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.
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.
No longer are such zoos storage units with bars. Rather, they have become full participants in a great project to assure the cultivation and preservation of our planet's wildlife. The very best of them are notable for their extensive facilities and clearly expressed missions to pursue the research and collaborative endeavors that enhance wildlife preservation within appropriate, natural habitats.
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.
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 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.
Identifying the best zoos in America , or anywhere, now largely hinges on the success of melding these dimensions: a conservationist agenda, new expansive facility designs, and the innovative applications of technology. The most creative zoo keepers have integrated these features into a blossoming that may be rightly called 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 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.
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.
No longer are such zoos storage units with bars. Rather, they have become full participants in a great project to assure the cultivation and preservation of our planet's wildlife. The very best of them are notable for their extensive facilities and clearly expressed missions to pursue the research and collaborative endeavors that enhance wildlife preservation within appropriate, natural habitats.
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.
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 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.
Identifying the best zoos in America , or anywhere, now largely hinges on the success of melding these dimensions: a conservationist agenda, new expansive facility designs, and the innovative applications of technology. The most creative zoo keepers have integrated these features into a blossoming that may be rightly called 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 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 a must read when you're organizing a family trip around a zoo holiday. And, you'll enjoy our YouTube video .
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