Caring for your creatures

In 1892, Ram Brahma Sanyal (1850–1908), superintendent of the Calcutta Zoological Gardens (CZG), published A Handbook on the Management of Animals in Captivity in Lower Bengal , securing him international renown. This article will ask how a ‘native of India’, subjected to the racial hierarchies of the British Empire, became a crucial reference in the global debate on zoo animal husbandry. How did a seemingly peripheral zoo such as the CZG become the site of extensive knowledge production on the nutrition, husbandry and veterinary care of captive animals? Sanyal’s subordinated position at the zoo, which forced him to gather his observations daily as an animal keeper, enabled him to systematize his practical knowledge in the Handbook and to become a respected naturalist in British Bengal. His expertise was further enhanced by the CZG’s role as a hub of the international animal trade where Sanyal oversaw shipments in all directions. The case of Sanyal and his Handbook points to the need to decentre zoo historiography away from understanding Western zoos as the sole pacemakers in the evolution of zoos. Rather, zoo management and what would later be called ‘zoo biology’ were knowledges created in the emerging global network of zoos around 1900.

animal trade · captive animal nutrition · naturalists · zoo animal husbandry · Diverse Historical and Scientific Studies · History of Science and Medicine · History of Science and Natural History