"The zoo" was the nickname given by Sith Saber Orielle Kitai to a facility on the planet Kesh. Built as a park in honor of the Skyborn Rangers and their first leader, Nida Korsin, the facility changed function and names several times before being used to house and display uvak, beasts of burden also used in gladiatorial competitions called rake-riding. In 3960 BBY, former High Lord Candra Kitai was forced to live in and shovel manure at the zoo for Grand Lord Lillia Venn.
"The zoo," as it was nicknamed by Sith Saber Orielle Kitai, was a roofed facility with several stalls in Tahv, the capital city of the planet Kesh. It was capable of housing numerous specimens of the planet's predator species, as well as uvak, large beasts of burden native to the world, giving the facility a considerable odor.
Built sometime after 4975 BBY, the zoo—as Orielle Kitai later came to call it—was originally a special park used to honor the Skyborn Rangers and Nida Korsin, their first leader. The facility's usage changed numerous times, as did its name, which gave homage to at least two different Grand Lords—the heads of the planet's ruling government, the Lost Tribe of Sith—over the course of just over one thousand years. At one point, the facility housed the last surviving members of various predator species from Kesh, but the Sith had since killed the creatures for sport. By 3960 BBY, the facility was used to house uvak, and spectators were granted access to the facility to watch as the uvak were prepared for their gladiatorial competitions, called rake-riding, in the Korsinata stadium. By that time, it had come to be known as "the zoo" by Kitai.
Shortly after the attempt on the life of Grand Lord Lillia Venn by the uvak wrangler Campion Dey, Kitai's mother and former High Lord, Candra Kitai—whom Venn suspected was behind the attack—was forced to live at the zoo and shovel manure from the facility's stalls for two weeks as passersby looked on. Candra's daughter, having recently discovered the location of the only space-capable vessel on the planet, later came to the zoo, hoping that her mother could help her gain political leverage. After disabling a guard, Kitai offered to free her mother, but Candra refused, under the pretense that she would only slow Kitai down. However, Candra betrayed Kitai, using the information her daughter had given her regarding the starship in exchange for, according to Grand Lord Venn, "improved working conditions."
"The zoo," the formal name of which has yet to be canonically provided, first appeared in Lost Tribe of the Sith: Sentinel, the sixth book in the Lost Tribe of the Sith eBook series. Sentinel was written by John Jackson Miller and released on February 21, 2011.