Book Talk- The Zoo Lady: How Belle Benchley Built the SD Zoo

About this event

Listen to author Sandra E. Bonura discuss her book The Zoo Lady: How Belle Benchley Built the San Diego Zoo. Belle Benchley was hired out of desperation, but she led with defiance. At just five feet tall, she navigated the San Diego Zoo through the brink of bankruptcy to become the world's first female zoo director. While novels like West with Giraffes capture the era's magic, the true drama lies in Benchley's own engineering. She didn't just manage animals. She orchestrated a cross-continental journey for the giraffes that redefined what was possible. Her legacy changed the world. An outsider to the scientific establishment, she rejected Victorian cages and pioneered the open-air, moated enclosures we see in modern zoos today. She spent her days in the trenches, developing an intuitive sense for animal care that often baffled trained veterinarians. Bonura is reclaiming the story of "The Zoo Lady." First, she saved the institution from collapse. Then, she built it into a global icon of conservation history.

Description from sdcl.bibliocommons.com