At the beginning, the Zoo of St-Félicien was acquiring as many indigenous animals as exotic ones. Thus one would find a mixture of black bear, lama, white-tailed deer, grey wolf, red fox, lion and seal. The collection was completed by a number of species of birds and of primates.

The Zoo was officially inaugurated and blessed by Canon Égide Boivin on June 4, 1961. Over the next years, thanks to a considerable amount of construction work, the face of the Zoo was very different from that of its modest beginnings.

A significant event that attracted many visitors to the Zoo was the arrival, on March 31, 1962, of a polar bear couple. Their cage, occupying 185.8 m² (2000 sq. ft.), was built on the banks of the Salmon River.

In 1963, the Corporation purchased 8.5 more hectares (21 acres) of land and set up cervidae paddocks, to house the first moose. There were a number of other major constructions, including the great aviary, which measures roughly 9 X 18 X 7.5 metres (30 X 60 X 25 ft).  The addition of buildings and a number of paddocks allowed the Zoo to reinforce the animal collection, bringing in, for example, a cougar, a chimpanzee, monkeys and two other polar bears. In the same year, a mini-train was put into service, running on 152 metres (500 foot) of track, a pleasant surprise for children at the beginning of the new season, and which lasted for several years.

The founder, Mr. Ghislain Gagnon, was very pleased with the long awaited arrival of the first moose, the largest cervidae in the world. However, it turned out that keeping these animals in captivity would be no easy matter. The animals died off rapidly, some in a few months or even in a few weeks. In fact, the moose is one of the rare animal species that has a lower life expectancy when in captivity, despite the good care and abundance of food. Nevertheless, the Zoo did not give up and over the years managed to increase the life expectancy of its moose. It is more than likely that the establishment of the Nature Trail Park made a significant contribution to this successful outcome.

Starting in 1963, the Zoo began to experiment with fish-farming, more specifically of the ouananiche (a land-locked salmon), which was the region’s piscicultural emblem. The experiment was partially successful. In 1965, 20,000 fry were used to seed the river. A proper fish farm was built in 1966, with a capacity of 300,000 fry. Unfortunately, the Zoo was obliged to stop production of ouananiche in 1969, being unable to sell its produce and lacking funds. The building was used subsequently to house a number of aquariums for fish and, later, for reptiles. The story of the building did not end there, however, since in 1981 a gift from the Donohue Company in St-Félicien rehabilitated the aquarium.

It is now 1964 and work goes on. The most important event was the arrival of an Asiatic elephant. The following year, the Zoo acquired paddocks for a number of California sea lions and otters, and welcomed two caribous. The previous year, an expedition to the Great North in search of caribous had returned empty-ended. In 1965, however, they brought back two pregnant females who both gave birth respectively to a male and a female.

The Zoo continued growing more and more popular and its reputation continued to spread. In 1968, only eight years after its opening, the Zoo covered 18 hectares (45 acres) and housed 450 animals of 91 species. Apart from the animal paddocks, the Zoo had a number of buildings, including a restaurant, kitchen, gift shop, piscicultural station and winter quarters.

The Zoo continued to expand and entered on another phase in its development, thanks to a grant of more than $500,000, spread over three years, from the government of Quebec. Amongst the projects in 1968, we may note the construction of the new large mammals pavilion.

On July 1, 1970, the pavilion welcomed two giraffes from Denver, Colorado. At CDN $15,000, this was the most expensive purchase made for a paid of animals since the opening of the Zoo. These giraffes had no difficulty in mating in zoo conditions, but unfortunately their young generally did not survive, dying shortly after birth or by accident, a few months later. Only one male offspring managed to live on for a few years.

The Zoo continued to expand and, in 1969, purchased an adjoining piece of land, increasing its total area to 81 hectares (200 acres).

During this time the founder, Mr. Ghislain Gagnon, was nourishing other ambitions. He found it difficult as a nature lover to be obliged to keep the Zoo animals in cages and paddocks. He wondered whether there might not be another way of tackling the problem. It was from these musings that the Nature Trail Park project was born.

The Nature Trail Park, covering an area of 30 hectares (75 acres), was inaugurated on September 10, 1972. From this time onwards, visitors could observe Quebec fauna from a screened train that made a 4 km (2.5 miles) tour of the terrain. The Nature Trail Park, which was a unique and innovative concept, marked a turning point in the story of the Société Zoo­lo­gi­que de St-Fé­li­cien. Today, we can still see “human beings in cages and animals at liberty.” Thanks to the Nature Trail Park, visitors can observe animal behaviour in a way which is very difficult to do in the wild.

