Zoos in the 21st Century

Author: Alexandra Zimmermann
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521853330
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 388

Book Description
Modern zoos and aquaria are playing an increasingly active and important role in protecting and managing global biodiversity. Many zoos include wildlife conservation in their mission and have started changing the focus of their institutions in order to increase even further the benefits of their activities for in situ wildlife conservation. With these developments, the following searching questions are now being asked: What is the true role of zoos in conservation? How can they contribute more significantly to global conservation efforts? What are the unique attributes of zoos that can be applied in the conservation landscape? And should zoos be doing more? In parallel with this voluntary movement, legal requirements for zoos to support conservation in the wild are also becoming more stringent. This 2007 book defines a conservation vision for zoos and aquaria that will be of interest to those working in zoos, alongside practitioners and researchers in conservation.

Zooland

Author: Irus Braverman
Publisher: Stanford University Press
ISBN: 0804784396
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 282

Book Description
This book takes a unique stance on a controversial topic: zoos. Zoos have their ardent supporters and their vocal detractors. And while we all have opinions on what zoos do, few people consider how they do it. Irus Braverman draws on more than seventy interviews conducted with zoo managers and administrators, as well as animal activists, to offer a glimpse into the otherwise unknown complexities of zooland. Zooland begins and ends with the story of Timmy, the oldest male gorilla in North America, to illustrate the dramatic transformations of zoos since the 1970s. Over these decades, modern zoos have transformed themselves from places created largely for entertainment to globally connected institutions that emphasize care through conservation and education. Zoos naturalize their spaces, classify their animals, and produce spectacular experiences for their human visitors. Zoos name, register, track, and allocate their animals in global databases. Zoos both abide by and create laws and industry standards that govern their captive animals. Finally, zoos intensely govern the reproduction of captive animals, carefully calculating the life and death of these animals, deciding which of them will be sustained and which will expire. Zooland takes readers behind the exhibits into the world of zoo animals and their caretakers. And in so doing, it turns its gaze back on us to make surprising interconnections between our understandings of the human and the nonhuman.

Zoo Ethics

Author: Jenny Gray
Publisher: CSIRO PUBLISHING
ISBN: 1486307000
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 222

Book Description
Well-run modern zoos and aquariums do important research and conservation work and teach visitors about the challenges of animals in the wild and the people striving to save them. They help visitors to consider their impact and think about how they can make a difference. Yet for many there is a sense of disquiet and a lingering question remains – can modern zoos be ethically justified? Zoo Ethics examines the workings of modern zoos and considers the core ethical challenges that face those who choose to hold and display animals in zoos, aquariums or sanctuaries. Using recognised ethical frameworks and case studies of ‘wicked problems’, this book explores the value of animal life and the impacts of modern zoos, including the costs to animals in terms of welfare and the loss of liberty. It also considers the positive welfare and health outcomes of many animals held in zoos, the increased attention and protection for their species in the wild, and the enjoyment and education of the people who visit zoos. A thoughtfully researched work written in a highly readable style, Zoo Ethics will empower students of animal ethics and veterinary sciences, zoo and aquarium professionals and interested zoo visitors to have an informed view of the challenges of compassionate conservation and to develop their own defendable, ethical position.

Conservation in the 21st Century: Gorillas as a Case Study

Author: T.S. Stoinski
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 0387707212
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 369

Book Description
This volume identifies the primary problems faced in conserving wild populations of gorillas throughout Africa, pinpointing new approaches to solving these problems and outlining the increased role that zoos can play in gorilla conservation. It includes the in-depth expertise of field scientists in a variety of disciplines to discuss current conservation threats, novel approaches to conservation, and potential solutions.

Zoo Scientists to the Rescue

Author: Patricia Newman
Publisher: Millbrook Press
ISBN: 1512415715
Category : Juvenile Nonfiction
Languages : en
Pages : 68

Book Description
Go behind the scenes and discover how scientists at three U.S. zoos are helping wild and captive orangutans, black-footed ferrets, and black rhinoceroses. Full color.

