Where the wild things aren't !!

In the heart of LA lies a hidden ghost zoo. Built in 1912 and abandoned in 1965 these amazing ruins have slowly been swallowed up by the forest.

In 1912 the zoo got off to a spluttering start . The plan was to raise $10,000--and that would be only a beginning. But the fundraising effort stalled. The zoo had to be built for $2,000. Even back then, you couldn't build much of a zoo for $2,000. For one thing, it didn't have cages. It had stockades. Welded wire encircled groups of trees. Various livestock, wolves, monkeys and even some cats were stockaded. Within a few years an aviary, bear pits and assorted cages were built by unemployed men.

The little zoo had its health crises. Several lions had to be destroyed after a veterinarian with the Health Department (the zoo didn't have a vet of its own) diagnosed them as having glanders, a highly contagious disease and in February 1916 the zoo was almost closed for good after the Health Department found that its sewage was draining into the Los Angeles River.

During World War I the City Council withdrew authorization to feed beef to the zoo's meat-eating animals. Suddenly unable to properly feed these animals, the Park Department tried to sell them, but found no takers. Turning them loose was out of the question. The animals stayed at the Griffith Park Zoo. Horse meat was substituted for beef. Results were disastrous- many of the meat-eating animals, and almost all of the cats, died.

By the 1950s, zoo-bashing had become a good way to win votes, pick up consultant fees and sell newspapers. In 1954, Councilwoman Rosalind Wyman called the zoo "a mess . . . perhaps the worst zoo for any city of 100,000 population or (more)." The Los Angeles Daily News called the zoo in Griffith Park an "inadequate, ugly, poorly designed and under-financed collection of beat-up cages."

I totally disagree. This is the best zoo ive ever been too. I've never had so much fun at a zoo until right now. This place is bloody fantastic

We explored all the passages and tunnels throughout the ruins

Zoo's filled with animals suck anyways. The poor animals are always sleeping in the furthest corner of the shitey cages and the glass walls are always packed with asshole humans acting worse than howler monkeys.

This place was creepy as hell. As we poked around we made careful to make sure no people were sleeping or hiding in the dark spaces. In LA i've learned people are literally living everywhere possible. The gorilla compound being no exception

Animal tour guides - best in the city!!

The cages and chambers were an intricate maze of steps and big steel doors. Total King Kong country

There is not one part of Los Angeles untouched by paint

I'd be interested to see this place at night

I kept expecting to come across escaped panthers or chimps from the 1960s.

What a mindblowing place - forgotten by time

Part 2 in a jiffy ........