A precious and cynical child might well think a trip to the museum is just as good, if not better, than a trip to the zoo. Many museums now have vast exhibits of animals, exotic and otherwise, in areas conveniently compact and indoors, well buffeted from climatic elements all year round.
Of course, the animals don't ever move - because they're dead and stuffed. But, frankly, as a kid, I recall lots of zoos in which the animals moved so little they might well have been 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 now are not storage displays - warehouses with bars - but active participants in the cultivation and preservation of the earth's wildlife. They have facilities and missions for research and enterprise to help preserve wildlife in its natural habitat.
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.
Now zoo animals enjoy a zoo experience far more closely resembling their natural habitat, in keeping with their evolved dispositions. Consequently, their vitality is invigorated. Such animals experience and exhibit greater qualities of energy and curiosity. They become more stimulated and engaged with their environment and each other.
Not only does this make for psychologically and physically healthier conditions for the animals, but it provides a more enjoyable zoo-going experience for us. The energy and vitality of animals living in a stimulating environment, sculpted to their evolutionary needs, means we get to see animals that are alive and engaged. This is exciting in itself.
And of course since the action of the animals is now well suited to their natural environment, the zoo is an educational experience in a far more complex and deep way 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.
To identify the best zoos in America , or anywhere in the world, then, it all comes together into a cohesive whole. The conservationist agenda, the new expansive facility designs, the applications of leading technology, in the hands of the most deft zoo keepers and their support staff, have blossomed into a zoological renaissance.
This renaissance has provided the opportunity for zoo visitors to experience foreign and exotic animals in a context both rich in learning opportunities and powerful in exotic wonder. The modern zoo can inspire in us a profound awe in nature's wonders, while offering the extraordinary opportunity to commune with other forms of life: forms of life that, though different from us, as the inevitable consequence of a shared evolutionary legacy, also in an uncanny way captures some common thread.
This it seems to me is the real miracle of the best zoos in America and anywhere: they facilitate a marriage of science and technology to inspire in us an experience of the sublime.
Of course, the animals don't ever move - because they're dead and stuffed. But, frankly, as a kid, I recall lots of zoos in which the animals moved so little they might well have been 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 now are not storage displays - warehouses with bars - but active participants in the cultivation and preservation of the earth's wildlife. They have facilities and missions for research and enterprise to help preserve wildlife in its natural habitat.
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.
Now zoo animals enjoy a zoo experience far more closely resembling their natural habitat, in keeping with their evolved dispositions. Consequently, their vitality is invigorated. Such animals experience and exhibit greater qualities of energy and curiosity. They become more stimulated and engaged with their environment and each other.
Not only does this make for psychologically and physically healthier conditions for the animals, but it provides a more enjoyable zoo-going experience for us. The energy and vitality of animals living in a stimulating environment, sculpted to their evolutionary needs, means we get to see animals that are alive and engaged. This is exciting in itself.
And of course since the action of the animals is now well suited to their natural environment, the zoo is an educational experience in a far more complex and deep way 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.
To identify the best zoos in America , or anywhere in the world, then, it all comes together into a cohesive whole. The conservationist agenda, the new expansive facility designs, the applications of leading technology, in the hands of the most deft zoo keepers and their support staff, have blossomed into a zoological renaissance.
This renaissance has provided the opportunity for zoo visitors to experience foreign and exotic animals in a context both rich in learning opportunities and powerful in exotic wonder. The modern zoo can inspire in us a profound awe in nature's wonders, while offering the extraordinary opportunity to commune with other forms of life: forms of life that, though different from us, as the inevitable consequence of a shared evolutionary legacy, also in an uncanny way captures some common thread.
This it seems to me is the real miracle of the best zoos in America and anywhere: they facilitate a marriage of science and technology to inspire in us an experience of the sublime.
About the Author:
Mitchell Jone's top five list of the best zoos in America is required reading when you're planning a family trip around a zoo holiday. Also, you'll enjoy our YouTube video .
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