Growing Strong Together

Whenever I’m off visiting a new zoo in a new city, I try to take the opportunity to visit as many other local points of interest while I’m there.  This may include historic sites, museums, and, quite often botanical gardens.  Even after my early crash-course in horticulture, I still wouldn’t call myself too informed about plants, but I do enjoy walking around the grounds, admiring the gardens, and, sometimes, catching a peak of some native wildlife. 

In Omaha, I watched a flock of wild turkeys strut across a meadow.  In Phoenix, I walked carefully around the scurrying spiny lizards, while ground squirrels meandered across the paths.  In Chicago, trumpeter swans drifted among the heavily planted islands.   In Charleston, a mother alligator watched protectively as her hatchlings bobbed in one of the many water features.  Gardens are a great place to watch wildlife… which makes it surprising that the idea didn’t hit me until Denver.

Shortly before leaving Denver on my recent trip (one which included visits to Denver Zoo, Downtown Aquarium, and Cheyenne Mountain Zoo), I decided to squeeze in a visit to the Denver Botanic Gardens before my flight.  I was walking through an enormous greenhouse, filled with tropical plants, when a bit of movement caught my eye.  Paddling across one of the small pools there was a small mixed flock of ducks – Brazilian teals and ringed teals, both handsome little South American species.  It was then that an idea clicked with me – if zoos are incorporating gardens into their campuses, can botanic gardens return the favor and take some animals?

I’m sure that at the mention of the idea, many botanical garden curators would cringe at the thought of their lovely landscapes being ripped up, their acreage filled with paddocks of rhinos and giraffes, the greenery confined to neat little frames around each habitat.  Instead, I would imagine something similar to what I saw in Denver – a few smaller birds tucked into greenhouse exhibits, maybe turtles or small primates as well, or fish in the water features.  A rainforest building, basically,  seen in many zoos and aquariums, but on a small scale with a much lower animal stocking density than you might normally find.  As animals are the main focus of the zoo, plants are the main focus of the botanical gardens, and the addition of animals shouldn’t compromise the well-being the plants unreasonably.

There’s plenty of precedent, of course, for a variety of species.  Naples Zoo started off as a botanical garden where the animals just took over.  Atlanta, Georgia may be best known among the animal community for its zoo and aquarium, but its botanical garden has the unfortunate distinction of being the last home for the now-extinct tree frog Ecnomiohyla rabborum. 

Adding such small birds to the gardens could be a big boost for bird populations.  Fewer and fewer zoos have traditional bird houses anymore, which places a strain on efforts to grow their populations.  It would be an especially big boon to species which don’t do well in mixed-species aviaries, and might thrive more if they had a big aviary where they were the only birds present.  I could imagine facilities like Denver Botanic Garden, or many of the similar greenhouses and conservatories around the country, helping to house birds, which would allow more zoos to breed and expand their numbers.  Botanical garden staff could be supported by local zoo and aquarium staff, who would coordinate basic care of the birds and train the garden staff on how to work with them.  Such cross pollination would help zoo populations, would boost public interest in the gardens, and would help remind the public about the inter-connectedness of plants and animals.