The Desolation of Smog

 "Fair is foul, and foul is fair.  Hover through the fog and filthy air."

-William Shakespeare, Macbeth

After a brief respite, we're back to having terrible air quality again.  Different animals have different levels of susceptibility to the fallout from the Canadian wildfires.  Different staff and visitors do, too.  T  I'm trying to minimize the amount of time that I'm spending outside, especially the amount of time engaging in physical activity that might make me breathe harder.  Likewise, if animals have to be outside, it's best to minimize their activity.  Or, better yet, let them park their furry or feathery butts inside and wait out the worst of it.

he summer is seldom my favorite time to visit the zoo anyway - heat, humidity, crowds - so we can just add this to the list as well.  Hopefully, this is just an exceptionally unpleasant summer, rather than a hallmark of all future summers to come.

Beating the Heat at the Phoenix Zoo

Much of the nation is in the midst of a heat wave, and we haven't even made it into July yet.  Among the hottest places to be in the country now would be Arizona, so it's no surprise that the animals and staff of the Phoenix Zoo are dealing with some pretty extreme temperatures.  Fortunately, the staff is helping the animals cope with the triple-digits through a variety of cooling methods, depicted here!

Total Eclipse of the Zoo

 

The Struggles of Being Boring

One of the greatest challenges I find in zoos is how to get the public interested, let alone excited, about species which don't lend themselves to great exhibitry.  A Komodo dragon, huge, easily visible, and very impressive, is an easy hook for visitors.  A galliwasp, which spends much of its time buried, and which can be very difficult to see when it is on the surface, is much tougher to garner enthusiasm for.  It's a sad truth that a lot of the species that are most endangered or in need of conservation aren't always the showiest.  If you asked 100 visitors what they'd rather see in a zoo - a critically endangered (possibly extinct in the wild) Vietnam pheasant, or a plain old Indian peafowl (better yet, a white Indian peafowl), I don't hesitate to guess who would win that poll.

Sometimes you can pair up endangered but bland species with "more exciting" species, such as putting Madagascar teal (an endangered duck) in with lemurs.  In other cases, that might not work out - the more endangered species might need more privacy than such a combination would allow, and would be stressed or wouldn't breed in those conditions.

So increasingly, I've felt the trick is to stop acting like we should consider some species boring.  Because it's true.  None of them are boring.

Lean into obscure, endangered species.  Share their stories loudly and proudly with graphics, keeper talks, facebook posts, etc.  Make it a challenge for visitors to see if they can spot that galliwasp half-hidden in the leaf litter.  If an animal is cryptic, but will tolerate it, try having one in an ambassador role to make brief appearances for keeper talks or on the news to help spread its story.  Give your Guam rail just as much social media exposure as the penguins and flamingos.   Celebrate the births and hatchings.  Make a big deal out of them, and let visitors understand why they're a big deal.

Guests know what we tell them about animals.  And if we tell them (through our actions) that some animals are boring, and not worth as much attention or interest, they're going to believe us.  So don't tell them that.

Species Fact Profile: Haitian Giant Galliwasp (Caribicus warreni)

                                                             Haitian Giant Galliwasp

                                                       Caribicus (Celestus) warreni (Schwartz, 1970)

Range: Northern Hispaniola (Haiti and Dominican Republic), off-shore Ile de la Tortue.  Possibly already extirpated from the Dominican Republic

Habitat:  Lowland Broadleaf Forest (below 700 meters), Banana and Cacao Plantations.  Primarily found under leaf litter and forest debris

Diet: Arthropods (especially centipedes and millipedes), earthworms, small reptiles and mammals, hatchling birds

Social Grouping: Males are territorial, allow access to females

Reproduction: Breeding is seasonal, with peak births occurring between June and September (wet season).   Male will grasp the back of the female’s neck in his jaws as he mounts her.  Give birth to up to 40 (usually 20) live young per litter after a gestation of 180 days.  Uncertain as to whether they practice parthenogenesis  or sperm storage.  Sexually mature at 5-7 years old (as early as 3-4 years old under human care).  

