Ota Benga
Ota Benga was a young man from Congo, born around 1883, who went through a lot of pain before ending up in New York. His wife and kids were killed by Belgian soldiers, and later he was taken to the United States.
In 1906, he was put on display at the Bronx Zoo in the Monkey House, where they made him sit in a cage with an orangutan as if he was part of the exhibit. He was small, about 4 feet 11 inches, and his teeth were sharpened to points, which was a tradition in his culture.
Crowds of people came to stare at him, while some Black ministers and leaders protested, saying it was wrong and racist. After the zoo, Ota moved to Virginia, worked in a tobacco factory, and hoped to one day return to Africa, but he never got the chance. Feeling alone and trapped, he took his own life in 1916. His story is still remembered as one of the Bronx Zoo’s darkest secrets.
Unknown Facts About The Bronx Zoo
During World War II, the Bronx Zoo supported the war effort in practical and symbolic ways while maintaining its commitment to education and conservation. Parts of the zoo’s grounds were repurposed into Victory Gardens to grow produce in support of local food needs, and zoo staff donated materials—like old cages, railings, and surplus equipment—to military scrap metal drives. With food rationing and labor shortages, keepers creatively substituted local feeds for exotic animal diets, and some staff served overseas or sent newsletters and animal photos to troops to boost morale. Meanwhile, the zoo continued its educational mission via public exhibits and lectures that emphasized resource conservation and wildlife preservation, framing the fight for nature as connected to the global struggle of the war—all underscored by the images of wartime gardens like the one shown above.
Before it became the Bronx Zoo in 1899, the land was part of Bronx Park, created in the late 1880s after the city acquired farmland and estates from local families. The area was mostly untouched woodlands, swamps, meadows, and stretches of the Bronx River, which had previously been used for mills and small industries during the 1800s. Old farmhouses and remnants of industrial sites dotted the landscape, but much of it remained wild compared to the rest of New York City. When the New York Zoological Society established the zoo, they chose to work with the natural features—preserving the river, forests, and rocky terrain—so even today, parts of the Bronx Zoo still carry the feeling of the original parkland.
