Georgian menageries are to be seen as the predecessors to the more formal zoological societies of the Victorian era. As the British Empire expanded, private and public menageries were populated by exotic animals seen as objects of fascination and wonder and whose aim was to entertain visitors and guests as well as to satisfy the curiosity for the animal world. In such places of sociability, exotic animals became commodities to be entertained by and to consume collectively thereby becoming part of London life in the eighteenth century. Privileged gentry, aristocracy, and ordinary people established social relations in menageries in which they also expressed cultural attitudes and concerns.