In 1919, William Hornaday, Director of the Bronx Zoo, had just about enough of his Curator of Birds, William Beebe. Beebe was undoubtedly a brilliant and accomplished curator; the trouble Hornaday had was that Beebe's brilliant works and accomplishments were frequently taking him very far afield of the zoo, to such an extent that he was never there. The Zoological Society eventually responded by elevating Beebe to a new role, allowing him to devote himself fully to his research efforts abroad. They were lucky that Beebe had an adept lieutenant who was able to step into his shoes as Curator of Birds. The protégé was Lee Saunders Crandall.
Although he started off as a bird man, and birds remained his true passion, it was on the mammals that Crandall made his biggest mark. In 1964, he wrote his magnum opus, The Management of Wild Mammals in Captivity, a hefty tome that was an excellent literature review of what was know of keeping virtually every species of mammal which had been kept in zoos and aquariums up until that point. A reader could find out what size enclosure the animal was kept in, what its behavior and temperament were like, what diets had been met with success, how long they lived, how they bred and raised their young, and so on. It's a fascinating reference which still is consulted by many curators today. I've seldom seen a zoo library that hasn't had a copy of it.
Not long after the publication of his encyclopedic work, Crandall published a second version, much streamlined and written for popular audiences. This book, written in partnership with William Bridges, the NYZS's Curator of Publications, was A Zoo Man's Notebook. It follows Crandall's old book in being arranged by taxonomy, following the mammals from primates to carnivores to ungulates and down the line. It focuses primarily, however, on the stories and anecdotes that Crandall, either directly or through his colleagues, had accumulated in years of working with the various species. It tried to answer for the public the basic question, "What are the animals actually like?"
The book is more anthropomorphic than Wild Mammals in Captivity, as one would expect for a book written for a popular audience. That's part of what makes it fun. It also deals much more with the human element of the zoo - staff and visitor. One of my favorite stories in it describes a young hyena that the Bronx Zoo received from another zoo, one which had been hand-raised in that facility's nursery. Upon its arrival in New York, the Bronx issued a press release about the new arrival; as was not uncommon in that age, a lot of the language used to describe hyenas was... less than flattering ("sulking," "cowardly," "scavenger," etc). When this press release trickled back to the west coast city that had furnished Crandall with the hyena, the local population - especially the children - were outraged and demanded the return of the hyena, back to folks who would appreciate it. Crandall was forced to do some spectacular backpedaling, saying that his comments were about hyenas in general, whereas this particular specimen was the cleanest, smartest, most loveable individual he'd ever met.
In yesterday's post, I bemoaned the fact that I felt that zoos were becoming too infantilized, disinclined to be serious or academic, and so on. The works of Lee Crandall, I feel, show the ideal of what a zoo should be able to do, as an institution if not as a single individual. Wild Mammals in Captivity was a well-written, scholarly work, extensively cited and meticulously researched, that drew together the sum of our knowledge and built upon it for the benefit of future generations of keepers and animals. A Zoo Man's Notebook is an excellent book for a popular audience, that takes important information about animals and introduces it to the public in a simpler, more entertaining manner. Theoretically, reading and enjoying the one could lead to seeking out and appreciating the other at a later date. Instead of just appealing to the lowest common denominator, there's something for different audience levels.
My main regret about Crandall is that he passed (in 1969) before he could move on to his true calling, Management of Wild Birds in Captivity, which ideally would have had its A Zoo Man's Notebook companion as well. What a contribution to zoo ornithology that would have been.
No comments:
Post a Comment