Zoo

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For other uses of the term Zoo, see Zoo (disambiguation).

A zoological garden or zoo is an institution where mainly wild and exotic animals are restricted within enclosures, bred and displayed to the public. The term zoological garden refers to the biological discipline zoology, which derives from Greek Ζωο ("animal"), and λογος ("study"). The term was first used in 1828 for the London Zoological Gardens, soon shortened by the Londoners to the abbreviation “zoo”.

Most large cities in the world have zoos, though of drastically varying size and quality. Major zoos are important tourist attractions. More than 135 million people visit zoos in the United States and Canada every year, but most zoos operate at a loss and must find ways to cut costs or add gimmicks that will attract visitors. Zoos often depend on public funding, which is justified by their educational value and their conservationist activities.

1 Aims
2 History
3 Appearance
4 Special Zoos and Related Institutions
5 Additional Information

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Aims

Although many zoos were similar to amusement parks throughout their history, today’s zoological gardens display wild animals not just for the amusement and the entertainment of their visitors but mainly for conservation of endangered species, for education and biological research. For the last decades zoological gardens focused their activities increasingly on conservation biology, the protection and management of biodiversity. The concern is to help save the diversity of life on Earth through applied conservation activities such as breeding endangered species.

In 1993 the World Association of Zoos and Aquariums (WAZA), formerly known as the International Union of the Directors of Zoological Gardens, produced its first conservation strategy. This ground-breaking document articulated a vision of the role of zoos and aquariums in conservation. In November 2004 WAZA adopted a new strategy paper that sets out the aims and mission of zoological gardens of the twenty-first century:

The World Zoo and Aquarium Conservation Strategy

The breeding of endangered species is coordinated by special cooperative breeding programmes containing international studbooks and coordinators, who evaluate the roles of individual animals and institutions from a global or regional perspective. There are various regional programmes for the conservation of endangered species:

America: Species Survival Plans SSP (American Zoo and Aquarium Association AZA)
Europe: European Endangered Species Program EEP (European Association of Zoos and Aquaria)
Australasia: Australasian Species Management Program ASMP (Australasian Regional *Association of Zoological Parks and Aquaria ARAZPA)
Africa: African Preservation Program APP (African Association of Zoological Gardens and Aquaria PAAZAB)
Japan: Conservation activities of Japanese Association of Zoos and Aquariums JAZA
South Asia: Conservation activities of South Asian Zoo Association for Regional Cooperation SAZARC
South East Asia: Conservation activities of South East Asian Zoo Association SEAZA

References:

Colin Tudge: Last Animals in the Zoo: How Mass Extinction Can Be Stopped, London 1991. ISBN 1559631570

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History

The predecessor of the zoological garden is the menagerie that has a long history from the Middle Ages to modern times. The oldest still existing zoo, the Vienna Zoo in Austria, evolved from such an aristocratic menagerie founded 1752 by the Habsburg monarchy and changed its face as well as its mission throughout the centuries. The first zoo founded primarily just for scientific and educational reasons was the Ménagerie du Jardin des Plantes in Paris (1794). The founders and members of the Zoological Society of London adopted the idea of the early Paris zoo when they initiated and established London Zoo in 1828. The success of London Zoo set off a wave of further zoo establishments across the world. The first zoological garden established in Australia was Melbourne Zoo in 1861. In the same year the first zoo of the United States opened to the public in New York City (Central Park Zoo), although quite earlier in 1859 the Philadelphia Zoological Society had made an effort to establish a zoological park, but delayed due to the American Civil War.

References:

Vernon N. Kisling (ed.): Zoo and Aquarium History, Boca Raton 2001. ISBN 084932100x
R. J. Hoage, William A. Deiss (ed.): New Worlds, New Animals, Washington 1996. ISBN 0801851106
Elizabeth Hanson: Animal Attractions, Princeton 2002. ISBN 0691059926
David Hancocks: A Different Nature, Berkeley 2001. ISBN 0520218795

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Appearance

Most modern zoos keep animals in enclosures that attempt to replicate their natural habitats. Many zoos now have special buildings for nocturnal animals, with dim red lighting during the day, so the animals will be active when visitors are there, and bright lights at night to ensure that they sleep. Special climate conditions are created for animals living in radical environments, such as penguins. Special enclosures for birds, insects, fishes and other aquatic life forms have also been developed and are used in many zoos.