Lifespan: 20-30 Years

      Conservation Status: IUCN Vulnerable 

• Body length up to 30 centimeters.  Superficially skink-like body with small limbs, stocky body, robust head, and streamlined appearance
• Sexes look alike.  Coloration is dull to chocolate brown with some dark bands, paler on the sides and orange on the ventral surface
• Males are larger than females, having wider heads and tails at time of sexual maturity.  Juvenile or immature males resemble adult females
• Seldom seen on the surface, spends most of its time under cover.  Believed to be nocturnal or crepuscular, but uncertain – very poorly studied in the wild
• Primary threat is loss of habitat, especially deforestation for agricultural land.  Remaining habitat is highly fragmented.  Currently found only on one small site in northern Haiti
• Sometimes recognized as having two subspecies, the nominate and C. w. anelpistus, though the later is sometimes elevated to full-species status
• Predated by introduced mammalian carnivores – dogs, cats, and especially mongooses.  Capable of shedding its tail when pursued by a predator
• Killed by local people under the mistaken belief that they are venomous.  Occurs in the illegal pet trade, has some significance in local voodoo religions
• Origin of the name "galliwasp" is unknown

Zookeeper's Journal: If you were to make a list of the endangered species of the world, I'm pretty sure that for every giant panda, there'd be a half dozen species like the Haitian giant galliwasp.  Both are endangered, the galliwasp actually more so than the panda in terms of its trajectory and stability.  Compared to the panda, the galliwasp's needs in a zoo setting are relatively simple, both in terms of expenditure, space, and staff resources.  The entire species could be maintained in a single zoo with the resources devoted to a single pair of pandas.  Unfortunately, the galliwasp is not especially glamorous. It's not an especially visually striking lizard, which doesn't matter too much, because it's not inclined to pose for visitors' cameras. It is very fossorial and hides quite a lot. Virtually no one has heard of it.  And yet, this represents the sort of species which I feel like zoos are best positioned to save from extinction.  Which isn't to say that there's no room for other species, like big mammals.  Those are the hook species which bring visitors in - and help us share the message and support the work of saving other species - including cryptic, brown, rather bitey little lizards than no one knows about.

Giraffe CPR

Happy Summer Solstice!  

The longest day of the year is set aside to honor the longest necks, as today is also World Giraffe Day!  Giraffes are some of the most iconic of zoo animals, and are regularly encountered in zoos across the world.  There popularity has only expanded in recent years due to the prevalence of feeding platforms, which allow guests to have hands-on interaction with the tall mammals (I'm almost hard pressed to remember the last time I went to a zoo with giraffes that didn't have a feeding station).  

On the more negative side, giraffes have also been the victims of a "silent extinction," their numbers in the wild declining without as much media concern as has been directed towards the decline of elephants and rhinos.

I get a kick out of this cartoon because, in reality, sick or injured giraffes are a GIANT (pun unintended) pain in the butt to treat due to their unique physiology...

Brevard Zoo and the "Woke Wars"

In a particularly frustrating but of news, Florida's Brevard Zoo is in the crosshairs of angry politicians after it made a decision that was contrary to the whims of a state representative.  After Republican Randy Fine planned to rent out the zoo for a fundraiser, the announcement was met with protests.  This led the zoo to consider- not set in stone yet, but considering - a policy of no longer renting out the zoo for political campaign events, regardless of the political party.  This angered Fine so much that he asked Governor and presidential-candidate Ron DeSantis to veto $2,000,000 in funding that that zoo was slated to receive to build a new aquarium.  Fine made no secret of his motivation for encouraging DeSantis to strike the funds for the zoo, saying, "Go woke, go broke."  In typical politician style, he is now backpedaling a bit on his reasoning, but he said what he said...|

A rendering of the proposed aquarium, by Brevard Zoo

This little temper-tantrum (well, probably doesn't seem so little to Brevard Zoo staff) shows the inherent challenge of zoos and aquariums having to deal with politicians.  They are whimsical and fickle partners, who don't always go a great job of separating what's best for the community versus what's best for their political fortunes.  There are plenty of occasions in which a politician could, for just causes, decide against supporting funding for a zoo or aquarium; there are a lot of priorities out there, and public monies are a limited resource.  But to do it just because they won't do exactly what you tell them to isn't governance.  It's petulance.

