October 18, 2006
Happy Trails to Zoo
If you're a child of the District, it's a distinct possibility that dozens of trips to the National Zoo over the years formed very strong memories for you. There's the good old reptile house; the good old elephant house; and of course the good old pandas. Even a dozen or so years after my childhood, return trips offered up the same sort of feeling: not much is ever different at the zoo. Which is oddly comforting, but also kind of oddly sad when you keep seeing the animals in their same old enclosures that look like they haven't changed since the 1930s — which is because they probably haven't.
As you must have heard by now, the zoo is set to change that. As part of a 10-year expansion plan, they opened the new Asia Trail to the public on Tuesday, revealing a six-acre spread that does animal-lovers proud, as well as seamlessly incorporates some slick new interactive features for kids and a bit of gorgeous landscaping. And best of all: plenty of angles from which to view the animals and even get some close-up shots of their pretty, pretty faces. Except for the giant salamander. He wasn't pretty. Check out our take on the rest of the Asia Trail (and the zoo's plans to update the elephant house) after the jump.
Photo by Flickr user clarissa~, who has a whole set here. Used with permission.
First off: Holy freaking Butterstick. I'll admit that it's been plenty of time since I last saw him, but when did the guy get so incredibly huge? These pandas, I'm telling you, they grow up so fast. But the good news is that he seems pretty happy. The panda enclosure is really the star of the Asia Trail, and for good reason. Director John Berry (who oddly reminded us of John Edwards) said that years were put into researching the kind of environments that pandas live in in China and how the zoo could best recreate that in what is ultimately an artificial setting.
Now, I'm no panda environment expert, but place looked pretty great to me. There are babbling brooks, foggy grottos, plenty of bamboo and lots of rocky ground for them to climb around on.
The other exhibits seem quite cool as well — there are spaces for the giant salamander, clouded leopards, fishing cats, small-clawed otters, sloth bears, and red pandas. Everything looks fresh and modern, with much of the material made from recycled and reused elements. Go environmentally conscious people!
The best part, though, is the great views that the new Asia Trail offers. Previously, from what I remember, you could get a crick in your neck trying to strain to see the pandas from only a couple of different positions as you elbowed crowds of fat midwestern tourists aside (kidding, kidding). But now there are at least half a dozen different vantage points from which you can gaze lovingly at Butterstick and his folks, and the other exhibits offer up-close-and-personal viewing spots that often put you within just feet of the creature you're checking out.
All in all, a lovely success.
And even better: talking to Berry post-media-ribbon-cutting-crap, he informed me that the zoo's next major plan is to totally renovate the elephant house, a.k.a. the Saddest Place on Earth. You know what I'm talking about — you've seen the wizened enormous creatures pathetically bouncing their play ball against the metal bars of the world's tiniest cages, or witnessed the lonely stare of the creepy capybara as it retreats to the corner of its empty swimming pool.
The details include a plan to reuse the current building, which is from the 1930s, but make the space more about the animals instead of the people. Barry said that where the hippos are now is where the people will be able to go, but the rest of the enclosure will be turned into a huge natural dirt floor, without partitions, where the animals can roam around. They'll also plan to take four acres outside and do the same as they did with the Asia Trail — research how elephants, hippos, giraffes, etc, interact in the wild with their environment — and try to recreate that back at the zoo. Apparently there will be man-made lakes, all sorts of different terrains, and the elephants will start smiling again instead of looking at you in a way that makes you want to cry. Or me, anyway. Congress has already funded half, and the zoo is in the process of raising the rest of the money. Construction begins in the spring.
Overall: Asia Trail — good. Happy pandas — good. Unlike yesterday, when rain was misting over everything, today is gorgeous, so why not get out there and see the trail for yourself?
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I'm so glad it's not just me that is deeply disturbed by the Elephant House. With most of the National Zoo being so much about simulating terrain and such, it's a gigantic sore thumb of awfulness.
Actually there was a substantial renovation for the Bicentennial which yielded the Lion/cat habitatat, the bird house, the gorilla house, etc (anything other than the 1930's boxes including the Elephant house).
While they were great, this next phase starting with the Asia Trail, is very exciting.
I'm surprised you just learned about the Elephant Trails campaign. It was announced in June. You can read all about it here. And it's a 10-year improvement plan. The zoo isn't getting any bigger.
