Galápagos tortoise
The New York Aquarium opened on December 10, 1896, at Castle Garden in Battery Park. Its first director was Tarleton Hoffman Bean (1895–1898). He was also instrumental in helping to create similar wild life organizations, especially aquaria. On October 31, 1902, the Aquarium was put under the administration of the New York Zoological Society. At the time, the Aquarium housed only 150 specimens of wildlife. Over time, its most famous director, the distinguished zoologist Charles Haskins Townsend, enlarged the collections considerably, and the Aquarium attracted hundreds of thousands of visitors each year. A towering figure in New York Zoological Society and New York Aquarium history, Doctor Townsend served as the Aquarium's director for thirty years. Townsend's work with whaling bans, Galápagos tortoise conservation and the development of aquarium technology are on par with the work of William Temple Hornaday.