Aardvark at the Underground Zoo | Historic Pittsburgh

1965

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Title
Aardvark at the Underground Zoo
Creator
Associated Photographers
Identifier
MSP285.B018.F22.I03
Source Identifier
MSP285.B018.F22.I03
Description
Caption on the back of the photograph reads, “One of the most peculiar animals in Pittsburgh’s Underground Zoo is the aardvark, an ant eater from Africa, shown here as the visitor will see him through the observation window of his burrow.” Pittsburgh’s Underground Zoo first opened to the public in June 1962. Built principally with funds provided by the Sarah Mellon Scaife Foundation, it was the largest of its kind in the world. The idea behind the zoo was to display the burrowing animals such as beavers, aardvarks, and wolverines in their natural settings. Most of these are nocturnal animals that sleep during the day and prowl and feed at night. To view them, visitors to the cave-like building simply pushed buttons that lit the exhibits. The aardvark, as seen in the photograph, is sometimes known as an anteater and sometimes is called an “earth pig.”
Genre
photographs
Subject
Highland Park Zoo (Pittsburgh, Pa.).Underground Zoo.
Aardvarks--Pennsylvania--Pittsburgh.
Zoos--Pennsylvania--Pittsburgh.
Source
Allegheny Conference on Community Development Photographs, 1892-1981, MSP 285, Library and Archives Division, Senator John Heinz History Center
Contributor
Detre Library & Archives, Heinz History Center
Collection
Allegheny Conference on Community Development Photographs
Rights Information
Copyright Not Evaluated. The copyright and related rights status of this Item has not been evaluated. Please refer to the organization that has made the Item available for more information. You are free to use this Item in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use.
http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/CNE/1.0/