Most visitors to Bengaluru’s Lalbagh today know it for its trees—or perhaps unique pieces of architecture like the Glass House, or perhaps even the billion-year-old rock formation that holds one of the watchtowers of city founder Kempe Gowda. But a little over a century ago, Lalbagh was home to a great variety of captive birds and animals in an aviary and what seems to have been a small zoo.

One of the best single resources on the history of zoos in Lalbagh was a 1999 write-up by Sally Walker, a zoologist and conservationist. She was long associated with the zoos of the country and founded the Friends of Mysore Zoo group.

The first trace of animals being kept in Lalbagh seems to date back to 1862, when a black panther was purchased during the superintendence of William New. By the time h

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