Grow With What You Got

No matter how skilled our craftsmanship has grown over the years at sculpting realistic trees, rockwork, and water features, so far nothing still compares to the beauty of real, natural materials.  That especially includes real, live plants.  It’s not just a matter of appearance – it’s a matter of the smell they give off, the way the move in the wind, the way a branch gives when an animal jumps onto it.

As any perpetually harassed horticulturalist can tell you, live plants are also a lot higher maintenance than artificial exhibit furniture.  They need to be weeded and watered and sheltered from the elements, among their many other needs.  This can be especially challenging when trying to grow plants for exhibits outside of their natural range.

One strategy that zoos can – and do – use to alleviate this is to display tropical animals (and their accompanying plants) in indoor, greenhouse-like enclosures.  That has some advantages, to be sure – constant temperature, misting and watering systems, better protection from outside animals and pests being prominent among them.  There are also challenges, however, not least of all the expense, especially if you want a big habitat.

Another concept, one which I am very fond of, is what I call “Grow With What You Got.”  You could also summarize it as “Nature is the Best Architect.”

It’s an idea that took a long time to catch on with many zoos, but it works well to plan your collection – animals and plants – at least partially around local climate, topography, and other conditions – the factors that are the hardest to control.  Suppose your zoo is located in the American Southwest, for example.  You could fight the elements forever and spend a fortune on irrigation to try and create jungle exhibits, or another fortune on air conditioning for polar exhibits.  Or you could focus on exhibits – plant and animal – that thrive in hot, dry weather.  That would include not only native species, but also the East African plains, or the Australian Outback.

When it comes to using the native landscape to highlight exhibits, no one does it better than the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum in Tucson, Arizona

Conversely, if you’re in a forested area with tons of older, taller trees, why would you remove them to make way for a grasslands exhibit when they could compliment forest exhibits so nicely?  Even if they aren’t the same trees that you would find in a jungle on the other side of the world (and even if they will lose all of their leaves in the fall) they will still help create an appealing environment for guests to immerse themselves in as they wander your recreated forest.   

The same applies for matters of terrain as well as vegetation and climate.  Cheyenne Mountain Zoo is literally built onto a mountain.  They have a cool East African plains area, but I think it would be even more spectacular if they focused more on mountain animals.  Sure, they have a Colorado Rockies area and an Asian highlands area with Pallas’s cats and snow leopards already.  Perhaps they could expand on that with exhibits for takin, markhor, and other Himalayan residents… or they could add an Andean area, complete with condors, llamas, and Andean bears.

None of this is to say that zoos should only focus on the plants and animals in their backyard or in similar environments – that southwestern zoos should only be desert exhibits, or Florida zoos should just have swamp exhibits.  One of the major joys of taking a trip to the zoo is to get a glimpse into habitats that are different from anything you might ever see before – imagine stepping from a blustery Nebraska winter into the Lied Jungle at Omaha’s Henry Doorly Zoo.

There are only so many dollars available for so many zoos, however.   Remembering the natural conditions and natural beauty of our campuses and learning how to best incorporate it into our exhibits can make it stretch a little bit further and help provide animals with better care.