Radio Workshop

Going Ape Over Zoos (Transcript)

by Andrea Lee

INTRO

When Mayor Michael Bloomberg threatened to close Prospect Park Zoo in last month's doomsday budget, New Yorkers kicked up a fuss. Media went ape. Our reporter AHN-dray Lee hadn't been to a zoo in over 15 years, so she set out to learn more about the zoo, and to find out what the fuss is all about.

AMBI_AVIARY

NARRATION

It's a warm Thursday afternoon at the Prospect Park Zoo in Brooklyn. In the outdoor, fenced-in aviary, a demoiselle crane steps gracefully along the banks of a small stream, cawing occasionally. Tiny woodland birds twitter and fly quickly from branch to branch. Standing on a bridge in the aviary is 3-year-old Naomi. She's peering intently at the stream below. She's looking for something.

ACT_NAOMI

N: SEE SOME TURTLES

AL: ARE THEY YOUR FAVORITE ANIMAL?

N: YEAH.

AL: WHY DO YOU LIKE TURTLES SO MUCH?

N: BECAUSE THEY'RE AT THE ZOO.

AMBI_AVIARY

NARRATION

More than 134 million people visit accredited zoos and aquariums in the United States every year. That, according to the American Zoo and Aquarium Association, means more people go to the zoo than go to all NBA, NFL and Major League Baseball games combined. Rory Browne, a professor of zoo history at Harvard University, says that despite these numbers, zoos are not considered a serious diversion.

ACT_RB_NOT HIGH CULTURE

I THINK ONE OF THE PROBLEMS ZOOS FACE IS THAT THEY'RE NOT SEEN AS HIGH CULTURE. THEY'RE NOT PUT ON PAR OF ART MUSEUMS OR CONCERT HALLS. THEY ARE STILL SEEN IN MANY PEOPLE'S MINDS AS PLACES OF ENTERTAINMENT ESSENTIALLY FOR CHILDREN.

NARRATION

The first zoos were in Ancient Egypt, where wild animals were presented as gifts to the almighty pharaohs. When Europeans began to explore the globe in the late 1400s, they brought home examples of the exotic creatures they found abroad to add to private collections. Public zoos opened in Paris, Vienna, and London in the early 1800s.

AMBI_DISCOVER TRAIL

NARRATION

The discovery trail winds its way through a forest at the edge of the zoo. It is meant to allow visitors to observe wild animals in their natural habitats.

NARRATION

Past the hill of burrowing prairie dogs and the turtle and frog pond, two Australian wallabies - like kangaroos, but smaller - sit quietly on their haunches and nibble on leaves. It's Australia, Brooklyn-style.

AMBI_SCREAMING KIDS

ACT_RB_WIDER CONTEXT

WHAT I THINK IS IMPORTANT FROM THE POINT OF THE VIEW OF THE ANIMAL IS THAT PEOPLE SEE THE ANIMAL NOT JUST AS A CREATURE BEHIND BARS, BUT ALSO CONSIDER THE ANIMAL IN ITS WIDER CONTEXT.

NARRATION

Zoos weren't always so concerned with building realistic habitats. Animals were kept in cages or behind bars well into the 1800s, until a German animal trader named Carl Hagenbeck revolutionized zoo design.

ACT_RB_HAGENBECK

HE HAD PUT SUNKEN PATHS BETWEEN THE EXHIBITS SO THAT PEOPLE WOULD GET A VIEW OVER A LAGOON WITH WADING BIRDS, AND THEN A PADDOCK WITH HOOFSTOCK, AND THEN BEYOND THERE'D BE A LION GROTTO AND ABOVE THAT THERE'D BE ARTIFICIAL MOUNTAINS WITH MOUNTAIN GOAT AND SHEEP.

AMBI_HAMADRYAS BABOONS

NARRATION

Hagenbeck's influence is easy to see in Prospect Park Zoo's exhibit of hamadryas baboons.

AMBI_HAMADRYAS BABOONS

NARRATION

A family of hamadryas baboons scampers on rocky ledges and over loose branches in a glassed-in enclosure. The male hamadryas has fluffy, crimped gray hair, long-fingered hands, and large, bright pink hairless buttocks, while females are smaller and brown. One of the males, squatting on a rock, pulls on his penis as he spits out the shells of sunflower seeds.

AMBI_HAMADRYAS BABOONS

NARRATION

Hamadryas baboons have complex social structures, and families are extremely close-knit. One of the females, Tara, is the mother of 3-year-old Moja, the latest addition to this hamadryas clan. Tara has never seen her native Africa; zookeeper Shanna Abeles says she was found on a porch in Illinois and then sent to Prospect Park Zoo.

