Visitors to the Bronx Zoo approached the cage expecting to see a beast. Above the bars, printed in red, was a curious phrase: “The Most Dangerous Animal in the World”.
But inside there was no animal. Behind the bars was only a mirror, and each person who peered in came face to face with their own reflection. Beside the cage, a text warned that humans are the only animals to have exterminated entire species and now have the power to end all life on Earth.
The exhibit debuted in April 1963 at the Great Ape House. According to the zoo’s mammal curator, the public took it just as they had intended: “It makes them stop and think”. The Corpus Christi Times wrote that it stopped visitors in their tracks. In 1968, it was replicated at Chicago’s Brookfield Zoo and, according to reports, was still in the Bronx in 1981.
They were supposed to come to look at the animals. That cage was looking at them.