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Chi Chi the Giant Panda
Chi Chi the Giant Panda
Animal · fl 1958-1972

Chi Chi was captured on 4th July 1957 by a Chinese collecting team. She was taken by rail to Peking Zoo, where she was cared for by a Chinese girl, who lived with her day and night. She was believed to be about six months old on capture.

In 1957 the Austrian animal collection, Mr Heini Denmer, then resident of Nairobi, was commissioned by an American Zoo to negotiate an exchange of animals from East Africa for one Giant Panda. He took a large collection of animals to China, and an exchange was arranged. He was given the choice of three Giant Pandas and he chose Chi Chi, the youngest, and took her into his charge on 5th May 1958. At this time America had broken off diplomatic relations with China, and had imposed an embargo on the importation of Chinese good into America. An import licence was, therefore, not granted to import Chi Chi into America.

Mr Denmer took Chi Chi on a tour of European Zoos and on 5th September 1958, they came to London Zoo - initially on a three-week visit. During this visit negotiations were entered into and, with the assistance of Granada Television, Chi Chi was purchased by the Zoological Society of London at 11.59 pm on 26th September 1958.

In March 1966 Chi Chi was invited to Moscow by the Russian Zoo authorities. She flew out in a specially converted BEA Vanguard, and shortly after her arrival was introduced to the Russian male Panda An An. This meeting was not successful and it was decided to leave Chi Chi in Moscow until the autumn mating period. In October the two Giant Pandas were put together in the same enclosure but Chi Chi rejected An An's advances and the mating attempt was called off. Chi Chi was returned to London, and early in 1967 London Zoo asked if Moscow Zoo would send An An to Regent's Park.
Chester Zoo
Corporate body · 1930-

Chester Zoo is a zoo at Upton-by-Chester, Cheshire, England. It was opened in 1931 by George Mottershead and his family. It is operated by the North of England Zoological Society, a registered charity founded in 1934
Chessington Zoo
Corporate body · 1931-

Chessington World of Adventures Resort is a 128 acres theme park, zoo and hotel complex in Chessington, Greater London, England. The complex originally opened as Chessington Zoo in 1931; the theme park aspect was developed by The Tussauds Group, debuting in 1987 as one of the first combined animal-amusement parks in the United Kingdom. The zoo was started by Reginald Stuart Goddard, who had bought the estate to showcase his private collection of animals. It was once the largest private zoo in England. After Goddard died in 1946, the Pearson Publishing Company took over the zoo and managed it until 1978, when The Tussauds Group, a subsidiary of the Pearson Group, took control
Cherkiss, Richard
Person · fl 1991

Managing Director of Jamaica Safari Village
Cheeseman, Lucy Evelyn
Person · 1881-1969

Evelyn Cheesman was a British entomologist and traveller. Between 1924 and 1952, Cheesman went on 8 solo expeditions in the South Pacific, and collected over 70,000 specimens, which she accompanied with sketches and notes. These are now part of the collections of the Natural History Museum.

Cheesman was one of five children of Florence Maud Tassell and Robert Cheesman, born 8 October 1882. Interested in the natural world, Cheesman was unable to train for a career as a veterinary surgeon because the Royal Veterinary College did not accept women students in 1906.

After World War I, she met Harold Maxwell-Lefroy, professor of entomology at Imperial College of Science and honorary curator of the insect house at Zoological Society of London, and studied entomology. In May 1917, Evelyn took up the position of Assistant Curator of Insects at London Zoo. In 1919 she became a fellow of the Royal Entomological Society of London. In 1920 she was the first woman employed as a curator at London Zoo.

In 1924 she was invited to join the St George zoological expedition to the Marquesas and Galapagos Islands as entomologist, alongside Anglo-Irish explorer and entomologist Cynthia Longfield. Cheesman considered the expedition to be disorganised, and left it at Tahiti. She was able to continue exploring and gathering specimens on her own with the help of £100 from her brother Bob. From then on, Cheesman preferred to travel alone.

In 1926, she resigned as Insect Curator and affiliated herself, unpaid, with the natural history department of the British Museum (now the Natural History Museum). She spent most of the next twelve years on expeditions, travelling to New Guinea, the New Hebrides and other islands in the Pacific Ocean. In New Guinea she made a collecting expedition to the coastal area between Aitape and Jayapura and visited the nearby Cyclop Mountains. She was known in the islands as 'the woman who walks' and 'the lady of the mountains'.

During the Second World War she returned to England and did war work, but injured her back. After the war, in 1949-50, she travelled to the Pacific islands again, but due to ongoing pain, decided to give up active exploration. She assisted at the Natural History Museum for many years as an unpaid volunteer. In 1954, after hip replacement surgery, at the age of seventy-three, she felt well enough to again go on an expedition to Aneityum in the South Pacific. She had a house, named 'Red Crest', built for herself about five kilometres inland from Alelgauhat village. During her nine-month stay she collected 10,000 insects and 500 plants.

She was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 1955 New Year Honours, and was granted a civil list pension in the same year for her contributions to entomology. She continued to work at the museum, writing and classifying specimens, until her death in London on 15 April 1969.
Chedgey, Dennis
Person · 1918-

Kiosk Boy and Office Boy at ZSL London Zoo