MARY J. WILSON ๐Ÿ™‹๐Ÿพ‍♀️ Wilson, a senior zookeeper, grooming Laika, a cheetah at what is now the Maryland Zoo, 1966.

MARY J. WILSON ๐Ÿ™‹๐Ÿพ‍♀️
Wilson, a senior zookeeper, grooming Laika, a cheetah at what is now the Maryland Zoo, 1966.


The first Black senior zookeeper in Baltimore, she had a way with the fiercest and most vulnerable animals.
By Kaitlyn Greenidge

In the mid-1960s, an infant gorilla named Sylvia came to live at the Baltimore Zoo. Back then, the question of how to ethically source animals was less pressing for zoos and their public.

 Sylvia was separated from her mother at a very young age to make her debut. She was quickly at a loss in her new environment.

Mary J. Wilson, the first Black senior zookeeper in Baltimore, was tasked with acclimating her. “We had to care for her just like we’d care for a human baby,” Wilson told The Baltimore Sun in 1996.

 “The first thing when I came in the morning, I used to give her a bath. Then I’d feed her breakfast. I’d cook three-minute eggs for her. She just became like my little daughter.”

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