It's tempting for a zoo to decide to do whatever

 it can to avoid being seen as political (which, ironically, is what Brevard was trying to do when it tried stepping back from being involved in campaigns).  Unfortunately, literally everything that is important, from conservation of species to social policies that impact the safety and wellbeing of employees, is political.  It's impossible not to be political.

Ultimately, Brevard is still going to go ahead with the aquarium.  They're just going to have to do it without this clown's help.  Just as well - he doesn't seem like someone you'd want to be beholden to.

Satire: Zoo Animal Council Meeting Minutes

Just a joke about a funny zoo animal council meeting.  Absolutely no thinly-veiled allusions to any current cultural issues ongoing in the US.  Nope.  Anything you pick up on that is purely in your mind... (Happy Pride)

Zoo Animal Council Meeting Minutes

The Dye is Cast

In some very sad news from the Philadelphia Zoo, five meerkats died suddenly and unexpectedly.  The zoo is still investigating, but right now the likely culprit seems to be some dye that the zoo was using to help identify the meerkats as individuals.

Zoos and aquariums care for an amazing diversity of species - and each of those species has its own unique medical needs and challenges, including sensitivity to different chemicals and compounds.  Different taxa have different levels of sensitivity.  Amphibians and birds are often the most sensitive groups, the former due to absorption through their skin, the later due to inhalation.  

Whenever someone at our zoo wants to use a new substance - a chemical for cleaning, a paint, a caulk, a sealant - it has to get a pretty thorough review from our vet to make sure it is safe.  Or at least that it appears to be safe - you can never be 100% sure until you actually use it.    Then, you have to keep a close eye out every time you buy a new batch - you can never be sure that the company hasn't tweaked the formula into something that might seem minor to them, but could have deadly consequences.

Information on all chemicals used is kept in Material Safety Data Sheets, and a typical zoo or aquarium has stacks of binders of SDS sheets tucked around the facility.  These contain info on what the chemicals contain, what they are used for, and what first aid treatment (for humans) is needed for accidental ingestion, injection, inhalation, or other exposures.  Again, the info on those covers human safety.  Not animal.

People who work within our zoo are always very understanding of this process.  Where we get some exasperation and complaining is when we hire contractors to do maintenance work.  They sometimes don't understand why we slow walk - and sometimes refuse - chemical products that they've worked with for year.  Sometimes we require them to find substitutes, which might be harder to get a hold of, or more expensive.  Those chemicals might be safe for human use in human settings, but have detrimental impacts on animals.

But, as the meerkat case shows, there's always potential risk when animals and chemicals come together.  

Zoo Review: Nashville Zoo at Grassmere, Part II

Continuing through the Nashville Zoo, we come into one of the newest, and most beautiful of the exhibits, Expedition Peru.  This exhibit is perhaps the only flagship habitat for Andean bears in North America.  The beautiful South American bears have a gorgeous, hillside yard, which slopes down towards a pool with underwater viewing.  This isn't a species that we normally associate with water, but in turns out that Andean bears enjoy splashing around just as much as other bears, and while I wasn't lucky enough to catch a bear in the water during my visit, I have seen some cool footage of them almost completely submerged at eye-level with visitors.  The underwater viewing is in a building that also includes an attractive habitat for lizards, turtles, and fish.  Outside are yards for southern pudu, the world's smallest deer, as well as guinea pigs swarming over a small village.  Ladies, take the opportunity to duck into the nearby bathroom for a private view of the cotton-topped tamarin monkeys.  (Gentlemen, you have your own private bathroom viewing experience elsewhere in the zoo with a Boelen's python display).

There are a few somewhat standalone habitats along the trail.  There's a fairly standard American alligator exhibit, a yard for cassowary, and a large, pleasantly shaded walkthrough with red kangaroos.  Tucked away past the bears is one of the zoo's true standout enclosures, Tiger Crossroads.  Visitors can enter an Indonesian longhouse (which contains many good educational displays) for an up-close view of Sumatran tigers through large glass windows, perhaps even catching a demonstration at the training wall.  The tigers can also be seen from several vantage points outside.

