Beloved Animals

Brownie the Bear

For more than four decades a trip to Sunset Zoo was not complete without a visit to the iconic grizzly Bear, Brownie. Upon arriving at Brownie’s enclosure – located where the gibbons’ habitat is now – visitors often saw the 500-pound bear casually resting in his aqua-colored pool or sleeping in his den.

Generations of visitors recounted their childhood memories of trips to Sunset Zoo to view Brownie, and some later continued the tradition by bringing their children or grandchildren.

Brownie lived at Sunset Zoo an incredible 41 years. We know that Dr. E.J. Frick brought Brownie to Manhattan in 1968 as an adult bear. But records back then were not complete, so we don’t know where Frick acquired the bear. Some reports over the years have speculated that he came from a circus, though others doubt that.

officials estimated that he was born around 1952, so he was already about 16 years old when he came to Sunset Zoo.

Brownie lived in a large cage enclosed with steel bars and with a cement floor – a design that would not meet the standards of accredited zoos today. By the early 2000s, zoo officials considered building a new, more spacious habitat but decided that it was too risky to his health to move Brownie from familiar surroundings. 

Grizzly bears in the wild are considered senior citizens at around age 20. After his health deteriorated, zoo veterinarians determined that the most humane thing to do was to euthanize Brownie. He died on May 22, 2009, at an estimated age of 56 years. He was one of the oldest grizzly bears at a zoo in the United States at the time.

Susie the Chimpanzee

Susie the chimpanzee arrived at Sunset Zoo in 1974 and lived there for 31 years until her death in October, 2025. In her later years she was is believed to be the oldest female chimp in human care. Sunset Zoo staff believe that she was born in the wild, though her exact birth date is not known. She lived at the Des Moines, Iowa, zoo before coming to Manhattan.

She is believed to be the oldest chimp to give birth at a zoo, around age 55. She was too old to produce breast milk, so the baby was hand reared. Susie gave birth to seven offspring over the years, including two sets of twins. 

She died at age 71, which is more than three decades beyond the average chimpanzee lifespan in the wild of around 40 years.