• NEWS >> ATW The changing world of zoos (Evergreen 2005)
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OPEN/WELCOME
Hi and welcome to a special edition of Assignment: The World. I’m Elissa Orlando.
Our fascination with animals, particularly wild animals, dates back thousands of years. The first record of a collection of wild animals goes back to 29-hundred B.C. in ancient Egypt. But its only been in the last 2-hundred years that what we now know as zoos have been open to the public. As Wyatt Doremus discovered, zoos have become very different places in just the past 20 years.
1—Past Pkg
Wyatt VO:
"The goals and especially the look of zoos around the world have changed in recent years. A German, Carl Hagenbeck, had the idea to put captive animals in their native environment instead of behind sterile bars. That was in 1848 but it took more than a century for that concept to catch on on a much larger scale. And where once zoos were a place to simply go see wild animals, they are now much more than that."
Interview #1:
"You do need a degree in biology of some sort, Zoology, Animal Behavior, something like that, but thats only a small part of what we do. There's also development, raising money, public relations marketing, typical administration, clerical work, facilities management, whether it's janitorial or construction. So there's a whole range of things. It's like running, in a lot of ways, a small city."
Wyatt VO:
"Zoos are working together to bring back some species whose existence in the wild is threatened by human encroachment on their habitats. They are also to promote awareness of that encroachment and the need to preserve more of forests and wetlands."
Interview #1:
"We have the opportunity to make significant contributions to environmental issues, education, preservation, just by the sheer number of people that visit zoos. More people visit AZA accredited zoos in a year than attend all major sporting events."
Interview #2:
"Its a wonderful experience. It's very important to me as an educator to get the public engaged and really excited about wildlife, and there's no better way to do that than have a live animal either on hand, and thats the best way to engage them and show them exactly what they're protecting and what they're learning about rather than a picture in a book."
Wyatt VO:
"Some things haven't changed at zoos. There have always been moments like this..."
Interview:
"He's ruining this for me. I can see that. Stop being cute. Look mean for a minute, would ya? You can't, can ya? No, you're a good bear."
Wyatt VO:
"It's a cute moment but one that zoo keepers everywhere are quick to tell you are deceptive. No matter what the size, the creatures on view in zoos are wild."
Interview #1:
"We have to manage the animals, for their safety, for the staff's safety, so that we can provide veterinary care, so we manage the animals, they know when to go in and out of gates, they will do certain behaviors on command, whether it's just standing still so that we can do something over here, some of the animals are trained to get on a scale so we can get their weight, etc. And that, to some people, gives the impression that 'oh, they're just cuddly, warm, they're... gee I'd like to get in there and pet the animals.' We also take strong steps to create a barrier between that impression and the reality, from a standpoint of they are wild animals."
Wyatt VO:
"But while there is danger inherent in working at a zoo with wild creatures, this is not a career any of these men and woment are anxious to leave."
Interview #2:
"Wonderful career, very exciting, it's never boring. I hope to stay in a zoo setting, I'd love to expand what I've done here, and maybe grow to a larger facility one day where there's a larger wildlife base, for me...for me to learn about and share with the public."
Interview #1:
"I recommend it if you really are inspired to make an impact in the world of conservation. Being a zoo person is not what I do, it's what I am."
Pop Quiz
Earlier, we told you that the first collections of wild animals date back to a certain ancient civilization. Was it
And the correct answer is number 2, the first recorded menageries date back to Egypt in about 2900 B.C.
INTRO Second Pkg
Having a diverse collection of animals and other creatures at your local zoo is a good thing but it also makes it difficult to meet their individual needs. Take food, for example. Nutrition is just as important for animals as it is for you. They also like variety and a bit of spice. What else might you have to consider? Find out by going behind the scenes with zoo educator Katherine Steen at the Seneca Park Zoo in Rochester, New York.
Interview #1:
"We're here in our diet kitchen in Seneca Park Zoo where we prepare the bulk of the diets for the animals here at our zoo. You'll see two large flat pans of produce that are prepared for our tortoises, which are very large animals that come from Africa."
Wyatt VO:
"The new or unsuspecting person might want to be careful about opening refrigerators behind the scenes at zoos. This one, for instance, is full of rodents, dead and frozen ones, large and small ones. The large ones get thawed to be given fresh to pythons. The small ones will go to birds of prey including owls and kestrels. How do so called ratsicles and mousicals come to be in anyone's refrigerator?"
Interview:
"There are companies that supply rats and mice for zoos and other places, particularly those that has reptiles and birds of prey because those are the two largest categories of animals that have to eat whole animals, and the whole animal diet is healthier than any prepared diet that we could because the animals depend on the ruffage, the fur, the feathers, the teeth, the bones to make their digestive systems work. The birds of prey will cast a pellet, like an owl pellet, and that's important for their functioning of their digestive system. While it might seem to be nice for us to give them nice fresh prepared lean cuts of beef or something like that, it actually shortens their lifespan because their bodies don't function in the same way, and they do depend on especially the bone for the calcium. Here's one thing we do feed live at our zoo, these are super-worms or meal worms, which is a larval stage of a beetle. You'll notice what they're eating is actually monkey chow, something that we feed to a number of our animals here at the zoo. So we have to make sure our food animals are well-fed with nutritous things because those are the animals that other animals here at the zoo will eventually be eating. We need healthy crickets and healthy meal worms. Lots of animals have to eat insects, meal worms are the easiest thing that we can supply."
