For more than 30 years, the University of Michigan was home to something few universities can claim: a zoo. From 1929 until its closure in 1962, the “Animal House Zoo,” as it was sometimes called, was a quirky fixture of campus life.

The zoo was established thanks to funds from an anonymous donor. Modest in scale, the U-M Zoo consisted of a hexagonal building and chain-link cages that housed an assortment of Michigan wildlife, including black bears, foxes, raccoons, porcupines, skunks and badgers. A few reptiles, like turtles and snakes, were also part of the collection.

The location was central — on Washtenaw Avenue near where U-M’s Natural History Museum stands today. Families could bring their children, and students could stop by between classes.

One of the zoo’s most famous (or infamous) residents arrived in 1936, after a short stint at the Detroit Zoo. Intrepidus, affectionately known as “Treppy,” was a wolverine captured in Alaska. 

Treppy was reportedly fairly mild-mannered in captivity and dined on dog food and raisins. The only time Treppy got really riled up was when someone in the athletic department thought it would be a good idea to bring him to Michigan Stadium for a football game.

They rolled Treppy onto the football field in a cage, as the crowd cheered.

Treppy hated it. The noise overwhelmed him, and the Ann Arbor News reported that he returned to the zoo “in such a state of nervous exhaustion and panic that he literally foamed at the mouth.” That was Treppy’s last football game.

Treppy remained at the zoo until he died in 1950, becoming one of the only four-legged wolverines to ever live in Ann Arbor.

In 1962, the Board of Regents voted to close the zoo to make space for the expansion of the Natural History Museum.

The Ann Arbor City Council urged them to reconsider, but university administrators decided it was in the best interest of the remaining animals to relocate them to larger, accredited zoos around the country.

Today, there are still U-M alumni and Ann Arbor residents with memories of the zoo. In Facebook groups “Michigan History,” and “Michigan Enjoyer,” they’ve even swapped stories.

“I was so sad when they closed it as we kids loved it!” said one, while another said she “would walk past it every day of my freshman year going to campus from Alice Lloyd.”

Not all memories were fond, however, as one Michigan Enjoyer member recalled that “the odors from the bears’ cage were horrific.”