Ram Brahma Sanyal

Who was Ram Brahma Sanyal?

Ram Brahma Sanyal was the first superintendent of the Alipore Zoological Gardens in Kolkata. He was a pioneer in captive breeding, and was one of the first zookeepers trained as a biologist. He was a corresponding member of the Zoological Society of London and wrote a handbook on keeping and breeding animals in captivity - A Handbook of the Management of Animals in Captivity in Lower Bengal which was reviewed in the journal Nature. This was the standard handbook for zookeepers for over 50 years until Lee Crandall published The Management of Wild Mammals in Captivity in 1964. His scientific methods led to the rare birth of a live Sumatran Rhinoceros in 1889, an event that was not seen in captivity until 2001.