Zoos and the Animals of South Africa

When I grew up in Texas I always enjoyed going to the zoo. However, the zoo of my childhood was comprised mostly of concrete and steel cages to hold the larger animals. Still, I was fascinated by the experience. Each exhibit had a map of where the creature came from and I always dreamed of seeing the animals of Africa in person on their own turf…

Fast forward XX years (hey, I’m not going to say how many!) and I got the opportunity to fulfill my dream in South Africa. You can read about these adventures in detail by clicking on the “wildlife” section on this blog.

So the other day I read a very interesting article written by Keith O’Brien called “The Identify Crisis of the Modern Zoo”. Here is an excerpt that summarizes most of his points concerning modern day zoos:

“…many…see changes on the horizon. Nigel Rothfels, author of Savages and Beasts: The Birth of the Modern Zoo , believes zoos of the future will have fewer species and larger spaces for them to occupy. Those that choose to keep elephants and other large species, he argues, will likely do it better than ever before, putting significant resources into the projects. But most zoos, Rothfels believes, will make a different choice: They will give up the charismatic megafauna that people have come to expect. In other words, the biggest challenge for some zoos in the years ahead may be letting go.”

Today’s more progressive zoos do have larger spaces and habitats that make the animals feel more at home. But a zoo is still a zoo and it does not compare to the wild.

That is one of the (many!) reasons why I love South Africa. The South African people and government seem to genuinely appreciate their wildlife and actively take steps to preserve and nurture them. Sure, there is never enough money and there will always be various conflicts and pressures. However, there is a wealth of wildlife preservation activities going on in South Africa and many of them seem to be growing.

One of the best examples are the “smaller” game parks (although “small” is a relative term in South Africa!). Even a “small” game park will blow away a typical American zoo or animal park in terms of size, diversity of fauna, number of animals, etc. You can readily see the animals “up close and personal” and observe their behaviors. They are very much “wild” in every sense of the word – even though they may be managed. And of course the larger reserves strive to create a completely wild environment that lets nature take it’s course completely – the hunters, the hunted, and so on…

So I applaud American (and other countries’) zoos as they try to both entertain and communicate the message of conservation to each generation. And hopefully more people will actually get to travel to South Africa to experience zoo animal origin maps firsthand…

You can read the entire article (“Keith O’Brien: The identity crisis of the modern zoo”) by clicking here.

What do you think? Please add your comments by clicking on the above title (Zoos and the Animals of South Africa)…

Raymond Pechacek lives in the U.S. and is married to a wonderful South African lady (BG!). He writes about the people, customs, wildlife, and places of South Africa, runs a consulting firm to help companies improve their global trade processes, and imports products into the U.S. - with an emphasis on supporting South Africa!