By Jack Brummet, Fauna Editor/Presidential History Editor
When Lewis and Clark were exploring the West, they sent two young bear cubs back East to President Tom Jefferson. He kept the bears in a cage on the White House lawn and sometimes went on walks with them.
President Calvin Coolidge owned a raccoon, a bobcat, a donkey, a wallaby, a pygmy hippo, a small antelope, and a black bear.
John Quincy Adams kept an alligator.
President Harry S. Truman had a boa constrictor for a pet.
James Buchanan kept an elephant at The White House.
Not surprisingly, President Teddy Roosevelt had a zebra (although I'm surprised he didn't own a lion, hippo, or elephant, since he enjoyed plugging them so much).
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