The meerkat and saddle-billed stork exhibits mentioned yesterday could, depending on how you approached them, potentially be seen as part of a loose African area that wends its way through the zoo.  The remainder of said area takes the form of three large savannah yards - one for zebra, ostrich, and antelope, one for Masai giraffe, and the largest (originally for African elephants) now occupied by white rhinos.  Next to the rhinos is a small side yard for red river hog.   

Farm animals can be seen in the historic Grassmere Farm, which includes a 200 year old historic house. Other attractions in the immediate vicinity are  a lorikeet feeding aviary, a carousel, and zipline, the later offering brief but interesting aerial views of the savannah yards.  Also nearby is the veterinary center which, like many of the newer zoo hospitals, is equipped with windows that provide behind-the-scenes views as to how the animals are cared for.  Nashville maintains a large collection of ambassador animals, so you can also never be sure who you might meet walking around on zoo grounds.

There are parts of Nashville which struck me as a bit over the top with theming, sometimes bordering on the cheesy.  I thought the zipline was a bit odd, especially at the literal center of the zoo, and am told that full-size roller coasters will be added as part of a future expansion (though I've also been told how much money the rides bring in, so there is that).  The zoo, as I've mentioned, has lots of holdings off-exhibit, including such rarities as palm civets, fanaloka, and martens.  They also have an absurd number of giant anteaters (over a dozen), yet amazingly not a single one on exhibit!

Nashville has seen steady growth over the years, but are now slated for massive expansion.  One project in the works will be a new habitat by the hospital which will house a large group of Komodo dragons - many zoos keep the world's largest lizard, but few in large numbers, so it'll be interesting to see how that works out.  During the colder months, when the lizards are inside, the exhibit will house red-crowned cranes.  This is all small peanuts, of course, compared to the massive African expansion that is being planned, which will include, among other things, lions, mandrills, and a boat ride past hippopotamuses.  The first phase, under construction now, will be a rock kopje, featuring leopard (Amur subspecies as a stand-in for African), rock hyrax, monkeys, and klipspringer.

All of this, I'm certain, will solidify Nashville as the must-see zoo of the region.

Zoo Review: Nashville Zoo at Grassmere, Part I

Few American zoos - if any - have experienced some tremendous growth and development as the Nashville Zoo at Grassmere.  This relatively young establishment represents the merger of the city's previous two zoological collections - the tiny Nashville Zoo and the modest Grassmere Wildlife Park, which housed native species.  The former facility took over the grounds of the later, and in the early years of the millennium, the new zoo was born.  The grounds are quite sizeable at 188 acres, but only a relatively modest portion have been developed.  The zoo has grown steadily, but not unsustainably, and with more of an eye towards quality than quantity.  The zoo is missing many of the most charismatic and popular zoo species, many of which are slated for future expansions, and as it is now the zoo is still a half-day experience.  The exhibits that it does have, however, are some of the finest I've seen, leading to great anticipation for the projects that the zoo has waiting in the wings.

Upon entry through an complex of African-themed buildings, visitors are greeted by one of the most beautiful exhibits in the zoo, a pair of gibbon islands.  These densely-planted islands have towering trees which allow their occupants - siamangs on one, white-handed gibbons on the other - to swing high above the heads of visitors, sometimes disappearing from view entirely, then emerging again amid ear-piercing whoops.  Down the path is another habitat for a favorite crowd-pleaser, common in zoos but seldom exhibited as well as here - meerkats.  The African desert mongooses have a large, spacious, open habitat with several view points, including bubbles which children (or adults who have some more flexibility than me) can use to pop up in the middle of the scurrying small mammals.  The trail then passes a lagoon for trumpeter swans and a marsh for saddle-billed storks.

Next up is Nashville's only major indoor exhibit, Unseen New World.  Primarily a reptile and amphibian house, but also featuring invertebrates, fish, birds, and a few small mammals, this building, as the name would suggest, is focused on the wildlife of North and South America, taking visitors of a trek from the Amazon to the Caribbean to the deserts of the southwest to Tennessee.  The habitats are considerably well-done, with a great number of rarities seen here, as well as some of the zoo's conservation success stories (Nashville is particularly known for its breeding success with hellbenders and Haitian galliwasps).  Visitor favorites are likely to be the Amazon fish tank, the Seba's short-tailed fruit bats, and the gargantuan alligator snapping turtle.  Attached to the building is an aviary in a glassed-in atrium, with viewing on two levels of a habitat that features a small but beautiful variety of birds (some of which deviate from the New World theming of the building).  As is usually the case in zoo rainforest aviaries, keep an eye peeled for sloths.  A lagoon for Chilean flamingos is a short walk outside.

