Two standouts: Georgia Dittoe, one of only a very few female zookeepers, says hello to one of the Zoo's first red pandas, a very rare species in zoos at the time.

1943

War Years 1937 - 1946

When Georgia Dittoe, an animal trainer who was living in Los Angeles, heard that the San Diego Zoo was short staffed because keepers were away at the war, she came down to San Diego to help. She had read the book Belle Benchley wrote about her experience running the Zoo, My Life in a Man-Made Jungle, and Georgia said she was inspired by Belle’s example. Georgia was one of only a handful of women who had ever had the position of zookeeper in any zoo.