<P> London Zoo, which opened in 1826, was initially known as the "Gardens and Menagerie of the Zoological Society of London", and it described itself as a menagerie or "zoological forest". The abbreviation "zoo" first appeared in print in the United Kingdom around 1847, when it was used for the Clifton Zoo, but it was not until some 20 years later that the shortened form became popular in the song "Walking in the Zoo" by music - hall artist Alfred Vance . The term "zoological park" was used for more expansive facilities in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Washington, D.C., and the Bronx in New York, which opened in 1847, 1891 and 1899 respectively . </P> <P> Relatively new terms for zoos coined in the late 20th century are "conservation park" or "biopark". Adopting a new name is a strategy used by some zoo professionals to distance their institutions from the stereotypical and nowadays criticized zoo concept of the 19th century . The term "biopark" was first coined and developed by the National Zoo in Washington D.C. in the late 1980s . In 1993, the New York Zoological Society changed its name to the Wildlife Conservation Society and rebranded the zoos under its jurisdiction as "wildlife conservation parks". </P> <P> The predecessor of the zoological garden is the menagerie, which has a long history from the ancient world to modern times . The oldest known zoological collection was revealed during excavations at Hierakonpolis, Egypt in 2009, of a ca . 3500 BCE menagerie . The exotic animals included hippopotami, hartebeest, elephants, baboons and wildcats . King Ashur - bel - kala of the Middle Assyrian Empire created zoological and botanical gardens in the 11th century BCE . In the 2nd century BCE, the Chinese Empress Tanki had a "house of deer" built, and King Wen of Zhou kept a 1,500 - acre (6.1 km) zoo called Ling - Yu, or the Garden of Intelligence . Other well - known collectors of animals included King Solomon of the Kingdom of Israel and Judah, queen Semiramis and King Ashurbanipal of Assyria, and King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylonia . By the 4th century BCE, zoos existed in most of the Greek city states; Alexander the Great is known to have sent animals that he found on his military expeditions back to Greece . The Roman emperors kept private collections of animals for study or for use in the arena, the latter faring notoriously poorly . The 19th - century historian W.E.H. Lecky wrote of the Roman games, first held in 366 BCE: </P> <P> At one time, a bear and a bull, chained together, rolled in fierce combat across the sand...Four hundred bears were killed in a single day under Caligula...Under Nero, four hundred tigers fought with bulls and elephants . In a single day, at the dedication of the Colosseum by Titus, five thousand animals perished . Under Trajan...lions, tigers, elephants, rhinoceroses, hippopotami, giraffes, bulls, stags, even crocodiles and serpents were employed to give novelty to the spectacle . </P>

When did the first zoo in the world open