zoo-, zoa-, zo-, -zoic, -zoid, -zoite, -zoal, -zonal, -zooid, -zoon, -zoa, -zoan

(Greek: animal, animals; living beings; life)

zoological (adjective), more zoological, most zoological
1.Pertaining to the study of animals and animal life: Zoological research includes many aspects, like a zoological garden, or a zoological exhibition at a zoo or museum.
2. Concerning the study of animals: Zoological classifications and their properties are part of the research of faunae, as with zoological works, or a zoological experiment.
zoological garden (s) (noun), zoological gardens (pl)
1. Original term for "zoo": The term zoological garden pertains to zoology or the study of animals.
2. A facility, as a park or an institution, in which living animals, also wild ones, are housed and exhibited to the public: A zoological garden can be further explained as a place where animals are restricted within artificial environments besides being exhibited to the public.

The first zoos were private menageries, usually belonging to monarchs.

King Charles I, of England, established a zoo with a large python as the main attraction.

The first public zoo was established in Vienna in 1752, when the Habsburg emperors decided to grant public access to the former privately-owned Schönbrunn Palace menagerie, now called "Tiergarten Schönbrunn". After the French Revolution, the Paris Zoo was opened to the public.

Since those early times, the mission of zoos has shifted from simply displaying animals for the wonderment of the public, to scientific study, and later, to breeding them, and in particular to maintain populations of animals that are endangered or even extinct in the wild.

The first scientific zoological garden in the modern world was founded in London in 1828 by the Zoological Society of London.

It was opened to the public in 1847, as a way of funding its scientific work. Londoners soon shortened zoological gardens to "zoo".

It was the Zoological Society of London, too, which was to be the first to create an open wild animal park, with the establishment of the Whipsnade Wild Animal Park on the Chiltern Hills in 1926.

A scene at a zoo or zoological garden.
Word Info image © Copyright, 2006.
zoologist (s) (noun), zoologists (pl)
A scientist specializing in the discipline of zoology; an expert in zoology: Mary's uncle wanted to become a zoologist so he had to study zoology in order to focus on this field of science and do research in this area.
zoology (s) (noun), zoologies (pl)
1. The branch of biology that deals with the study of animals and animal life: Zoology has many aspects including the study of the structure, embryology, development, distribution and habits, physiology, and classification of living animals as well as those that are extinct.
2. The animals living in a particular area or period: The zoology of Alaska can be very interesting and exciting.
3. A characteristic concerning a particular animal or group of animals; zoobiology: The zoology of mammals was the topic Hana had to write about in her term paper at school.

Go to this zoology page for more information.

zoomancy (s) (noun) (no pl)
Divination with observations of animals or their movements under particular circumstances: Zoomancy is the prediction or foretelling in which people have claimed to have seen imaginary animals, such as a salamander playing around in a fire or a sea serpent riding ocean waves.
zoomania (s) (noun) (no pl)
An insane fondness or craze for animals: Zoomania is found among people having an excessive devotion to an animal, as a dog or cat.
zoomaniac (s) (noun), zoomaniacs (pl)
An individual who has an extreme or exaggerated affection or attachment to an animal: Jane's aunt must be a zoomaniac because she just can't imagine living without her cat and devotes all of her time with it.
zoomantist (s) (noun), zoomantists (pl)
A person who thinks animal behavior is a means of predicting future events: Mary's uncle, a zoomantist, believed that a storm was approaching when Toby, his cat, hid under the bed and wouldn't come out to eat.
Zoomastigina (pl) (noun)
A subclass of Mastigophora: Zoomastigina comprise the zooflagellates in the phylum of Protoctista including unicellular heterotrophic organisms possessing at least one flagellum, often more and may be free-living or parasitic.
Zoomastigophorea (s) (noun) (no pl)
A protozoan class of the subphylum Mastigophora: Zoomastigophorea includes choanoflagellates, retortamonads, trichomonads, oxymonads, diplomonads, and hypermastigids.
zoomelanin (s) (noun) (no pl)
A black pigment in bird feathers: Zoomelanin is not only found as the very dark color among birds, but also in other animals, and is dispensed in tiny corpuscles in a compact manner.
zoometric (adjective) (not comparable)
Pertaining to the field of zoology concerned with the measurements of the bodies of animas: Tom was glad to be able to be in the zoometric group studying wild geese in his seminar at college.
zoometrist (s) (noun), zoometrists (pl)
A specialist who uses statistical methods in the study of animals: Mr. Anderson was a zoometrist, or an expert, in the field of applied mathematics involving the collection and interpretation of data in the survey of faunae.
zoometry (s) (noun) (no pl)
The branch of zoology that deals with the sizes and proportions of animals: Greg's father was involved in zoometry, or the statistical methods of measuring and comparing the lengths of animals and their parts.
zoomimic (adjective) (not comparable)
Referring to the imitation of an animal's appearance or behavior by the use of animal parts; zoomimetic: Sometimes uncultivated groups of people showed or demonstrated zoomimic behavior to emulate the actions of fauna or creatures by< utilizing the teeth or horns of beasts

Related "animal" units: anima-; faun-; therio-.


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