ACT_ABELES

ONE OF THE THINGS THAT IS REMARKABLE ABOUT HER AND HER STORY IS THAT SHE - AS A HANDRAISED, AS OPPOSED TO MOTHER-RAISED, ANIMAL - WAS ABLE TO ADEQUATELY RAISE HER OWN OFFSPRING. SHE DIDN'T HAVE THE ADVANTAGE OF LEARNING HOW TO DO THAT FROM HER MOTHER, OR PRESUMABLY WATCHING FROM ANY OTHER HAMADRYAS BABOONS, SO IT WAS PARTICULARLY DIFFICULT, AND TOOK A WHILE TO INTEGRATE FULLY INTO OUR GROUP.

NARRATION

Breeding is an important mission of today's zoos. The Wildlife Conservation Society, which runs Prospect Park Zoo, is dedicated to getting various species off the endangered list and returning them to their natural habitats. But Rory Browne says that breeding should not be the only effort made in saving wildlife.

ACT_RB_WILL SUCCEED

OF COURSE, THAT WILL ONLY SUCCEED IF THE WILD ITSELF IS PRESERVED, AND I THINK THAT'S WHAT ZOOS ARE REALLY ABOUT NOW. I MEAN, I THINK MOST ZOOS REALIZE THAT CAPTIVE BREEDING BY ITSELF IS NOT ENOUGH, AND IT HAS TO BE ABOUT USING THE ANIMALS IN THE ZOO, AND USING THE MESSAGE OF THE ZOO, THE EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMS OF THE ZOO TO GET PEOPLE TO THINK ABOUT THE WILD AND HOW WE NEED TO KEEP THE WILD.

NARRATION

That is why many exhibits at the zoo have detailed signs next to them that describe an animal's native habitat, normal behaviors and feeding habits. Outside an enclosure of two 20-foot Burmese pythons, for example, is a picture of a snakeskin cowboy boot with a red line through it, and a plea for visitors not to buy products made of reptile skin.

AMBI_AGATHA

NARRATION

But there are no signs over in the barn of the Domestic Animals exhibit.

AMBI_AGATHA

NARRATION

Barns like these were added to zoos in the 1920s to reconnect city children with the country.

ACT_RB_BOSTON MAYOR-01

JAMES MICHAEL CURLEY, THE MAYOR OF BOSTON, DISCOVERED THAT CITY CHILDREN THOUGHT THAT MILK ULTIMATELY CAME FROM BOTTLES, AND THAT IT WAS THE CITY'S FUNCTION, THEREFORE, TO PROVIDE THEM WITH MILK. AND SO HE COMMANDED THE LOCAL ZOO TO GET A GURNSEY COW.

AMBI_AGATHA

ACT_ABELES

ABELES: AGATHA, THE DEXTER COW, IS ALSO ONE OF THE BIG FAVORITES WITH THE KIDS HERE.

ME: THAT'S SO FUNNY. SHE'S A COW.

ABELES: BROOKLYN'S ONLY COW.

NARRATION

This day, children thrust their feed-filled hands towards the open mouths of Agatha and goats in their pens. Dr. George Amato is the director of the Science Research Center at the Wildlife Conservation Society. He says that giving children a hands-on opportunity to interact with animals is an effective way to get them to care about wildlife.

ACT_AMATO

I THINK THE OPPORTUNITY TO HAVE A CLOSE AND PERSONAL AND INTIMATE EXPERIENCE WITH A VARIETY OF WILDLIFE IS SOMETHING THAT'S VERY SPECIAL, AND AT LEAST FOR MANY PEOPLE, NOT THE SAME EXPERIENCE THAT ONE HAS WATCHING A PROGRAM ON TELEVISION.

NARRATION

These children certainly seem excited.

ACT_RB_TORTOISES AND AWE & WONDER

UNDER ALL THOSE VENEERS OF CULTURAL CIVILIZATION, THERE IS JUST THAT: SHEER THRILL OF SEEING THE ANIMAL, SOMETIMES FEEDING THE ANIMAL, SOMETIMES SMELLING THE ANIMAL, SOMETIMES HEARING THE ANIMAL.

NARRATION

That's why the Wildlife Conservation Society is planning many new education programs geared specifically towards grown-ups. It hopes that if adults take more of an interest in zoos, then it's less likely that someone like Mayor Bloomberg will shut them down.

For Columbia Radio News, I'm Andrea Lee.