 The zoo had an unusually high scientific standard for its time, and the record of the parasite genus "Cladotaenia" (Cohn, 1901) is based upon cestodes (flatworms) found in an Australian bird that died at the zoo.Kalākaua, the last king of Hawaii, visited the zoo on 28 May 1881 during his world tour.Pressed for space as Kolkata developed, and lacking adequate government funding, the zoo attracted a lot of controversy in the latter half of the 20th century due to cramped living conditions of the animals, lack of initiative at breeding rare species, and for cross-breeding experiments between species.