# Talk:Central Park Zoo

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This text needs corroboration before it's added to the article: In 1944, after a long night in the nightclubs zinc heiress Catherine Searles and her companions took a detour through the former zoo to see a polar bear. Rousing Soc, a 500-pound polar bear by rattling the bars of its cage, Miss Searles waved her handkerchief in his face; the bear pinned her arm against the bars and mauled it, severing it at the elbow. Miss Searles' stump was so badly mangled  doctors had to amputate at the shoulder [1]--Wetman 08:36, 27 December 200
— Preceding unsigned comment added by Wetman (talk • contribs) 08:36, 27 December 2005 (UTC)
How about this:
FINED FOR ANNOYING BEARS; 3 in Brooklyn Reminded of Fate of Miss Searles, Who Is Gaining
New York Times (1857-Current file). New York, N.Y.: Jul 19, 1944. pg. 21, 1 pgs
Document types: article
Abstract (Document Summary)
Magistrate James A. Blanchield, sitting in the Flatbush Court in Brooklyn yesterday, reminded a woman and two men, charged with heeding and annoying the bears in Prospect Park Zoo, of the fate of Catherine Searles, whose right arm was torn off by a polar bear in Central Park Zoo early Monday morning.
http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/nytimes/88604586.html?did=88604586&FMT=ABS&FMTS=AI&date=Jul+19%2C+1944&author=&pub=New+York+Times++(1857-Current+file)&desc=FINED+FOR+ANNOYING+BEARS
— Preceding unsigned comment added by 64.132.60.202 (talk) 18:32, 7 August 2006 (UTC)
Wow, that seems like a pretty irrelevant piece of trivia about the Zoo. Do we really want to list 60-year old news about an obscure socialite that isn't even mentioned anywhere else on Wikipedia? (and the only thing I can find on Google is this same tidbit on gettingit.com). Isn't this supposed to be about the zoo? If we're going to list all maulings that have occurred, how about this one, which is only 24 years old? http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9A0CE7DD1E38F93BA1575AC0A964948260 
— Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.227.146.216 (talk) 04:51, 19 November 2006 (UTC)

I removed the following text from the page on Nov 16 2006:

New York's large gay community enjoyed the reports (Harpers Magazine February 7, 2004) that two male chinstrap penguins in the zoo have been homosexual lovers for years. They were identified when they took turns trying to hatch a rock, and when their keeper gave them a fertile egg to hatch "they did a great job" raising the chick [2].
For the record, I am emphatically not anti-gay, but if I were to make a list of the top 10 facts about the Central Park Zoo, or even a list of the top 100 facts, this wouldn't make the cut. It's an interesting news item (and a 2-year-old news item at that) and it might deserve to be someplace on Wikipedia, but this isn't the place. Better places would be a discussion of penguins, sexuality, or maybe animal sexuality. Maybe there's even an article on animal sexuality as observed in zoos. But, having this paragraph in the article on a zoo seems to me to violate neutrality in that people could easily think that the only reason for it being cited more prominently than hundreds of other potential facts about the zoo is to promote homosexuality.
In contrast, I think the movie reference, while not highly relevant either, is ok because the text is essentially a cross-reference. If you go to the Madagascar article, it cross-references back.
Also removed this external link

* Harper's Magazine, February 7, 2004: chinstrap penguin pairing
Somebody with more knowledge of the sexuality and/or animal behavior/sexuality sections of Wikipedia should find a spot for this. 
— Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.227.146.216 (talk) 08:00, 17 November 2006 (UTC)

The following, with an external link that doesn't work, would surely have appeared in one of several books on the history of Central Park in my cases: "The Cental Park Zoo once housed an African Human (Pygmy) [3]." If this can be sourced, it should go back into the article. --Wetman 08:54, 27 April 2007 (UTC)

I've just been reading an article on the Bronx zoo, and I think this incident is  from there. There was a "pygmy" who was "employed" or "exhibited" (I guess on who you talk to), and was seen in the monkey cages playing with the animals. A mention probably belongs in the Bronx Zoo, but I'm not doing any rewriting until I finish the book. Donlammers (talk) 00:23, 3 October 2010 (UTC)

www.centralpark.com is one of several websites dedicated to Central Park. Someone is passing from page to page, carefully deleting this link. Rather than get involved in some rixe over this, I'm leaving it deleted. Before someone was inclined to delete it, without a word to anyone, as "spam", it should have been carefully looked at. --Wetman (talk) 18:47, 25 April 2008 (UTC)

