A royal visit to London Zoo in 2016 completed a circle that had begun 40 years earlier. According to the Zoological Society of London, Queen Elizabeth II opened the Lion Terraces at London Zoo in 1976, then returned in 2016, during her 90th birthday year, to open Land of the Lions, a new conservation breeding centre for Asiatic lions, alongside the then Duke of Edinburgh. ZSL described the 2016 visit as completing a circle of royal engagement spanning decades. The Zoological Society of London, founded in 1826, has maintained close connections with the British Royal Family throughout its history, with the reigning monarch serving as its Royal Patron since the time of William IV.
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