Zoo Story: Life in the Garden of Captives by Thomas French (Hyperion, July 2010) delves into the ethical concerns and conservation issues faced by zoos in the 21st century. Some condemn zoos as prisons, but in this world of rapidly diminishing wild places where a species goes extinct almost daily, zoos often provide sanctuary for creatures which would otherwise have no place else to turn. With deep respect and feeling for his subject, French brings the inner life the animals and people of Tampa's Lowry Park Zoo into focus.
The Elephants
French followed a small group of wild juvenile African elephants as they were captured and put on a plane bound for Tampa. The elephants overpopulated their game reserve, destroying the vegetation, and no reputable park in Africa had room for them. Culling of elephant herds--gunning them down via helicopters--is an unfortunate but common practice among the reserves, but this time the game keepers decided to send their surplus elephants to an American zoo. The elephants arrived in the U.S. among vehement protests from several animal rights groups, many who did not understand that there were simply no better options for the young animals, and others who claimed the elephants would be better off dead than captive. French followed the elephants as they adjusted to life in Lowry Park. The zoo had not kept elephants since the early 90s, when a young keeper named Char-Lee Torre was killed in a surprisingly calculated manner by an elephant named Tillie. French watched with fascination as the zoo adopted state-of-the-art handling methods for elephants involving minimal contact from the keepers and rewards rather than punishments.
The Tigers
Enshalla the tigress was born in captivity but never lost her wildness. Few denizens of the zoo inspired as much awe, fear and love among the staff as Queen Enshalla. Ultimately, Enshalla's tragic end illustrates how zoos often fail animals, and serves as a cautionary tale of what can happen when the whole illusion a zoo strives to create--that you are in the wild but safe from the wild--falls apart simply because an inexperienced keeper forgets to lock a door.
The Chimpanzees
Herman, the elderly alpha-chimp of the zoo, was raised as a pet by a family who saved him from the bushmeat trade. When Herman grew too strong to control, he was donated to the zoo. Herman lived between the worlds of human and chimp, identifying fully with neither species. French details Herman's rise to power among the strict hierarchy of his species, and his tragic downfall, betrayed by the chimp who was his best friend.
The People
French, along with the zoo's staff, watched with growing concern as the zoo's CEO, charismatic Lex Salisbury, pushed the little zoo to its limits and beyond. Salisbury became the embodiment of how a zoo's goals of conservation and education can easily become eclipsed by its need to entertain and to make money. On the other hand, French celebrates the zookeepers who work long, hard hours for little pay because of their love of animals, such as herpetologist Dustin Smith who used his vacation time for research, and was one of the last to see the golden frogs of Panama in the wild before the species was destroyed.
The following excerpt from Thomas French's Zoo Story: Life in the Garden of Captives sums up the ethical issue inherent in the existence of zoos. French masterfully puts faces--both human and animal--on both sides of the argument:
"Taken together, the narratives of how the animals ended up at Lowry Park revealed as much about Homo sapiens as they revealed about the animals themselves. The precise details--how and where each was born, how they were separated from their mothers and taken into custody, all they had witnessed and experienced on their way to becoming the property of this particular zoo--could have filled an encyclopedia with insights into human behavior and psychology, human geopolitics and history and commerce. Lowry Park's very existence declared our presumption of supremacy, the ancient belief that we have been granted dominion of other creatures and have the right to do with them as we please. "
Sarah Goodwin-Nguyen - Goodwin-Nguyen is the author of Key West: A Comprehensive Guide to Florida's Southernmost City (Parkscape Press, 2008) as well as an ebook ...
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