Gerald McGrew
Gerald McGrew is the protagonist and narrator of If I Ran the Zoo. An imaginative young boy, Gerald arrives at the local zoo's lackluster lion cage and begins speculating about what he would do if he ran his own zoo. The book follows Gerald's internal monologue as he pictures far-flung locations—some real but many imagined—from which he would capture creatures to bring to his zoo. In the scenarios, Gerald often imagines the nameless local inhabitants working to help him capture the animals.
Fizza-ma-Wizza-ma-Dill
The Fizza-ma-Wizza-ma-Dill is one of the creatures Gerald imagines. He refers to the invented animal as "the world's biggest bird from the island of Gwark" and says it eats "only pine trees, and spits out the bark."
Zookeeper
The Zookeeper is the man Gerald sees standing contently next to the zoo's lion exhibit at the beginning of the story. The Zookeeper speaks no lines. Gerald comments that the man seems "pretty proud" of the zoo he runs, even though Gerald finds the zoo to be lacking in excitement.
