Einführung in die „Geschichte der Menagerien von der Antike bis zum heutigen Tage“ von Gustave Loisel (1912)

The book „Histoire des Ménageries de l’Antiquité à nos jours“, published in 1912 by Gustave Loisel (1864-1933), is a historical review of the evolution of zoos and an overview of their status in the early twentieth century. Loisel had been first involved in the reorganization of the Ménagerie du Jardin des Plantes in Paris and realized for this purpose three missions to visit and to study zoological institutions in Europe and North America. His approach was as comprehensive as possible, full of rigor and prepared with care. He tried “first place to understand the organization and mode of operation of the various zoological institutions [he visited], to study ways to house and to feed the wild animals, and to note any specifics regarding the captive breeding of the rarest and most precious species”. Loisel was also gradually getting interested in the history and the development of all the zoological gardens he had visited, and about the origin and the evolution of zoos as a whole. The main result of all his research and visits is the “Histoire of menageries from antiquity to our days”, now one hundred years old. It is probably the dual approach, systematic modern study and historical research, which gave this compilation all his strength and singularity, even nowadays. The background, the development and the contents of this book are reviewed here.