Meandering out of Unseen New World, visitors find themselves on the Bamboo Trail, a loose grouping of exhibits found on a forested path.  There's not really much a theme here, but the individual habitats are quite nice.  Occupants include Baird's tapir, babirusa, crested porcupine, rhinoceros hornbill, two species of lemur, and puma.  Black-handed spider monkeys have an excellent enclosure which, like the gibbon habitat, provides excellent height and lots of climbing opportunities (the monkeys can be seen through viewing windows set at treetop height).  A small viewing shelter provides viewing on either side of two of Asia's most beautiful carnivores - red pandas and clouded leopards.  Clouded leopards are another species which Nashville is justly famous for.  These gorgeous blotched cats have historically proven to be very challenging to breed in zoos, but Nashville has had incredible success with the species.  A pair remains on exhibit, with much of the breeding taking place behind-the-scenes in the extensive holding areas elsewhere in the zoo.

Tomorrow, we'll continue exploring the rest of the Nashville Zoo at Grassmere.  

Nashville Zoo at Grassmere

The Stealthy Flamingo

 Every flamingo pond in every zoo in the world has a Fred.  Every single one.

Who Forgot to Lock Up?

Well, that video was certainly an adventure... if I cam into work one day and found obvious signs that there was a either an animal loose overnight or that I'd had an intruder, I can't say I would have started filming right away (so that part of the footage may be a bit staged).  I will admit, the overnight footage is pretty fun, though...

How Long Can You Hold Your Breath?

 "If you visit American city, you will find it very pretty
Just two things which you must beware - don't drink the water and don't breathe the air."

- Tom Lehrer, Pollution

Zoos and aquariums have many threats that they have to plan for - animal escapes, fires, medical emergencies.  Some of them are factors that are within their control - animal escapes are almost, but not always, related to human error, such as a gate left unlocked or a faulty piece of mesh not being noticed.  Sometimes, the disaster is a factor completely outside of the facility's control.  

Much of the northeastern United States is suffering the impacts of the wildfires in Canada.    All of the Wildlife Conservation Society facilities in New York has been closed for the past few days. Poor air quality has forced many zoos to keep many of their animals inside to protect them, some of them at facilities several states to the south.

Obviously zoos and aquariums can do nothing about the root cause of the problem - they didn't start the wildfires, and it's not like they can do anything to stop the polluted air.  No one made a decision to have their facilities and their animals impacted.  What facilities can do, however, is set themselves up for success with emergency preparedness.   

Some of the aspects of preparedness relate to multiple potential disasters.  Being ready for one disaster can help a zoo better ready itself for a different one.  For example, last year much of the country had to deal with a severe outbreak of Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza.  A major preventative measure zoos had to take was to pull their birds indoors where they would be safe from exposure to wild birds which could serve as a potential vector of the disease.  Few zoos had capacity to move birds, sometimes hundreds of them, including larger species, indoors for a period of time of undetermined length without unduly impacting their welfare and health.   Staff had to get very creative, and many zoos - including my own - rigged up new holding areas to house birds.  Some of those holding areas are now being mustered back into surface these past few days.

Hopefully, this period of foul air won't last too, and normal operations will be able to resume soon.   The thing is, there will, inevitably be another disaster in the future - maybe fire, flood, disease, who knows.  And when that one comes, the question will be, how will a zoo respond to an unexpected disaster?  The answer is, to try and expect it.

From the News: Hundreds of Animals Killed After Dam Attack Floods Ukraine Zoo

Hundreds of Animals Killed After Dam Attack Floods Ukraine Zoo

Early on in the story of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, one of the most compelling stories for western audiences was the plight of the Kyiv Zoo (as is so often the case, when confronted with widespread human tragedy we seem especially drawn to the plight of animals).  Then there were the losses at Feldman Ecopark, shortly after.  As the war settles into its second year, another Ukrainian zoo has suffered disaster, this one experiencing almost complete obliteration. 

