Happy 200th Birthday, Zoological Society of London! – Journal of Zoology Blog

On 29^th April 2026, the Zoological Society of London (ZSL) has its 200^th ‘birthday’, and to celebrate ZSL’s 200 years of zoological history, the Senior Editors of Journal of Zoology are highlighting in this virtual issue some of their favourite articles published in ZSL’s oldest scientific journal, that began as Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London in 1830, had a sister journal Transactions of the Zoological Society of London from 1833, and since 1966 have together been known as Journal of Zoology. Here’s to another 200 years of wildlife and wonder at the ZSL!!

Elissa Cameron, University of Canterbury, New Zealand:

Dispersal and extra-territorial prospecting by slender-tailed meerkats (Suricata suricatta) in the south-western Kalahari

S. P. Doolan, D. W. Macdonald (1996)

I have been struggling to limit my favourites to just one paper, but I think my favourite field study in Journal of Zoology (probably reflecting my biases again as a former meerkatter!) is this paper by S.P. Doolan and D.W. Macdonald from 1996. A beautiful field study that gave rise to the whole suite of subsequent research on meerkats. 

Femke Broekhuis, Wageningen University & Research, The Netherlands:

Descriptions of New Butterflies collected by Mr. F. J. Jackson, F.Z.S., in British East Africa, during his recent Expedition.—Part I.

Emily Mary Sharpe (1891)

I would like to highlight women in science, especially now that the journal has a female Editor-in-Chief. So I chose this 1891 paper by Emily Mary Bowdler Sharpe. What makes it stand out is that it’s one of the first examples of a woman publishing as first author in the journal, which was quite uncommon at the time. At the same time, the paper also highlights how the journal itself has evolved from being much more descriptive (e.g. cataloguing and documenting collections from expeditions) to being much more centered on ecology, evolution and hypothesis-driven research. On a personal note, my first ever publication was in the Journal of Zoology and it was a paper with only female authors, so for me it was a significant point in my own scientific career and it feels like a full-circle story now being part of this journal.

Matt Hayward, University of Newcastle, Australia:

On the Larger Mammals of Tunisia

Sir Harry Johnston K.C.B., F.Z.S. (1898)

An article such as this allows us to compare records with the modern distributions of these species to emphasise what we’ve lost. While this, and other early studies were robust in their observations, they were entirely observational studies that yet yield important information. For example, in 1898, Sir Harry Johnston described the larger fauna of Tunisia at the time and included species such as lions Panthera leo, cheetah Acinonyx jubatus, Barbary ‘ape’ Macaca sylvanusand Fennec fox Vulpes zerda.

Andrew Kitchener, National Museums Scotland, UK:

On the Osteology of the Dodo (Didus ineptus, Linn.)

On the Dodo (Part II.). – Notes on the Articulated Skeleton of the Dodo (Didus ineptus, Linn.) in the British Museum

By Professor Owen, F.R.S., F.Z.S., etc. (1867, 1871)

I would choose Richard Owen’s paper on the osteology of the dodo published in 1867 in Transactions (and a follow-up paper published in 1871). Until this first paper the dodo was almost a mythical bird known only from paintings and drawings, but the first skeleton from Mauritius assembled by Owen showed that it was real. Since then the dodo has become the icon of extinction.

Donald Miles, Ohio University, USA:

Living fast and dying young: A comparative analysis of life-history variation among mammals

D. E. L. Promislow, P. H. Harvey (1990)

I believe this is one of the highest cited papers published in Journal of Zoology (1607 citations according to Google Scholar). The paper was also transformational in that the idea of a fast – slow continuum describing life history patterns emerged from their analyses.

Alan McElligott, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong:

The contribution of source–filter theory to mammal vocal communication research

A.M. Taylor, D. Reby (2010)

I like this review because it is connected to some of my own research interests in how anatomy and physiology shape behaviour (and of course it is very well written). The source filter framework links the physical structure of the larynx and vocal tract, through the acoustic structure of the call, to how other animals respond. That kind of mechanistic understanding of bioacoustics is really interesting.

I also have a personal connection to the paper. I originally suggested to the authors that a review like this was needed — the source filter theory had been used in different mammal studies, but no one had yet brought everything together in one place. I just checked and it looks like it has been cited over 500 times on Google Scholar — the framework still shapes how researchers think about honest signalling, individual recognition, and the evolution of vocal complexity. For anyone working on vocal communication, it remains essential reading.

Hazel Nichols, Swansea University, UK:

Radiocollars do not affect the survival or foraging behaviour of wild meerkats

K. A. Golabek, N. R. Jordan, T. H. Clutton-Brock (2007)

I think that this is a really nice example of an investigation into the potential welfare and fitness impacts of conducting research on wild study animals. Aside from performing an ethical assessment prior to the start of studies on wild animals, the impact of research on our study animals is often overlooked, with data collection on this aspect being relatively rare. The study makes use of a long-term research project on meerkats in the Kalahari, where behavioural and life-history data has been collected on collared and non-collared individuals. This allows detailed assessment of the short and long term impacts of putting collars on animals within the same population (rather than comparing populations with and without collared individuals, which likely differ in many other ways). In this case, the researchers found no evidence that collars impact welfare, predation or foraging either in the short or long term, giving researchers confidence that their collars did not cause undue suffering or affect the conclusions of their research.

Richelle Tanner, Chapman University, USA:

Food resource partitioning in a rocky intertidal fish assemblage

G. D. Grossman (1986)

This paper follows an ecological phenomenon that is still part of critical research today, 40 years later, in the very same habitat. Climate change is modulating not only the mechanics of food resource partitioning, but also the seasonal timing and abundance of trophic interactions. High intensity and long-term ecological studies are imperative for the documentation of zoological phenomenon, and this natural history approach is being lost in modern studies. May current scholars and students learn from our past work to incorporate fine scale trophic interactions into their climate forecasting models to solidify the importance of zoology in modern science.

Gabriele Uhl, University of Greifswald, Germany:

The Balance of Animal Populations.—Part I.

A. J. Nicholson, V. A. Bailey (1935)

I chose this article as a significant milestone in theoretical ecology, authored by A. J. Nicholson and V. A. Bailey in 1935. It explores the population dynamics of a host-parasitoid system and can be extended to prey-predator systems. The model, later named after the authors, is grounded in differential equations and continues to serve as a reference model, having been expanded over time.