Sorry, don't know why the HTML didn't work. You can read about Elephant Trails here: http://nationalzoo.si.edu/Animals/AsianElephants/ElephantTrails/
At first glance, the zoo's plan for its elephants sounds great. Four acres! Dirt floors! Recreating the wild at the zoo! But let's look a little closer:
Science tells us that elephants need certain factors to thrive. They need space and lots of it -- we're talking thousands of acres -- natural substrates, fresh, natural food and a multigenerational herd to fulfill their needs for complex emotional relationships with other eles.
We all know that the current ele exhibit is lacking. They have three eles on 3/4 of an acre in an old house in which they have added poured rubber floors in at least one of the rooms and sand in another.
The proposed new exhibit would be around 4 acres but the zoo says it eventually wants to have EIGHT TO 10 ELES in that space. Wonderful that they're increasing the space; not so wonderful if they fill it with eles!
The issue of space is hotly debated because no one can offer an actual figure of how much space eles need. Zoos gloss over the problem by saying, It's not the amount of space, it's how you use it. Well, yes...but no.
Eles are built to walk, Asians less so than Africans, but they still need to move. Visit The Elephant Sanctuary's website -- http://www.elephants.com -- and read the stories of its eles. Ele after ele has arrived from zoos with foot problems and arthritis that have either improved or cleared up entirely simply from having the freedom to walk on natural terrain.
It's wonderful that the zoo wants to improve its ele exhibit but they expect it to cost $60 MILLION, making it the most expensive ele exhibit ever built! And the major problem is that this exhibit, being a fancied-up conventional exhibit, will be outdated before it ever opens.
The Smithsonian has 3,700 underused acres at its Center for Conservation and Research in Front Royal. I was there two weeks ago, when it was open to the public. What a spectacular setting that would make for an elephant PRESERVE! Put eles out there, let males cycle naturally in and out of the herd (you can kiss artifical insemination good-bye!) and in not-so-many years you'll have a growing, healthy ele family.
Please read the In Defense of Animals news release I'll post next -- and think about it. The zoo claims that one of its central functions is conservation. The only problem is that conservation doesn't happen in Washington, DC, or any other city. It happens in Africa and Asia, elephants' natural homes. The IDA release should put that $60 million figure into perspective.
And just because an exhibit LOOKS good to humans doesn't mean it WORKS for the animals. Four acres is TOO SMALL for EIGHT TO 10 elephants!
http://www.idausa.org/news/currentnews/nr_060925a.html
IDA Issues Challenge as Zoo Industry Association Convenes in Florida: Zoos Must Support Real Elephant Conservation
Tampa, Fla.—As the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA) convenes for its annual conference this week in Tampa, In Defense of Animals (IDA) today challenged the organization and member zoos to focus resources on in situ elephant conservation, rather than wasting millions on expensive, unnatural and inadequate elephant exhibits.
IDA called on zoos to follow the lead of the prestigious Bronx Zoo, which earlier this year announced it phase out its elephant exhibit and direct money instead toward preserving elephants in the wild in Africa and Asia.
“Real conservation of elephants takes place where elephants live,” said Les Schobert, former General Curator of the Los Angeles and North Carolina Zoos, and consultant to IDA on elephant issues. “Zoos could protect entire populations of elephants in range countries just with the money currently being spent on exhibit expansions that still won’t give elephants the space they need.“
AZA zoos plan to spend over $150 million on elephant exhibit expansions, the largest of which is 3.5 acres, still too small for earth’s largest land mammal. In addition, AZA zoos annually spend an estimated $16 million to maintain fewer than 300 elephants, based on an average of $58,000/year/elephant, according to AZA statistics. By contrast:
$400,000 is the entire annual budget for the Amboseli Elephant Research Project, which protects the lives of 1,400 elephants in 52 families in their natural habitat in Kenya. This is the same funding that some zoos spend to maintain four elephants for a year.
$10,000 is the rough cost of supporting an anti-poaching team (including salaries and food supplements, some medicine support and basic body equipment) in Thailand for one year, according to WildAid.
$25 million is the entire annual budget for the Kenya Wildlife Service, which protects some of the world’s most diverse wildlife populations, including more than 30,000 elephants across more than 20,000 square miles of natural habitat. The total combined size of all US zoo elephant enclosures is less than 1 square mile.
IDA noted that many zoos spend more on marketing than they do on conservation. For example, Los Angeles Zoo, which plans a $39 million exhibit expansion for 5-6 elephants, spends .5 percent ($90,000) of its annual $17 million budget on conservation, while 12 percent ($2 million) of its annual budget is spent on marketing and advertising (according to AZA 2004 Annual Survey).