The Kakhovka Dibrova Zoo was a children's zoo in Russian-held Kherson.  Like much of the region, it was impacted by the destruction of a major dam, which resulting in severe flooding.  Virtually all of the 300 hundreds - mostly domestic animals, but also monkeys, raccoons, porcupines, and other small animals - were lost in the flood.  Only the waterfowl appear to have survived, swimming across the flooded grounds.  Zoo staff were blocked from being able to evacuate the animals due to mines in the area.

Of course, many human lives and much property was also destroyed in the flood.  Many are homeless now, or are separated from loved ones, unsure of their safety.  The ecological damage of the flood has also yet to be assessed, but is likely extensive.  Sharing an article about this particular aspect of the damage is in no way meant to overshadow the other losses.  It just serves as another reminder of how devastating war can be to animals as well as people.  Flooding, when it occurs naturally, is just as destructive and horrific, and can lead to equally terrible losses.  It just seems worse in these cases, when the cause isn't natural - because you know that it didn't have to happen.

Species Fact Profile: Four-Eyed Turtle (Sacalia quadriocellata)

                                                                     Four-Eyed Turtle

                                                       Sacalia quadriocellata (Siebenrock, 1903)

Range: Southern and Central China, northern Vietnam, northwestern Laos

Habitat:  Forested mountain streams, up to 700 meters elevation

Diet: Earthworms, mollusks, crustaceans, insects, small fish, aquatic plants

Social Grouping: Solitary

Reproduction: Females lay 1-4 (some sources say 2-6) white, elongated eggs per clutch.  Turtles in more southern parts of range have been observed laying multiple clutches

Lifespan: 40 Years

      Conservation Status: IUCN Critically Endangered, CITES Appendix II

• Carapace 15 centimeters long, broad, oval, and slightly roofed with a developed central keel.  The toes are fully-webbed
• Carapace is brown, black, or dark green.  Head is beige or brown, sometimes almost black or blue.  Common name refers to the two to four large, bright colored spots – usually yellow with a central black spot, sometimes light blue bordered with white – on the back of the head, behind the eyes.  Spots tend to be brighter in males than females.  Yellow and orange lines on the neck
• Has been reported to hybridize with Chinese three-striped box turtle, or golden coin turtle (Cuora trifasciata).  The resultant offspring are believed to be the origin of the so-called Chinese false-eyed turtle, Sacalia pseudocellata, which some authorities consider a valid species
• Species was once locally common, now declining, up to 90%decline over past two generations. Primary threat is collection, both for the pet trade (very desirable due to their striking markings) and for their shells, which are used in Traditional Chinese Medicine.  Additional cause of decline is loss of habitat due to damming and hydropower development.  Range is fragmented and disjunct

Zookeeper's Journal: Freshwater turtles, as a group, are some of the most endangered of all vertebrates.  They are highly in demand not only for the cookpot, but increasingly for the pet trade.  As far as I can tell, the lovely four-eyed turtle of Southeast Asia has three major strikes against it in being highly trafficked.  First, it's beautiful, easily one of the most visually-striking of turtles (which, to a non-connoisseur, can all start to look the same after a while).  Second, it's small, which makes it possible for private owners without much space to keep it; no need for a giant tank or an expensive outdoor pond or greenhouse.  And third, unfortunately, rarity tends to encourage desirability, which leads to more rarity.  The rarer this species becomes, the more prestige is associated with owning it, and so the more highly sought after it becomes among turtle collectors.

Ever Evolving

In yesterday's post about US News and World Report's list of the top 26 American zoos, I mentioned that I'd been to 21 of those facilities at this point.  That's true, but in a sense it's also not.  Compared to many cultural attractions, zoos and aquariums are constantly changing and reinvented themselves.  Animals are born or die, are shipped in or shipped out.  Old exhibits are renovated, or pulled down, or sometimes just abandoned, and new ones take their place.  The progress varies across facilities - there are some places I've visited after a ten year gap and I can still find my way around the grounds without any hesitation, as if the place never changed.  There are other facilities that become almost unrecognizable.