According to Nycgovparks.org this, "(1875) The first permanent zoo building was constructed behind the Arsenal in Central Park". The Article had 1870, which I guess is based on maybe when the zoo was officially being planned. However, there wasn't even a reference I could see to prove this. 99.190.71.117 (talk) 16:19, 30 March 2012 (UTC)

I've noticed that several zoo pages now mention (or have entire sections dedicated to) the zoo's iPhone app. I seriously doubt it's actually notable and think that they should be removed. Anyway, the app section was added to this article with this edit. Takinzinnia (talk • contribs) 20:33, 4 April 2013 (UTC)

No, not each fact is referenced with a citation. There are fewer citations than needed for this article. Yes, the article was neutral in its point of view. The article discussed: "Areas", "History", Central Park in "popular culture". Azal2233 (talk) 04:25, 14 October 2016 (UTC)

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Formal request has been received to merge the article 1874 Central Park Zoo Escape into Central Park Zoo; dated: October 2018. Proposer's Rationale: The hoax did not seem to have any prolonged effects and there is already a section in the zoo article that covers it. Discuss here. Richard3120 (talk) 19:57, 9 November 2018 (UTC)

This review is transcluded from Talk:Central Park Zoo/GA1. The edit link for this section can be used to add comments to the review.
Reviewer: Kosack (talk · contribs) 09:55, 19 August 2019 (UTC)

I'll take this one, will post review as soon as possible. Kosack (talk) 09:55, 19 August 2019 (UTC)
Initial review 


### Lead
Should we be describing the zoo as "small" in the opening and not simply let the measurements do the talking so to speak.
Removed "small".


### Areas
"drawing more than a million people every year", just a slight prose suggestion. Perhaps, more than one million people...?
Fixed.


### Exhibits and other buildings
"The elephant house of the old zoo was formerly located at the site", the phrase old zoo would seem to reflect a separate entity where as, judging by the text, the revitalization is a continuation of the original zoo? Perhaps swap old with original?
Fixed - it was on the same site but many of the structures were completely rebuilt. epicgenius (talk) 14:11, 19 August 2019 (UTC)
Same issue again referring to the lion House if we agree on the above point.
Fixed.


### Art and conservation programs
Worth mentioning where the Tigress and Cubs statue was moved from?
Added that detail.
Can't say I'm keen on mid sentence ref placements like ref 20, could be moved to the end?
The reason for the mid-sentence references is that these refs support only that portion of the sentence, not the entire sentence. I could move them if you're really sure about this. epicgenius (talk) 14:11, 19 August 2019 (UTC)
WP:CITEFOOT does recommend sources being placed after punctuation as it's close enough to maintain the WP:INTEGRITY of the source. This isn't a sticking point on passing the article either way, so it's not a big issue. Kosack (talk) 19:30, 19 August 2019 (UTC)


### Original menagerie
"which was founded in 1859.>", stray bracket here.
Fixed.
Do we know why Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins's dinosaur sculptures were destroyed?
Typical Tammany Hall reasons - they didn't like the sculptures. epicgenius (talk) 14:11, 19 August 2019 (UTC)


### References
Avoid shouting in ref titles, per WP:ALLCAPS.
There are a few refs missing accessdates from ref 94 onwards.
To be honest, this is probably GA ready so these are very minor points to look at. The monkey's whispering about the zookeeper they disliked is one of my favourite potential DYKs I've ever seen I think! Placed on hold for now to have a run through these. Kosack (talk) 11:26, 19 August 2019 (UTC)

@Kosack: Thanks for the review. I agree that the monkeys whispering might be a good hook. I've addressed most of these points except in the "References" section. epicgenius (talk) 14:11, 19 August 2019 (UTC)
All of the issues I listed appear to have been addressed. This article comfortably meets the GA criteria in my opinion. Promoting., great work! Kosack (talk) 19:31, 19 August 2019 (UTC)

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