ABSTRACT
In 1889, the US Congress appointed a Board of Commissioners to plan the establishment of a zoological park in the District of Columbia. Washington, like most other zoos of the day, and like some still, was a consumer rather than a protector of wild animals. Most of the animals in the Zoo had been donated as gifts, sometimes by foreign government, but usually by private individuals, many of whom had been on expeditions. The Zoo also accepted many animals on a loan basis, with the proviso that any young which might be born became Zoo property. Among the many gifts which the young Zoo received were a lion presented to President Theodore Roosevelt in 1904 by King Menelik of Abyssinia, and another lion, two zebra and an oryx which were sent by Ras Makonnen, Governor of Abyssinia's Harrar Province.
