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Zoos
By Mar
A zoological garden or zoo is an institution where mainly wild and exotic animals are restricted within enclosures, bred and displayed to the public. The term zoological garden refers to the biological discipline zoology, which derives from Greek Ζωο ("animal"), and λογος ("study"). The term was first used in 1828 for the London Zoological Gardens, soon shortened by the Londoners to the abbreviation “zoo”.
Most large cities in the world have zoos, though of drastically varying size and quality. Major zoos are important tourist attractions. More than 135 million people visit zoos in the United States and Canada every year, but most zoos operate at a loss and must find ways to cut costs. Many non-profit zoos, particularly institutions operating in conservation biology, education, and biological research, depend on public funding.
Aims
Most of today’s non-profit and serious zoological gardens display wild animals not just for the amusement and the entertainment of their visitors but mainly for conservation of endangered species, for education and biological research. The concern of these institutions is to help save the diversity of life on Earth through applied conservation activities such as breeding endangered species.
In 1993 the World Association of Zoos and Aquariums (WAZA), formerly known as the International Union of the Directors of Zoological Gardens, produced its first conservation strategy. In November 2004 WAZA adopted a new strategy paper that sets out the aims and mission of zoological gardens of the twenty-first century:
The World Zoo and Aquarium Conservation Strategy
The breeding of endangered species is coordinated by special cooperative breeding programmes containing international studbooks and coordinators, who evaluate the roles of individual animals and institutions from a global or regional perspective. There are various regional programmes for the conservation of endangered species:
America: Species Survival Plans SSP (American Zoo and Aquarium Association AZA)
Europe: European Endangered Species Program EEP (European Association of Zoos and Aquaria)
Australasia: Australasian Species Management Program ASMP (Australasian Regional *Association of Zoological Parks and Aquaria ARAZPA)
Africa: African Preservation Program APP (African Association of Zoological Gardens and Aquaria PAAZAB)
Japan: Conservation activities of Japanese Association of Zoos and Aquariums JAZA
South Asia: Conservation activities of South Asian Zoo Association for Regional Cooperation SAZARC
South East Asia: Conservation activities of South East Asian Zoo Association SEAZA
References:
Colin Tudge: Last Animals in the Zoo: How Mass Extinction Can Be Stopped, London 1991. ISBN 1559631570
History
The predecessor of the zoological garden is the menagerie that has a long history from the Middle Ages to modern times. The oldest still existing zoo, the Vienna Zoo in Austria, evolved from such an aristocratic menagerie founded in 1752 by the Habsburg monarchy and changed its
face as well as its mission throughout the centuries. The first zoo founded primarily just for scientific and educational reasons was the Ménagerie du Jardin des Plantes in Paris (1794). The founders and members of the Zoological Society of London adopted the idea of the early Paris zoo when they initiated and established London Zoo in 1828. The success of London Zoo set off a wave of further zoo establishments across the world. The first zoological garden established in Australia was Melbourne Zoo in 1860. In the same year the first zoo of the United States opened to the public in New York City (Central Park Zoo), although quite earlier, in 1859, the Philadelphia Zoological Society had made an effort to establish a zoological park, but delayed due to the American Civil War.
When ecology emerged as a matter of public interest through the 1970s, a few zoos began to consider making conservation their central role, with Gerald Durrell of the Jersey Zoo, George Rabb of Brookfield Zoo, and William Conway of the Bronx Zoo (Wildlife Conservation Society) leading the discussion. Since then, zoo professionals became increasingly aware of the need to engage themselves in conservation programmes and the American Zoo Association soon asserted that conservation had become its highest priority.
References:
Vernon N. Kisling (ed.): Zoo and Aquarium History, Boca Raton 2001. ISBN 084932100x
R. J. Hoage, William A. Deiss (ed.): New Worlds, New Animals, Washington 1996. ISBN 0801851106
Elizabeth Hanson: Animal Attractions, Princeton 2002. ISBN 0691059926
David Hancocks: A Different Nature, Berkeley 2001. ISBN 0520218795 Article Source: http://www.ArticleJoe.com Related information: Tigers, types of dogs, turtles, giraffes, and birdhouses.All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License
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