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.
It true, of course, that the museum animals do lack a rather distinctive quality: which is to say that they're dead -- and stuffed! The truth is though, recalling from my childhood, many of the zoos I visited had animals which were so inanimate, they might well have been stuffed.
The days when zoos were largely animal museums are happily mostly a thing of the past, now. Indeed, in a certain sense, the more opposite to this that a zoo is capable of making itself, the more it may raise itself up into the league of the best zoos in America - or, indeed, the best in the world.
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.
The result of these mission defining initiatives is a symbiosis: the lessons learned about optimum wildlife habitat preservation enables more rigorous habitat design within the modern zoo. This creates an environment far better suited to the zoo's animals. The result is a greatly more stimulating and rewarding experience for everyone involved.
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.
It's true that, since this often entails greater ranges for the animals, getting the zoo visitors to the animals become more of a challenge. The smartest zoos have been addressing this challenge with various kind of carry-through technology, such as 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.
This is the extraordinary magic of the best zoos: they marry the insights of science and technology to create a sense of the sublime.
It true, of course, that the museum animals do lack a rather distinctive quality: which is to say that they're dead -- and stuffed! The truth is though, recalling from my childhood, many of the zoos I visited had animals which were so inanimate, they might well have been stuffed.
The days when zoos were largely animal museums are happily mostly a thing of the past, now. Indeed, in a certain sense, the more opposite to this that a zoo is capable of making itself, the more it may raise itself up into the league of the best zoos in America - or, indeed, the best in the world.
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.
The result of these mission defining initiatives is a symbiosis: the lessons learned about optimum wildlife habitat preservation enables more rigorous habitat design within the modern zoo. This creates an environment far better suited to the zoo's animals. The result is a greatly more stimulating and rewarding experience for everyone involved.
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.
It's true that, since this often entails greater ranges for the animals, getting the zoo visitors to the animals become more of a challenge. The smartest zoos have been addressing this challenge with various kind of carry-through technology, such as 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.
This is the extraordinary magic of the best zoos: they marry the insights of science and technology to create a sense of the sublime.
About the Author:
Mitchell Jone's top five list of the best zoos in America is a must read when you're organizing a family trip around a zoo holiday. Also, you'll enjoy our YouTube video .
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