The New York Zoo hoax at Central Park
- When
- 1874
- Where
- Central Park Zoo
- Episodes
- 1
The New York Zoo hoax involved a fabricated report of a mass animal escape from the Central Park Zoo. Published on November 9, 1874, the story claimed several people were killed by free-roaming beasts. This event is known as the Central Park Zoo escape or menagerie scare.
Episodes
Background and detail
Background. The Central Park Zoo, located at the southeast corner of Central Park, evolved from a menagerie near the Arsenal. By 1873, the menagerie saw 2.5 million annual visitors due to free admission and proximity to working-class Lower Manhattan. In 1874, the facility was the Arsenal menagerie rather than the later permanent zoo building.
Hoax Details. The hoax is known as the Central Park Zoo escape and the Central Park menagerie scare of 1874. The New York Herald published a cover story claiming a mass escape of animals from the zoo. The report stated that several people had been killed by the free-roaming beasts.
Publication. The original hoax story was published on November 9, 1874, on page 3. The New York Herald's cover story claimed that there had been a mass escape of animals from the Central Park Zoo and that several people had been killed by the free-roaming beasts.
People involved
- New York Herald · Publisher
Sources
- Central Park Zoo Wikipedia, revision of 2026-10-03
Machine-drafted from the cited Wikipedia passages and checked by a reviewing model, not by a human editor. Every passage cites the revision it was written from; dates and places follow those passages.