Andrew C. Revkin

Over Memorial Day weekend, a toddler fell into a gorilla enclosure at the Cincinnati Zoo. What happened next would lead to a fierce debate: Fearing the boy was in danger, a zoo worker shot and killed the gorilla, a 17-year-old western lowland gorilla named Harambe. The boy was unharmed. Many people, including animal welfare advocates, condemn the gorilla killing. Others – among them renowned primate expert Jane Goodall – say the zoo had no choice. Now the incident is raising a larger question: what is the value of keeping animals in captivity? Do the benefits zoos provide – like education, conservation, even entertainment – outweigh the risks to human and animal safety? A conversation about the value of zoos today, and how they could look different in the future.

2 thoughts on “Andrew C. Revkin

  1. shinichi Post author

    The Future of Zoos

    by Andrew C. Revkin

    http://dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com/2016/06/21/the-future-of-zoos/

    If you care about animals under human control — whether in zoos or feed lots — I encourage you to listen to the hourlong discussion of the future of zoos on the Diane Rehm Show today (with Tom Gjelten ably sitting in for the veteran host).

    The segment was built around themes I explored early in the month on Dot Earth after a boy fell into the gorilla exhibit at the Cincinnati Zoo and Harambe, a huge silverback gorilla, was shot by zoo employees fearing for the life of the child. Here’s how the producers summarized the issue:

    Over Memorial Day weekend, a toddler fell into a gorilla enclosure at the Cincinnati Zoo. What happened next would lead to a fierce debate: Fearing the boy was in danger, a zoo worker shot and killed the gorilla, a 17-year-old western lowland gorilla named Harambe. The boy was unharmed. Many people, including animal welfare advocates, condemn the gorilla killing. Others – among them renowned primate expert Jane Goodall – say the zoo had no choice. Now the incident is raising a larger question: what is the value of keeping animals in captivity? Do the benefits zoos provide – like education, conservation, even entertainment – outweigh the risks to human and animal safety? A conversation about the value of zoos today, and how they could look different in the future.

    I offered the perspective of a longtime zoo lover who has become convinced that the zoo of 2050 has to be profoundly different than the zoo of 2016.

    Also on the show were Dennis Kelly, the director of the National Zoo in Washington and the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute in Front Royal, Va., and Barbara J. King, a biological anthropologist and professor of anthropology at The College of William and Mary. King is the author of “How Animals Grieve” and completing a new book, “Personalities on the Plate: The Lives and Minds of Animals We Eat.”

    To me, a prime takeaway was our agreement that there’s a woeful gap in the United States between the 233 institutions that have accreditation through the Association of Zoos and Aquariums and the more than 2,000 institutions that have federal licenses to exhibit animals under the 1966 federal Animal Welfare Act — a far lower bar.

    But we discussed much more, and it’s better to have you listen than to transcribe the chat here.

    And please read this recent feature by Natalie Angier: “Do Gorillas Even Belong in Zoos? Harambe’s Death Spurs Debate.”

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  2. shinichi Post author

    Gorillas


    Gorillas live on average 10 years longer in zoos than in the wild. Colo, the first gorilla born in captivity, will turn 60 in December at the Columbus Zoo.Credit Grahm S. Jones/Columbus Zoo and Aquarium, via Associated Press

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