“Do we continue to put money into so-called “modern” zoos, a concept that was created 200 years ago or do we go down a different path that offers a chance of real success because it protects animals in their natural habits rather than in captivity?” asked Will Travers, conservationist and CEO of the Born Free Foundation and Born Free USA.
IDA is an international animal advocacy organization based in San Rafael, Calif. In addition to its elephant program, IDA operates a chimpanzee sanctuary in Africa. The sanctuary houses orphans and operates an anti-bush meat campaign in Cameroon.
Sorry to post yet again but John Grogan of the Philadelphia Inquirer wrote a lovely column on their zoo's recent announcement it is closing its ele exhibit:
http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/news/local/states/pennsylvania/counties/montgomery_county/15768740.htm
John Grogan | Pack them off, but never forget
By John Grogan
Inquirer Columnist
Vikram Dewan leads the way down a sun-dappled path at the Philadelphia Zoo, where he recently took over as president and chief executive officer.
He is eager to point out the many exciting innovations and improvements for the nation's oldest zoo.
The renovated big-cats exhibit reopened in May with more cats, more up-close viewing opportunities, and a whiz-bang interactive learning station for kids.
Plans are advancing for a bigger and better children's petting zoo, slated to open in 2009, replacing the antiquated one that has been in place for nearly half a century.
A $6 million makeover of the birdhouse is on the drawing board.
Dewan, a compact man who sports wire-rimmed glasses and a beatific smile, wants to trumpet the zoo's bright future. He leads me through gaggles of happy youngsters and moms with strollers.
But before we have walked 50 paces, the one topic Dewan would just as soon not talk about is literally staring us in the face.
Up ahead are three of the zoo's four elephants, standing close together in their small, dusty enclosure, looking lugubriously out over the crowds.
The elephants are magnificent creatures, and on this day, as on most, they draw some of the biggest crowds.
An undeniable sadness
Yet there is something undeniably sad about them, these intelligent and complicated mammals hardwired to roam freely across the vast savannahs of Africa penned into a mere one-third of an acre.
It's a little like squeezing four humans into a phone booth and saying, "Have a happy life."
Because the three African elephants don't get along with the sole Asian elephant in the tight confines, they are kept segregated.
The zoo has had elephants since it opened in 1874, but their captivity in such tight quarters has become a source of mounting protests and bad PR in recent years.
Dewan arrived in July to inherit a raging controversy: Was it possible to keep such social, free-roaming creatures in the tight confines of an urban zoo totaling just 42 acres?
In the end, Dewan and the zoo's board answered no.
By deciding earlier this month to donate the animals to larger facilities, they basically agreed with protesters that the animals deserve better. "It's absolutely the right answer for where we are today," Dewan says. "Always the welfare of the animals came first."
The zoo was unable to raise the $22 million needed to expand the elephant quarters, and even if it had, the biggest space available would have been a couple of acres - still woefully insufficient.
"We're bounded on all sides," he says. "At best it would have been a temporary solution - three to five years - and a very expensive one."
Starting over
And so in the spring, the three African elephants - Petal, Kallie and Bette - will take a road trip down Interstate 95 to six-acre digs at the Maryland Zoo in Baltimore. And the lone Asian elephant, Dulary, will be alone no more, enjoying life among her own kind on an open 2,700-acre sanctuary in Tennessee.
It's the right thing to do.
Every zoo lover no doubt will miss the sagacious elephants so central to the experience. And the financially struggling zoo's gate numbers could suffer without their drawing power.
But keeping them would have come at too great a cost - not so much financial as moral.
Zoos exist not only to amuse and entertain, but to teach and instill understanding of, and respect for, other species and their habitats. The whole concept is slightly incongruous. Can we really expect to imbue children with respect for other species by pulling the animals from their native habitats and imprisoning them behind bars?
Yet it is the elephants that are most emblematic of this disconnect.
If the Philadelphia Zoo really wants to teach visitors about the elephant's wild majesty and special place in the animal kingdom, here's an idea:
Build an exhibit explaining the long history of these amazing animals in captivity and why the nation's first zoo will no longer be a party to it.
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Post a question or comment for John Grogan at http://go.philly.com/askgrogan. Or by e-mail: jgrogan@phillynews.com.
For Christ's sake Amy M, comments should be brief and to the point. Try using a hyperlink or just starting your own website rather than using this site's comment section as your own personal soapbox.