All Creatures Great and... Great

A few years back, I had friends of mine, a group of biologists from overseas, come and stay with me for a few days.  It was his first trip to the United States, and we were excited to do the most exploring we could, packing in trips to parks, gardens, zoos, aquariums, and museums.  We had just gotten back from the airport to my apartment, where I was setting the table for some lunch.  It was there that my friends got their first introduction to North American wildlife.

Stepping out onto the balcony of my second-story apartment, they found themselves entranced by a pair of grey squirrels squabbling in a tree just a few yards away.  The rodents – what most Americans would view simply as bushy-tailed rats – chased each other around, chattering and fussing.  It was at this moment, one told me later – not the busy airport, not the drive back along the interstate, but this moment with the squirrels – that really put him in the mind that he was in a different county.

I could understand what he meant.  The first time I went to Africa, I saw lions, elephants, rhinos, and leopards from the back of a land rover.  I felt like I was in a particularly extravagant zoo exhibit.  It was only when I’d get back to camp and see superb starlings perched on top of my tent, or found myself unexpectedly sharing a bathroom with a tropical house gecko.  To me, smaller animals are what set the scenes and make a place feel “real.”

Unfortunately, as zoos continue to reinvent their exhibits into larger, immersive habitats, the creatures which I feel do the most to actually *immerse* a person in a landscape are being left out.  Small mammal, bird, and reptile houses are disappearing.  I mean, I had anecdotally noticed that there were fewer and fewer, but reading America’s Top 100 Zoos & Aquariums really drove the point home to me, as the authors – fellow enthusiasts of little animals, it seems – pointed it out whenever they did find smaller animals on display.  Speaking of the Dallas Zoo’s new African expansion, for example, they write:

“Whilst undoubtedly of a high quality, perhaps [Giants of the Savanna] takes its name too literally because the myriad of small animals found in nature on his continent are almost entirely excluded.” 

Smaller animals may not have the star power of large animals (though there are some exceptions – red pandas, sloths, tamarins), but they have lots of advantages that they bring to the table.  For one, it’s much easier to give them proportionately larger, more complicated habitats than large animals.  In proportion to their body size, you can take the space that would be a single tiger habitat and make several small-cat habitats, each with the animal having proportionately more space than the tigers had. 

This should be of special note to smaller zoos – they could opt to exhibit a few very large animals (and still possibly run into issues with space), or a lot of smaller ones.

It’s also possible to redo/remodel/renovate those exhibits more easily and frequently (and more cheaply) than it would be for large animals.  I used to re-perch my tamarin and marmoset exhibits fairly often, using whatever branches and woody vines I could scavenge to give them a brand new home every few months.  If I were to do that with, say, gorillas, I’d need a lot of heavy machinery and a budget of thousands, as well as to put it on the calendar months in advance.

Viewing smaller animals can also provide a more up-close, intimate experience.  This is especially true for animals that are highly social, such as naked mole rats, meerkats, and prairie dogs.  They can be especially appealing to young visitors, who are first coming to appreciate animals and might view giraffes and rhinos simply as distant, hulking shapes.

Lastly, presenting smaller animals provides a more complete picture of the natural world.  Many animals that we share ecosystems with are small, but zoos focus disproportionately on a few giant species. According to a paper in Scientific American, the average mammal in North America weighs 8 kilograms – about the size of a raccoon.  And that’s taking into account the bison, elk, moose, and three species of bears that live here.    Raccoons, of course, are doing just fine for themselves – but there are many species of smaller mammals which would benefit from more conservation attention, including more space – on-exhibit and off-exhibit – in zoos.

When my friends from abroad were visiting the US, they didn't expect to just see large mammals.  They saw groundhogs, squirrels, rabbits, (road-killed) raccoons, and a host of songbirds, shorebirds, and waterfowl.  It would be inaccurate for us to pretend that Africa is just the land of the giants - we should leave some room in our facilities for the little guys.