State of Animals Ch 09

Is There a Place in the World 9CHAPTER for Zoos? David Hancocks e human animals make Preventive medicine and overall logical needs of the inhabitants. Their rapid technological and cul- health care are now usually at very only function, like the old menagerie Wtural advancements because competent and professional levels of cages, is secure containment. Every- we have the ability to pass definitive expertise. The zoo animals of today thing in them is fixed and hard, im- information to succeeding genera- receive fresh and wholesome food in movable, never changing, and largely tions. But we also accept too much contrast to their predecessors, and unusable by the animals. from the past without challenge. The their diets are carefully researched The public display areas may be lux- good, the bad, and the indifferent are and evaluated. Zoo education pro- uriantly green in the best of the new muddled together, accumulating in grams reach millions of students each zoos, but behind the scenes the nine- layers that smother each succeeding year. Keeper staffs are highly trained, teenth century still exists. Even age. Cultural mores ranging from the knowledgeable, and dedicated. worse, all too often the supposedly silly to the profane, from charming to When examined from the point of naturalistic display areas of the mod- dangerous, clutter our world. They view of the visitor or the staff, in fact, ern zoo are, as far as the animals are exist only because, as the British are conditions in today’s accredited zoos concerned, of even less functional val- wont to say, “We have always done are far better than those of yester- ue than were iron-barred menagerie things this way.” One very troubling year. But an examination from the cages. At least they had bars to climb example is the public zoological parks animals’ point of view reveals that on and swing from! Today electric found in almost every city: they are many of the problems of nineteenth- wires and hidden moats all too often fundamentally unchanged from the century menageries remain, inexcus- keep the animals away from the lush first public zoo that opened in The ably, in common practice. vegetation of the new habitat exhib- Regent’s Park in London in 1828. If you examine the daily routine of its. Appearances to the contrary, the Although significant modifications a chimpanzee, lion, tiger, bear, or any animals on display may have nothing have taken place since then, partic- other typical zoo animal, you will not but a small area to sit in all day and ularly recently, for the most part, zoos find it unusual for animals in even the nothing natural with which to inter- continue to do things the way they best zoos to spend the far greater act. Trees and shrubs that appear to have done them for almost two cen- part of each twenty-four-hour day be an integral part of the animals’ turies. An objective reevaluation is locked in holding cages, “off display.” habitat are likely to be untouchable. long overdue. Far too commonly, these cages are To add insult to injury, it is not One improvement that has taken almost exact replicas of the old me- unusual for the “natural habitat” to place is that an accredited, profes- nagerie cages that were viewed by zoo be composed of nothing but concrete sionally operated modern zoo is no visitors, the only difference is that the and plastic. Some zoos and their longer likely to present animals to the cages are out of public sight. Night designers boast of their skill in creat- public in rows of tiny, barred cages. cages for zoo animals are invariably ing scenes that closely mimic the ap- Such zoos now display animals in sim- noisy, harsh, barred cubicles, lit by pearance of natural habitats by using ulated natural habitats. Modern vet- cold fluorescent tubes, with no atten- entirely artificial components and erinary medicine, too, has brought tion given to acoustic comfort, soft materials. This public face of the new enormous benefits to zoo animals. lighting, or any behavioral or psycho- zoo may convince the visitors and 137 their video-camera view of the au- backwater. They had allocated less these days likely to be well educated, thenticity of the scene, but a “tree” than 300 square feet for this tableau well trained, and dedicated to the made of epoxy resin or a “mud wal- and were insistent that not only was well being of the animals in their low” made of concrete is of no more more space not available, but it was care. Many of the younger zoo direc- use to a wild animal than is a plastic also unnecessary. tors, too, bring compassion and pow- beach ball. This type of problem is found in erful intellects to their profession. These shortcomings are especially zoos worldwide. It stems from a lack What is generally lacking within the evident in many of the “rainforest” of awareness that zoo animals are liv- profession, however, is an eagerness exhibits that have mushroomed in ing creatures and an apparent inabili- to look for fundamental changes to American zoos in recent years. Unlike ty to place the animal’s needs—psy- the whole zoo concept. Few recognize real rainforests, which are hushed, chological and behavioral, as well as that a complete reexamination of dark, daunting, and contemplative physiological—at the top of the list of zoos is necessary: there are too few environments, zoo rainforest exhibits design criteria. This myopia is typical- zoo heretics. are invariably bright, colorful, and full ly exacerbated in zoo rainforest ex- The most urgent and fundamental of noise—more like a suburban gar- hibits: their extremely high construc- change needed for the new millenni- den center than the somber splendor tion costs result in minimal space to um is for zoos to recognize that they of the Amazon. They are usually filled the animals. Thus, zoo rainforest ex- do not need to focus exclusively on to overcrowding with the most color- hibits can virtually guarantee that animals, particularly on those species ful and noisy species, since quantity both the quantity and the quality of traditionally kept in zoos. If we com- has always counted when it comes to space allocated to the animals are pare the zoo collections of today with zoo species, and zoos have never been inadequate. Kept in tiny spaces with those of one hundred years ago, we able to resist the flashy and the cute. no access to any natural vegetation, find the same distorted emphasis on The mistaken impression left in zoo animals have to learn to live with plas- big, colorful, and charismatic species. visitors’ minds is that rainforests are tic. In the worst examples, such as The richness and the complexity of crammed with chattering monkeys Omaha Zoo’s Lied Jungle building, nature is completely overshadowed by and boldly colored birds. Botanical many animals spend their entire lives this obsession to an astonishing de- gardens fall prey to the same trap, in cramped, completely artificial envi- gree. About 1,640 of the 30 million preferring to present the grotesque ronments and never have contact species of animals on the planet are and unusual rather than a true pic- with anything natural. The general mammals. The average American zoo ture of nature. design approach is closer to that used contains 53 of these known mam- The sense of awe inspired by the all- in store window displays, with the ani- malian species, a ratio of 1:31. For embracing quietude of the tropical mals perched like jewels in the spot- birds, the ratio is 1:98; for reptiles, forest is replaced by a gaudy, oversim- light, dimensions calculated to the 1:104. Amphibians are represented in plified spectacle. Overhead there is inch, than to habitats for living ani- the average American zoo at a ratio of no closed green canopy, only the steel mals. No space is wasted, unless you only 1:2,000. For invertebrates it and concrete slabs of a glass roof. It is take the philosophical position that drops to one in several millions (Boyd a kindergarten view of the natural the entire space is wasted, since these 1997). Zoos present an upside down world: to your right is the café, on multi-million-dollar extravaganzas typ- view of the animal world. More than your left is the public restroom, and ically claim little authenticity and 95 percent of all species are small ahead of you is the gift shop. provide minimal educational value. enough to fit in the cup of your hand The attitude that a zoo animal is and are completely unknown in zoos. merely an object for display is disqui- This is particularly galling, since in- Animals etingly prevalent in many zoos, but vertebrates, especially, typically have fortunately there are some excep- more biological mass than any other as Jewels tions. When Zoo Atlanta built a large species in a natural habitat, and thus Zoos have always had one overriding exhibition habitat for gorillas in the greater biological importance and in- concern—that their animals must al- late 1980s, it included several big fluence. As Harvard biologist E. O. ways be on view and easily seen. The trees in the animal areas. The design- Wilson has suggested, we need to bet- general curator at the Bronx Zoo ers were aghast when the gorillas be- ter demonstrate that in many critical describes a recent instance in which gan to inflict heavy damage on these ways it is often the little critters that he was consulted on the design of a trees and asked the zoo director, run this world.

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