“German soldiers Battle of Marne WWI” by German Army photo is Public Domain
As WWI approached, a majority of the countries in Western Europe had at least one zoo. At this point it didn’t matter whether it was scientific societies, stockholding companies, or private individuals who controlled the zoos, having the same interest in animals was always the main idea behind founding the zoos.
When there are large events that effect societies, it is inevitable that these events will also have a large impact on the zoos as well. When there is an economic crisis within a region or country there can be a lot of injury caused to the zoos and this often destroy’s them. If the animals are lucky, they may be transferred to another zoo, but a fair amount of the animals end up dying from starvation. Once this occurs, many times the bodies have been sold for food and fuel.
“Hungry” photo taken by the author
The zoos that were stable enough to stay open during WWI, experienced some of the harshest effects. With a lack of staff, food and fuel it was difficult to keep the animals in the Berlin Zoo alive and with a large restriction on trade there was no way to replace those who had died. As a result, the number of species and total number of animals declined noticeably. By the end of the war there were only 700 species/subspecies remaining in the Berlin Zoo from the 1,474 species/subspecies there in 1914. (Strehlow)