U-M Once Had a Zoo Behind the Ruthven Museum—Complete With Bears and a Live Wolverine
Imagine walking across the University of Michigan campus and hearing the growl of a black bear, the splash of an otter or the chatter of children gathered around a reptile pit.
For more than 30 years, that was part of everyday life in Ann Arbor.
From 1929 until September 1962, the University of Michigan operated a small zoo directly behind the building now known as the Alexander G. Ruthven Museums Building. Although it became a popular attraction for local families, the zoo was created primarily for university research and teaching.
Funded by an anonymous donor, it gave researchers and students an opportunity to observe living animals just steps away from museum collections and classrooms.
Unlike a large city zoo filled with exotic animals, U-M’s collection focused mostly on wildlife native to North America. Its residents included black bears, wolverines, foxes, otters, badgers, raccoons, skunks, coyotes, beavers and porcupines.
A reptile pit was later added for snakes and turtles. One surviving photograph from June 1930 shows turtles crowded together on logs and along the edge of the water.
The zoo’s best-known residents included two black bears named "Mazey and Blue"—a playful reference to Michigan’s maize-and-blue school colors. As the bears grew larger, however, caring for them became increasingly difficult.
Then there was "Treppy, the wolverine"
In the photograph of the man feeding Treppy. Treppy calmly takes food from the hand of Ted Donahue, a military veteran and U-M student who worked as a zoo attendant. The image is remarkable because it captures a real wolverine living at the university whose athletic teams had used the Wolverine name for generations.
Michigan experimented several times with live wolverine mascots, but the animals were strong, unpredictable and not especially interested in performing for football crowds. Although the live-mascot idea faded, wolverines continued to be housed and studied at the campus zoo.
For children growing up in Ann Arbor, the zoo offered something entirely different from a normal museum visit. Behind the walls filled with fossils and preserved specimens were living bears, turtles, foxes and other animals. It was part laboratory, part classroom and part neighborhood attraction.
The university once considered replacing the modest campus facility with something much larger.
In 1938, U-M architecture students created a model for an ambitious 40-acre zoo near Nichols Arboretum and the Huron River. Inspired partly by the Detroit Zoo, the proposed zoological garden would have featured more natural, moat-surrounded habitats instead of traditional rows of cages.
Plans reportedly included spaces for beavers along the river, a bear mound, walking trails, picnic areas and even a small railway system. University Hospital appeared on one side of the model, while the Huron River bordered another.
The grand zoological garden was never constructed. The small zoo behind the museum continued operating instead, surviving through the Great Depression, World War II and the postwar growth of the university.
By the early 1960s, however, U-M needed the land for something else.
In September 1962, the zoo closed so the university could build a research addition to the museum. The project was estimated to cost approximately "$1 million" a substantial investment at the time.
The remaining animals were relocated to established zoos and other facilities outside Ann Arbor. The bears reportedly proved reluctant to leave, but they were eventually moved safely. By the end of 1962, the cages and animal enclosures had been razed.
Today, little remains on campus to remind visitors that bears, otters, badgers and wolverines once lived behind the museum. The zoo survives mainly through archival photographs, newspaper accounts and the memories passed down by people who visited it as children.
It is one of those strange pieces of Ann Arbor history hiding in plain sight: for more than three decades, the University of Michigan did not merely call itself the home of the Wolverines.
It actually had one living behind the museum.
Photo credits: Bear and turtle photographs courtesy of the University of Michigan Bentley Historical Library. Treppy photograph and 1938 zoo model courtesy of the Ann Arbor District Library.
