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Description
The San Diego Zoo began with the Panama-California Exposition of 1915. During the exposition in Balboa Park many animals were brought to San Diego and put on display. Dr. Harry Wegeforth and his brother Dr. Paul Wegeforth together with too other physicians found naturalist Frank Stephens and convinced him to join them in their quest for a Zoological garden. From this partnership the Zoological Society of San Diego developed. The animals used in the Panama-California Exposition where the first to be given to the new Zoo and others used in the Exposition, which were owned by a nearby corporation where the first to be purchased by the newly founded Zoological Society. Bears had a special significance to the zoo as a Kodiak bear named Caesar was the first animal given into the societies keeping, when a naval ship gave the bear to them after their “mascot” got too big to stay on their ship. Caesar caused the zoological society no end in trouble by breaking out of cage after cage until the bear enclosure at the park was built on donated funds to help keep Caesar contained.
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