A callow youth could be imagined who considered a museum excursion quite as good as, possibly superior to, visiting the zoo. It is, after all, common practice nowadays for museums to have large animal exhibits packed into conveniently browse-able indoor displays - thoroughly sheltered from the variable weather of the seasons.
The small print in that situation, though, is the minor detail that the animals aren't moving - a predictable consequence of being dead (and stuffed). But, the truth is, back in my precious kid days, plenty of zoos had animals that moved about with a frequency that might lead to suspicion that they were stuffed.
One can say now though, with some relief, that behind us now is the days when zoos were largely animal museums. In fact, it's almost come to the point that the barometer for measuring the best zoos in America is precisely the degree to which one distinguishes itself from these older model zoos.
The best zoos in American, and the world, no longer resemble warehouses with bars. And more to the point, they are vigorous participants in the cultivation and preservation of our planet's animal life. This participation often entails facilities and missions for research and enterprise that contributes to preservation of the natural habitat of such animals in the wild.
Such zoos distinguish themselves through contributing to a creation of a symbiosis, in which knowledge of how best to preserve natural habitat contributes to their ability to better design a zoo experience that is suited more to the natural disposition of their own animals. As a consequence of this ongoing learning and adapting process, today's zoo is stimulating and rewarding in entirely new and unprecedented ways.
As zoo animals have the experience of living in environments more closely fit with their evolved dispositions, their natural liveliness is invigorated. This leads to animals with energy and curiosity. Such animals are active and involved with their environment and each other.
The benefits to both their psychological and physical healthy are considerable. Likewise, though, these superior living conditions for the animals allow the zoo visitor exciting experiences. The increased energy and vitality of the animals in this more stimulating setting, so much better suited to their evolutionary characteristics, allows zoo visitors to observe animals that not only are healthier, and more engaging, but also living a life more representative of their nature.
And of course since the behavior of the animals is now better suited to their natural habitat, the zoo becomes an educational experience in a manner far more complex and deep than the stand-and-gawk zoos of my youth.
One of the great outcomes of this new style zoo has been the construction of far vaster ranges for the animals to live within. This improvement in the living conditions of the animals, though, has posed challenges regarding the means to allow zoo visitors to experience the animals in this new habitat, without undermining its initial virtues. Leaders in the zoo community addressed these challenges with various kinds of carry-through technology and process reorganization. These have included monorails, safari tours and walk through zones.
The best zoos in America , or elsewhere, are characterized by this kind of synthesis. A conservationist mission, revised facility designs, and innovative applications of technology dovetail into an entirely new kind of institutional style that is not unfairly described as a zoological renaissance.
Such a renaissance has had profound impacts upon the modern zoo visitor. In place of the old museum zoos we now enjoy experiences as rich in learning opportunities as in sheer exotic awe. Our new zoos inspire an experience which verges on the otherworldly. We now enjoy the remarkable opportunity for a kind of communion with other kinds of life. These other lives, certainly, are different from our own. And yet, at the same time, no doubt due to the consequence of a common evolutionary past, in some uncanny sense there remains something that strangely resonates with us.
Herein lay the real magic of the best zoos in America. They pull off this remarkable feat of somehow combining the power and lessons of contemporary science and technology while in the process allowing us to experience something of the sublime.
The small print in that situation, though, is the minor detail that the animals aren't moving - a predictable consequence of being dead (and stuffed). But, the truth is, back in my precious kid days, plenty of zoos had animals that moved about with a frequency that might lead to suspicion that they were stuffed.
One can say now though, with some relief, that behind us now is the days when zoos were largely animal museums. In fact, it's almost come to the point that the barometer for measuring the best zoos in America is precisely the degree to which one distinguishes itself from these older model zoos.
The best zoos in American, and the world, no longer resemble warehouses with bars. And more to the point, they are vigorous participants in the cultivation and preservation of our planet's animal life. This participation often entails facilities and missions for research and enterprise that contributes to preservation of the natural habitat of such animals in the wild.
Such zoos distinguish themselves through contributing to a creation of a symbiosis, in which knowledge of how best to preserve natural habitat contributes to their ability to better design a zoo experience that is suited more to the natural disposition of their own animals. As a consequence of this ongoing learning and adapting process, today's zoo is stimulating and rewarding in entirely new and unprecedented ways.
As zoo animals have the experience of living in environments more closely fit with their evolved dispositions, their natural liveliness is invigorated. This leads to animals with energy and curiosity. Such animals are active and involved with their environment and each other.
The benefits to both their psychological and physical healthy are considerable. Likewise, though, these superior living conditions for the animals allow the zoo visitor exciting experiences. The increased energy and vitality of the animals in this more stimulating setting, so much better suited to their evolutionary characteristics, allows zoo visitors to observe animals that not only are healthier, and more engaging, but also living a life more representative of their nature.
And of course since the behavior of the animals is now better suited to their natural habitat, the zoo becomes an educational experience in a manner far more complex and deep than the stand-and-gawk zoos of my youth.
One of the great outcomes of this new style zoo has been the construction of far vaster ranges for the animals to live within. This improvement in the living conditions of the animals, though, has posed challenges regarding the means to allow zoo visitors to experience the animals in this new habitat, without undermining its initial virtues. Leaders in the zoo community addressed these challenges with various kinds of carry-through technology and process reorganization. These have included monorails, safari tours and walk through zones.
The best zoos in America , or elsewhere, are characterized by this kind of synthesis. A conservationist mission, revised facility designs, and innovative applications of technology dovetail into an entirely new kind of institutional style that is not unfairly described as a zoological renaissance.
Such a renaissance has had profound impacts upon the modern zoo visitor. In place of the old museum zoos we now enjoy experiences as rich in learning opportunities as in sheer exotic awe. Our new zoos inspire an experience which verges on the otherworldly. We now enjoy the remarkable opportunity for a kind of communion with other kinds of life. These other lives, certainly, are different from our own. And yet, at the same time, no doubt due to the consequence of a common evolutionary past, in some uncanny sense there remains something that strangely resonates with us.
Herein lay the real magic of the best zoos in America. They pull off this remarkable feat of somehow combining the power and lessons of contemporary science and technology while in the process allowing us to experience something of the sublime.
About the Author:
Mitchell Jone's top five list of the best zoos in America is a must read if you're planning a family trip around a zoo adventure. And, you'll enjoy our YouTube video .
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