Now, I like The Bog – the recreation of an actual bog, the
same sort that might house bog turtles in other parts of the state, is an
impressive achievement. It’s just that
tiny turtles don’t really compete very well with chimps, lions, polar bears,
and all of the other zoo animals in the eyes of the visitors. To be fair, Maryland Zoo does try to educate
visitors about the bog turtle and its plight. The bog turtle is not the only
endangered Marylander that the zoo is involved with – it has also played an
active role in the conservation of the Baltimore checkerspot, an especially
beautiful butterfly which happens to be the state insect.
Every zoo and aquarium in the world has its own bog turtle
or Baltimore checkerspot – that endangered (or at least threatened) species,
perhaps still at large in the surrounding area, perhaps extirpated. The Texas zoos have their prairie chickens,
the Louisiana zoos have their pine snakes, and the western zoos have their
black-footed ferrets. A coalition of Texas zoos has banded together to save their endangered prairie chickens. Los Angeles and
San Diego helped coax the California condor back from the edge of extinction. Recently, Phoenix Zoo became
involved with the Mount Graham red squirrel, a highly endangered subspecies of
red squirrel, once thought to be extinct.
I feel that every zoo or aquarium should get involved –directly
– with the conservation of at least one endangered species. That doesn’t necessarily mean a heavy
hands-on approach: live captures, super quarantine breeding facilities,
reintroductions, etc. Instead, it can
mean fundraising, or perhaps habitat restoration, either on or off zoo grounds.
It also mean, at the very least, calling public attention to the species and
its plight. We talk a lot to our
visitors about conservation, but how often do we actually give them practical
information on how to save an endangered species. (“Save elephants, don’t buy ivory”…
seriously, who among our zoo guests is actually buying ivory?). The more local an endangered species is, the
more likely it is that visitors will be able to make a positive impact on its
survival.
Zoos and aquariums provide a great opportunity for visitors
to learn about the amazing animals which share our world. This shouldn’t, however, blind them to the
equally amazing species which share their very own backyards.
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