Take Houston Zoo, for example.  I only visited once, back in 2008.  At the time, their African Forest complex was under construction.  Since then, they finished that project.  They've also finished Texas Wetlands, Pantanal, Galapagos, and an expansion of their elephant habitat.  Much of the zoo would be brand new from when I saw it 15 years ago.  This has all come at the expense of other exhibits, and various animals have been phased out to accommodate the changes.  It's for this reason I haven't written a review of Houston yet - my recollections of it would be way out of date.  

The reason for the changes in zoos is simple - unlike almost all other cultural attractions, their collections are based on living animals.  Historic sites don't change too much - graphics and interpretation may change, but Gettysburg will always be Gettysburg, Alcatraz will be Alcatraz.  Museums may have new exhibit galleries, especially rotating content, but plenty of the collection is permanent.  Artifacts and artwork and fossils don't die, and as long as you conserve them, they'll last a long time.  Aquariums do have living collections, but being essentially one building each, there's a lot less flexibility in changing exhibit spaces, though the occupants of those spaces can change.

Zoo changes are driven not just by the constantly fluid nature of the living collection, but by our constantly evolving standards of animal welfare.  A habitat that was considered state-of-the-art when I was a kid may be outdated and inadequate now.  The zoo might put a different species in that habitat, or tear it down and start again.  A zoo's main appeal to me might be a very rare animal that it has, but when that animal dies and that species is no longer present in collections, the appeal may change.  Conversely, some species which were very rare in zoos when I was a kid are now much more common (another way in which zoos differ from museums - there can only be one Mona Lisa, but two giant pandas can come together and produce a third giant panda, which is just as much of an "original" as either of the parents.

The constant change of zoos (and to a lesser extent aquariums) can be frustrating.  Sometimes I look back on the history of an institution and find myself sad on what I missed out on seeing.  Still, the constant changes (especially those driven by welfare) mean that there is always something new and exciting to see.  A zoo is seldom experience the same way twice.

US News and World Report's Best Zoo List

The question of what are the best zoos and aquariums in the US is a very subjective one, and while there are definitely some that I look more than others, I've never even tried ranking them.  It turns out that lots of other folks do enjoy doing that, however.  This article by US News and World Report gives the author's list of the top 26 (such a strange number) facilities.  So far, I've been to 21 of the 26, and actually have plans to check off another 3 before the end of the year. 

The 26 Best Zoos in the US

Do I agree with the list?  Not entirely.  Like I said, I dont keep formal rankings, but there are some facilities I would elevate onto the list in favor of others.  Some of the info shared is a little outdated.  Other things, which the author attributes as something special or unique about one facility, are actually fairly representative of many zoos.  That's ok, though. Everyone has different priorities over what makes a zoo a top facility.  To me, it's worth it just to have the conservation about what makes the difference between a poor zoo and a good one, as well as a good one and a great one.

Pride of the Zoo

Today marks the first day of Pride Month, the celebration of the LGBTQ+ community.  Like virtually every organization and corporation in the country, the Association of Zoos and Aquariums put out a brief statement of acknowledgement, as well as sharing photos from past and present Pride celebrations at different member facilities.  Most of the responses were very positive; presumably most of the folks who weren't interested felt free to keep on scrolling.  As always, you get that one comment, though:

                                          "Just stick with running the zoos and aquariums.

There were similar statements in the past when zoos and aquariums expressed support for the Black Lives Matter movement, or other social justice causes (yet strangely never any complaints when the zoos express appreciation for, say, military veterans on Memorial Day or Veteran's Day).  Almost as if the objection isn't to any deviation from strictly focusing on animals, but in instead about prejudice.  Hmm...

Zoos and aquariums are about animals, but they are made up of people.  Some of those people are gay or lesbian, or transgender.  Some are Black, or Asian, or Latino, or Indigenous.  These communities are also reflected in the populations that the zoos and aquariums serve.  So yes, the animals themselves don't care about such things, but acknowledging and celebrating these communities does help support and empower the staff that make the zoo run.

So, Happy Pride Month.  And don't let anyone tell you otherwise.

Photo Credit: Virginia Zoo