A petting zoo (also called children's farms or children's zoos) features a combination of domestic animals and some wild species that are docile enough to touch and feed. Petting zoos are extremely popular with small children. In order to ensure the animals' health, the food is supplied by the zoo, either from vending machines or a kiosk nearby. In addition to independent petting zoos, many general zoos contain one within it.

Sometimes monkeys are not separated from the public, e.g. in the Apenheul Zoo in Apeldoorn. Peafowl are also frequently allowed to roam free in zoos. Some zoos keep other birds in free-flying state, which remain in place due to their site fidelity and because they are fed there. Enclosures in a good zoo are comfortable and most animals remain inside voluntarily, which allows for unusually narrow moats and low barriers for ungulates.

Many zoos have walk-through exhibits, where visitors enter enclosures of non-aggressive species, like lemurs, marmosets, birds, lizards, turtles etc. Visitors are normally asked to keep to paths, and animals are not tame.

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Special Zoos and Related Institutions

Contrary to the classical zoological garden that displays the entire world fauna, some special zoos concentrate on animals of certain geographical regions, on animals of the water or attempt to exhibit their animals in a different way. Some of these institutions, mainly those who evolved from former amusement parks, connect entertainment elements with exhibiting live animals.

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Wild Animal Parks

A so called wild animal park is sited outside a larger sity and thus far more sizeable than the classical zoo. The first of this new kind of zoos was Whipsnade Wild Animal Park opened in 1931 and located at Whipsnade in Bedfordshire, England. This park owned by the Zoological Society of London covers 600 acres (2.4 km²) and is still one of Europe's largest wildlife conservation parks where animals are kept within sizeable enclosures. Since the early 1970s a 1,800-acre parcel (7 km²) in the Pasqual Valley near San Diego also accommodates a remarkable new zoo, the San Diego Wild Animal Park that is run by the Zoological Society of San Diego. Similar to these wild animal parks according to size, but different to intentions is the 1998 opened Disney's Animal Kingdom in Orlando, Florida (550 acres, 2 km²). The Walt Disney Company established this entertainment attraction with live animals close to its other amusement parks.

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Public Aquaria

The first public aquarium was opened in London Zoo in 1853. This event was followed by the opening of a number of public aquariums from 1853 to 1899 in Europe (for example, Paris 1859, Hamburg 1864, 1868, Berlin 1869, Brighton 1872) and the United States (Boston 1859, Washington 1873, San Francisco 1894, New York 1896). Numerous other public aquariums opened during the twentieth century. In 2005 the non-profit Georgia Aquarium, "world's largest aquarium" (according to its own advertising) with more than 8 million US gallons (30,000 m³; 30,000,000 liters) of marine and fresh water, and more than 100,000 animals of 500 different species opened in Atlanta, Georgia. The aquarium's notable specimens include whale sharks and beluga whales.

Georgia Aquarium

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Marine Mammal Parks

A marine mammal park (alternative terms are oceanarium or marine theme park) is a mixture between an aquarium concentrating on mammals living in the sea and an amusement park. Keeping of whales and dolphins under human care is very controversial since it is difficult or nearly impossible to imitate the conditions of the ocean in an artificial environment. It seems that the captivity of whales within tanks or artificial environments is cruelty to these intelligent mammals.

The first of these specialized aquaria was Marineland in St. Augustine, Florida, which was established in 1938. It was a large central tank used to exhibit marine mammals initially used for filming underwater movies and only later became a public attraction. Between the 1970s and the 1990s, technological advances in design and materials and the public's increasing interest in aquatic environments, prompted a shift to large marine theme parks with whales (mostly orcas) and dolphins as attractions. Today “SeaWorld” is a chain of several marine mammal parks in the United States, with operations in Orlando, Florida, San Diego, California, San Antonio, Texas, and previously in Cleveland, Ohio. All these parks feature orca, sea lion, and dolphin shows and a variety of entertainment attractions such as thrill rides.