission to the zoological gardens. [3]

In the same year, it was reported that a German Zoologist Mr Gerwein even brought over his collection of tigers, hedgehogs, peacocks, monkeys, leopards, birds, and more to the zoo. It is understood that Mr Gerwein staged a show to the public at the zoo. [4]


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[1] http://wongchunwai.com/.../08/roaring-times-in-old-air-itam/ [2] https://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/.../singfreepressb19290121... [3] https://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/.../straitstimes19320401-1... [4] https://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/.../maltribune19321216-1.2...

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