During that same year, homage was paid to Mr. Ghislain Gagnon when the Nature Trail Park reception centre, that bears his name, was opened:

HOMAGE TO GHISLAIN GAGNON

ADMIRING HOMAGE

to the creator of the Zoological Garden

GRATEFUL HOMAGE

to the person who introduced our province to its wildlife and plant life.

A TESTIMONIAL

to the good citizenship of a person who, thanks to the Nature Trail Park, has reconciled human beings and wild animals.

A TESTIMONIAL OF FRIENSHIP

to the person who succeeded in convincing all his friends that in order to live, one needs to love.

In 1973, the Corporation acquired a campground near the Zoo, in order to ensure that it had the necessary infrastructures to welcome and attract the many visitors to the region. This marriage between the campground and the zoo lasted 20 years. Finally, the campground was sold to the City of St-Félicien on October 27, 1993. Over the years, the campground had cost the Corporation a great deal of money. Now that it was finally breaking even, the Zoo was obliged to get rid of it in order to qualify for grants of $3,750,000. This is because, in order to obtain the grants, the Corporation had to comply with the government requirement that it itself contributed $375,000, which it was able to do by selling the campground.

In 1975, changes were made to the Nature Trail Park. Its area was increased through the 1974 purchase of about 4 square kilometres (1.5 square miles) of land where major construction work was carried out. The Montagnais lake was dug, mount Keewatinook was built. Other major work continued to be carried out until the official inauguration of the new trails, which took place on June 25, 1978. The visitors’ tour was thus extended to more than 7 kilometres (4.3 miles), where they could non only see indigenous animals, but also visit a number of historic sites such as the Settler’s Farm, the Logging Camp, the Trading Post, the Indian camp, the Great Trestle and the Western Ranch.

After eight years of continuous efforts, the first musk oxen finally arrived in the Nature Trail Park in 1978. The Zoo of St-Félicien thus became the second institution of this type in Canada to house this tundra species.

On its 20^th anniversary, in 1980, the Zoo held assets of over $5.5 million, a gross income of over $1.5 million and was welcoming 320,323 visitors over the year. Since the very beginning of the Zoo, 4,651,024 visitors had been welcomed. It is quite clear that the Zoo has become a major tourist attraction in the Saguenay Lac-St-Jean region.

Mr. Gagnon listened to the comments and remarks made by visitors and could see that they were becoming more and more interested in the educational aspect of the zoo. This led him to think about the concept of the Millennium Zoo and the importance of making it less traditional. In 1981, the Société zoologique de St-Félicien set up a Foundation to help achieve the projected changes.

As of 1985, major work was started with a view to creating habitats adapted to the lifestyle of the various animals and to free them from their cages. For example, three large paddocks, 24.3 m X 30.4 m (80 ft. X 100 ft.), were built for the felines. A chimpanzee habitat was built, the animals being kept inside by a water pool and human beings being kept outside by the railings around the pool! For the large mammals, such as giraffes, hippopotami and elephants, almost the only obstacles between visitors and animals were low walls and ditches.

Unfortunately, in March 1986, a labour dispute resulted in a three-month lock-out and, consequently, major financial losses for the Corporation. The result was a serious financial crisis until the Mayor of St-Félicien, Mr. Benoît Laprise, set up a Reorientation Committee. In three months (beginning of 1987), this energetic group managed to collect more than $1,300,000 to rescue the Zoo. All around, involvement was required to achieve this result: employees, the public at large, municipalities, corporations, different levels of government, etc.

This new start also involved considerable questioning of the objectives, and organisational changes were made both at employee level and at Board level. The mission of the Zoo was determined and its objectives included education, research and promotion of the natural and cultural patrimony. In the same year, 1987, the first steps were taken to update the Zoo’s mission by the creation of the educational service.  ECOL-O-ZOO is an example of an educational program for school children. 

In 1989, the name of the zoo was changed to “Wild” Zoo of St-Félicien, which clearly indicated the repositioning of the institution from the marketing and development point of view.

The Zoo continued to work hard and, in 1988, won several regional prizes. In 1992, it was awarded the first prize in the tourism promotion category by the Grands prix du tourisme québécois.

