Romancing The Celluloid Nature: A Review of American Zoo Exhibits, Part I

Zoos have gone through metamorphosis in recent decades, largely in response to the changing tide of the society. The central theme for the modern zoo is Conservation. Zoo exhibitry has been evolving accordingly toward a more “naturalistic” trend, symbolized by the landscape immersion method. This approach, however, has a built-in dilemma since nature cannot be duplicated in captivity. Animals are often concealed from the visiting public, generating complaints. At its core, currently common exhibit schemes are anthropomorphic as well as anthropocentric. Animals’ sensory faculties are ignored during the design process. In terms of taxonomy, distributions of the species in zoo collections are biased toward large mammals, and as resources are allocated toward species with public appeal, often left behind are smaller species of mammals and birds and lower vertebrates. There exists a need to turn a critical eye on today's zoo exhibits from all aspects.