Wyatt VO:
"A zoo kitchen has a lot in common with your own kitchen. Just like you, everything from tigers to tamarinds likes a little spice in their food."
Interview:
"Some of our animals, like the tigers, have a particular fondness for allspice. We can leave little trails or pools around their inclosure of different smells and things which encourages them to be more active and show more natural behaviors. So in addition to their diet everyday they get extra thing, things to play with, things to stimulate them, so we have all the spices, we have different scents, fox urine and different perfumes. We have large bins of the pellets for different animals in the zoo, some very specific like flamingo chow, others a little less specific like monkey chow, which goes to a variety of our primates not just the monkeys."
Wyatt VO:
"Zookeepers have to keep careful, precise measurements of what each animal is given, all of it noted on a diet board."
Interview:
"This is so no matter who's working at a section, which zookeeper or any type of substitute, the animal does get a consistent diet. You'll see that they do get a lot of choices though because we want the animal to have variety in their diet, so it might say a half a cup of fruit for example and it'll be up to the keepers to decide which kind of fruit the animal gets on each day. We do always try to give them a fruit which they seem, or a vegetable maybe, that they seem to prefer, we also try new things every so often, just to see if their tastes have changed. You can see that polar bears actually get fed twice a day, and they get a combination of a fresh meat diet which mostly consists of fish, and also a chow, which is similar to dog food. They have their vitamins as well, each animal's diet will consist of their regular substative diet, which is their pellets or their chow, and any supplements, fruits, vegetables, as well as vitamins."
Wyatt VO:
"Polar bears are only one example of feeding animals that are very large or potentially very dangerous or both. There are many others including, perhaps especially elephants."
Interview:
"How do you feed an elephant? Well, the elephants actually probably get fed more often than any other animals here at the zoo because in the wild they eat pretty much continuously in order to maintain their 8,000, 9,000 pound physique. We also have to make sure that our animals get exercise, and our elephants are some of the animals that we have the opportunity to exercise on a regular basis, we take them for daily walks around the zoo to make sure that not only are good things going in, but their bodies are using the nutrients to their fullest potential."
Wyatt VO:
"Zoos continue to learn about the nutritional needs of the many animals of the world. Life would be simpler if that's all they needed to worry about."
Interview:
"But there's also the element of palatability and choice, each animal has its own tastes and preferences much like humans do, so we can have the best nutritionally sound diet in the world but if the animal won't eat it, that's a problem."
ATW FACT
The American Zoo and Aquarium Association was formed in 1924. It now has 211 accredited members which range from a 5 acre zoo to a 322,000 square foot aquarium to a 3000 acre wildlife center.
#4— —Intro third package
While most zoos in North America feature interesting cross sections of mammals, birds, and reptiles, some zoos have creatures that are unique. We’d like to introduce you to one such creature, a rare visit with one of nature’s fiercest predators.
Third Package
Interview:
"A wolverine is a very large weasel. They are actually one of the more powerful weasels, they weigh anywhere from between 25 to 35 pounds, and have immense jaw pressure that they actually use, along with their teeth, to break bones of certain animals like moose or deer. The reputation, unfortunately, is one of pure visciousness. They are a very secretive animal and certainly could be viscious if they wanted to be, but at the same rate really don't try to come upon conflict, the only conflict I would think that would happen would be over food. We actually feed venison, which is deer meat, more of your hoofstock animals, maybe elk, they're really scavangers also, they tend to be opportunistic and just, you know whatever they come upon they'll eat. We have a male and a female that both came to us from the Minnesota Zoo. They are actually a few years apart in age, and they interact really well. On occasion get into big wrestling matches and really seem to enjoy each other's company. They were unfortunately pushed out of the area due to loss of habitat, so they were currently once in New York State but are no longer, now more of the areas as Michigan, Canada, places like that. They love to swim, they climb trees, they are just as happy on land, they basically make themselves at home wherever they are. They seem to be happier here even in the winter, thoroughly enjoy the snow and the cold, no matter what the weather is like they're totally prepared for it. These would not make good pets, unfortunately they like to chew a lot, so you wouldn't have any furniture left. I love having the wolverines here, I think they're one of the most interesting animals that we have, and certainly one of the least probably known about of all the animals that we have here at the zoo, and I find their behavior alone very interesting."
Pop Quiz #2
Earlier, we told you Carl Hagenbeck is credited with the idea of putting zoo animals in their natural habitats. The idea is traced to…
And the correct answer is number 1. Hagenbeck’s idea is dated to 1848 but it was more than a century before gaining widespread acceptance.
GOOD-BYE
And that’s it for this special edition of Assignment: the World. From all of us here, I’m Elissa Orlando. We’ll see you next week.
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