The Ark and Beyond

Author: Ben A. Minteer
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 9780226538327
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 528

Book Description
Scores of wild species and ecosystems around the world face a variety of human-caused threats, from habitat destruction and fragmentation to rapid climate change. But there is hope, and it, too, comes in a most human form: zoos and aquariums. Gathering a diverse, multi-institutional collection of leading zoo and aquarium scientists as well as historians, philosophers, biologists, and social scientists, The Ark and Beyond traces the history and underscores the present role of these organizations as essential conservation actors. It also offers a framework for their future course, reaffirming that if zoos and aquariums make biodiversity conservation a top priority, these institutions can play a vital role in tackling conservation challenges of global magnitude. While early menageries were anything but the centers of conservation that many zoos are today, a concern with wildlife preservation has been an integral component of the modern, professionally run zoo since the nineteenth century. From captive breeding initiatives to rewilding programs, zoos and aquariums have long been at the cutting edge of research and conservation science, sites of impressive new genetic and reproductive techniques. Today, their efforts reach even further beyond recreation, with educational programs, community-based conservation initiatives, and international, collaborative programs designed to combat species extinction and protect habitats at a range of scales. Addressing related topics as diverse as zoo animal welfare, species reintroductions, amphibian extinctions, and whether zoos can truly be “wild,” this book explores the whole range of research and conservation practices that spring from zoos and aquariums while emphasizing the historical, scientific, and ethical traditions that shape these efforts. Also featuring an inspiring foreword by the late George Rabb, president emeritus of the Chicago Zoological Society / Brookfield Zoo, The Ark and Beyond illuminates these institutions’ growing significance to the preservation of global biodiversity in this century.

Ethnoprimatology

Author: Michel T. Waller
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 3319304690
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 421

Book Description
The list of challenges facing nonhuman primates in the 21st century is a long one. The expansion of palm oil plantations to feed a growing consumer class is eating away at ape and monkey habitats in Southeast Asia and Central Africa. Lemurs are hunted for food in the poorest parts of Madagascar while monkeys are used as medicine in Brazil. Traditional cultural beliefs are maintaining demand for animal body parts in West African markets while viral YouTube videos of “cute” and “cuddly” lorises have increased their market value as pets and endangered their populations. These and other issues are addressed in this book by leading researchers in the field of ethnoprimatology, the study of human/nonhuman primate interactions that combines traditional primatological methodologies with cultural anthropology in an effort to better understand the nuances of our economic, ritualistic, and ecologic relationships.

The Paper Zoo

Author: Charlotte Sleigh
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 022644712X
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 257

Book Description
Images from works in the collections of the British Library.

Milwaukee County Zoo

Author: Darlene Winter, Elizabeth Frank, and Mary Kazmierczak
Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
ISBN: 1467112038
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 128

Book Description
From the inception of the Milwaukee County Zoo at West Park in 1892, the citizens of Milwaukee have worked diligently to make it one of the finest zoos in the country. Their tireless effort and faith were rewarded. The zoo experienced many firsts, including the first polar bear born in captivity in North America, and was home to Samson, one of the largest gorillas in captivity. Throughout its history, the zoo also gained fame for innovative exhibit design. The zoo has flourished through the cooperation of Milwaukee County and the Zoological Society of Milwaukee. This public-private relationship has existed successfully since 1910.

Zoo Talk

Author: Patricia G. Patrick
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 9400748620
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 217

Book Description
Founded on the premise that zoos are ‘bilingual’—that the zoo, in the shape of its staff and exhibits, and its visitors speak distinct languages—this enlightening analysis of the informal learning that occurs in zoos examines the ‘speech’ of exhibits and staff as well as the discourse of visitors beginning in the earliest years. Using real-life conversations among visitors as a basis for discussion, the authors interrogate children’s responses to the exhibits and by doing so develop an ‘informal learning model’ and a ‘zoo knowledge model’ that prompts suggestions for activities that classroom educators can use before, during, and after a zoo visit. Their analysis of the ‘visitor voice’ informs creative suggestions for how to enhance the educational experiences of young patrons. By assessing visitors’ entry knowledge and their interpretations of the exhibits, the authors establish a baseline for zoos that helps them to refine their communication with visitors, for example in expanding knowledge of issues concerning biodiversity and biological conservation. The book includes practical advice for zoo and classroom educators about positive ways to prepare for zoo visits, engaging activities during visits, and follow-up work that maximizes the pedagogical benefits. It also reflects on the interplay between the developing role of zoos as facilitators of learning, and the ways in which zoos help visitors assimilate the knowledge on offer. In addition to being essential reading for educators in zoos and in the classroom, this volume is full of insights with much broader contextual relevance for getting the most out of museum visits and field trips in general.