In 1989, the first wolverine arrived at the zoo and the Mausolée de la licorne (unicorn mausoleum) was built at the entrance to the site.

We have to mention here the retirement of the founder, Mr. Ghislain Gagnon, on December 31, 1992, thirty-two years after the foundation of “his” zoo and the achievement of his dream. Mr. Martin Laforge, who was then Operations Manager, took over the management of the organisation.

The Zoo needed to deal with the problem of its wastewater, which, unfortunately, was being run off into the Salmon River. Thanks to the sale of the campground and to a number of grants, the Corporation was finally able to correct the situation in December 1993, with a cutting-edge project that cost $1.8 million. It involved using constructed wetlands to treat zoo and campground wastewater. It was an ecologically-based project that was part if a sustainable development policy, carried out for the first time in Quebec.

In the following years, the story of the Zoo took another major turn. This was when they began seriously to think about disposing of the collection of exotic animals. This was being considered because it was felt that the “Wild” Zoo needed to create its own niche in order to attract a clientele. Visitors who could see exotic animals in other institutions would be interested in visiting the zoo because of its unique vocation and its specific orientation. Besides, there was a sort of contradiction between the traditional zoo, with its exotic animals, and the Nature Trail Park, with its indigenous wildlife roaming around freely. This is why, in 1993, a committee of consultants was set up to look into the question.

The Committee came to the conclusion that only a major investment could restructure the traditional zoo sector of the site, allow the “Wild” Zoo to differentiate itself from its competitors and thus ensure its survival. This was the beginning of the Northern transition. Not only would this give the Zoo a unique niche, but its finances would be much healthier once the exotic species were disposed of, since, by their nature, they are very expensive to maintain. Subsequently, major construction work was started up on Île-aux-Bernard (1995), the valley sector (1996), and a new habitat for the polar bears was built (1997). This change meant that Northern wildlife and plant life would be well represented and visitors could learn to know, appreciate and protect the world around them.

It also meant that we were able to recuperate the buildings, which would be used to erect a modern veterinary clinic (1995), thus meeting the standards of the Quebec government and the criteria of the Canadian Association of Zoological Parks and Aquariums (CAZA).

As of that moment, animals cohabited not only in the Nature Trail Park, but everywhere else on the site. Other innovations included the Great Aviary, the Children’s Garden and the interpretation centre, named the Ghislain-Gagnon pavilion.

Now that the “Wild” Zoo had clearly defined its northern vocation, all that was needed was to put it into practice. Thus, in the winter of 1997, the Zoo welcomed its first visitors, making it into an all-year-round site.

And today, where are we?

After forty-three years of existence, the “Wild” Zoo of St-Félicien is changing once again. After a series of innovations that showed the way to other zoological parks in Quebec and confirmed the farsightedness of its founders, the “Wild” Zoo has broadened its mission and given itself a structure that is globally unique: the Centre for the Conservation of Boreal Biodiversity (CCBB) (May 2001).  Starting off from an offer of services focused almost entirely on entertainment, the new CCBB intends to increase the scope and range of its action locally, regionally and internationally by adopting an ecological and educational approach that complies with the United Nations’ framework Convention on the conservation of biological diversity adopted at Rio in 1992, and to promote “the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity”, more specifically in the Boreal regions.

This means that the “Wild” Zoo is moving on from Nordicity to Borealie, placing even greater emphasis on the “Wild” Zoo niche. This new stage was underlined by the construction of a major building, the Borealium, which is part of Phase I of the new development project.

In the Borealium, we can find:

·        The ticket office and information stand

·        A multisensorial cinema auditorium where our theme film can be seen

·        A giant screen auditorium presenting films on wildlife and plant life

·        An exhibition room

·        A discovery room for children

·        A documentation centre

·        Research laboratories

·        Administrative offices

Phase II of the project will come later and will be designed to provide visitors with nature experiences on territory that is currently undeveloped.

The changes that have taken place in the zoo since its very beginning are not all merely physical, far from it. What has changed, much more deeply, much more importantly, is the way we think. The changes are not merely institutional, they are also social, because the public at large is now much more aware of ecological issues and the words conservation and sustainable development are part of the vocabulary of a large section of the population. But there is still a lot to be done…

This is where the CCBB has a role to play to educate and to protect. By presenting the Borealian animals in their totality – showing the interaction of the animals with their environment – the “Wild” Zoo will fulfill its mission.