In 1953, Chicago’s Brookfield Zoo opened a dedicated children’s section stocked with baby animals. LIFE magazine sent photographer Howard Sochurek to document the results. The story he came back with ran under the headline “Zoo’s Babies Get Overdose of Love” — and the title says it all.
Young visitors flooded the new section and treated the live animals the same way they treated stuffed toys at home — poking, grabbing, and handling them without hesitation. The animals were small, soft, and approachable, and the children simply couldn’t keep their hands to themselves.
One of the most-touched animals was a baby elephant, whose rough, wrinkled skin drew endless curiosity from small fingers.
Not every animal endured the attention quietly. A monkey snatched a woman’s lipstick. A baboon swatted a boy. And then there was the llama incident. After being hand-fed popcorn by visitor after visitor, one llama reached its limit and expressed its displeasure directly — prompting one woman to storm off shouting, “That dirty brazen creature poked me in the rear!”
The llamas weren’t the only ones overwhelmed by the generosity of their visitors. A sea elephant drew a crowd after it hauled itself out of its pool, and a duck’s long neck became an easy target for curious hands.
The kangaroos were a particular draw. Children crowded around them, fascinated by their pouches and unusual shape. Staff bottle-fed the youngest ones right in front of the visitors.
Lion cubs proved just as irresistible. Caesar, one of the cubs on display, sat in a basket while dozens of hands reached in from every direction.
A goat climbed up onto a table — either seeking attention or escaping it — while Sochurek’s camera kept rolling, capturing every chaotic, tender moment of the day.
