Evolution of modern zoo and its mission
Origin of Zoo can be traced back to ancient emperors collecting animals to show their power using tigers, lions, bears and others as a symbol of their success. Later on, royal families started collecting animals as a symbol of their wealth, status and power often allowing scientists to study their animals to get a better understanding of them and what they need especially when natural science became growing interest during the Victorian era and many of menageries opened to the public. Animals were generally locked up in small cages behind thick bars providing visitors with a sense of security. With the rising popularity of zoos some realized potential of taking menageries on the road bringing them to people that wouldn’t be able to go see it in a city. Animals in those collections were often forced to interact with visitors creating shows that were later adopted by circus where animals were “trained” to perform trick for the audience but as many of those animals like tigers and lions are natural predators that can’t be trained with reward to perform in unnatural habitat in front of noisy crowds which is why they were beaten and starved to fear their capturers that did everything to suppress their natural behaviour significantly decreasing their lifespan. In 1907 Carl Hagenbeck realized that keeping wild animals in cages hurts them and that comfort of wild animals is important to their survival in captivity. He designed and opened the first modern zoo situated outside of Hamburg where animals had more space and were less distracted by the noise of the city. Enclosures designed without fences using natural barriers like moats to keep them separated from visitors giving visitors and animals illusion that they are in open environment which was made to resemble their natural habitat, ideas that are followed by most modern-day zoos.
The twentieth century saw raising awareness of animal extinction with a number of species being found only in zoos which led to a realization that something is wrong leading to a number of wildlife parks being established on the founding principle of preserving endangered species with many of the zoos applying the same principle and new laws regarding animal welfare were introduced. From what started as a display of wealth and cruel entertainment transformed into non-profit organizations working together, dedicated to the preservation of animals. To achieve this goal zoo turned into study and educational centres with breeding and re-introductory programs aimed to return wild animals back to their natural habitat but there is no reason to return them if they will be hunter or their habitat will get destroyed by human actions, which is why zoos try to enshrine environmental awareness educate people about animals their habitat and issues that they are facing. To achieve this zoos try to educate visitors in a subtle way, showing them how animals live and interact with each other, often providing additional information about animals natural habitat and if applicable about what challenges they face out in the wild. They try to give visitors personal connection with animals via interaction with them and well-designed enclosures that can provide strong experience like open safari-style enclosures and pavilions, underwater tunnels or paths going under the enclosure where you can see animals like tiger walk right above your head which is unforgettable experience that won’t happen all the time which is why zoos might be looking for alternative options like interactive statues and memorials that visitors could interact with and it would bring their attention to topics like Holocene extinction and reasons why so many animals live only in zoos today.
To understand Holocene extinction, we need to look at what are the causes of it before it can be stopped and endangered animals can be returned into their natural habitat. As we are currently dealing with industrial pollution changing the global climate to the extent that is yet to be seen it can be easily forgotten what the single direct cause of massive extinction of many animal species and flora is. Even though accidental and deliberate introduction of non-native species and foreign viruses wiped out at least thousands of them as well most of the native population of America and it is clear that hunting caused extinction of many species but those damages aren’t even remotely close to destruction that is still legal and ongoing in many parts and of the world. This destruction is simply called deforestation.
Historically deforestation on large scale started with the rise of agriculture as land to grow crops was needed but that is not necessarily true nowadays with food waste being larger than ever before there isn’t really need to create more fields but need to educate about food waste making people aware of the issue. Also we should look for better ways of using existing fields to maximize harvest or even look for alternative sources of protein and fibre which for most parts might not sound appetising but according to some reports livestock agriculture produces almost half of man-made greenhouse gases with production of one kilogram of red meat equivalent to driving 63 miles in a car. Further deforestation also threatens existing crops as newly deforested land is often treated with pesticides and insecticides destroying established ecosystem killing all insects that are needed for pollination of the majority of top grown crops.
Another reason for deforestation is mining resources starting with trees themselves for instance Britain in 17th century experienced expansion of agriculture and rapid development of cities like London needing wood not only as building material but also for heating which resulted in shortage of wood that meant for Britain to be reliable on imported timber leading to complete transformation of the energy industry from wood to coal that was available already before but it wasn’t popular till seemingly endless forests were turned into plains. 20th century Britain almost run out of wood again during World Wars and so Forestry Commission was established to make sure it won’t happen again and introduced fast-growing non-native species trying to completely change ecosystems once again only to find out that thanks to decades of overgrazing former woodlands weren’t suitable to grow trees anymore and without trees chance there is increased change of waterlogging and floods taking away all nutrition from soil leaving it useless further driving animals away with number of native species of plants and animals lost. This is one of many examples why deforestation and reforestation needs to be thoughtfully planned and why the consequences of actions should be considered if designed properly as all systems need to be sustainable and if trees are being cut down new trees should be already growing which interestingly enough seems to be once again forgotten in Britain as campaigners warn that deforestation is happening again due to poor planning rates.
Similarly, there is an increasingly huge problem with deforestation of rainforests that are crucial in the fight against global warming as they are helping to absorb carbon dioxide from the air but with cutting down trees and burning them air will not be getting clean while carbon dioxide is getting released back into the air. At the moment this is largely happening thanks to global palm oil demand. It is believed that about half of the products in the supermarket consists of palm tree oil that can be replaced in numeral cases with more sustainable options that might be more costly but for any ethical company this shouldn’t even be a question. The recent growth of the palm oil industry has been driven in recent years by questionable decisions of EU to mandatory mix fuel with biofuel which is made from palm oil that cannot be really sustainably sourced at current demand although the EU believes they will eventually.
It appears that in today’s day and age with easy access to the information we can’t call lack of regulation in certain parts of the world as anything else but gross negligence. It is not only fault of the government allowing for deforestation to take place but also fault on side of businesses that are using unsustainably sourced wood and other materials and it should be the responsibility of designers to understand the implications of using certain materials, understand the consequences of their choices and try and push companies to use alternative materials to those with questionable origin like palm oil. This lack of motivation to do better is why there is a need to raise awareness of the issue which can be achieved by creating interactive monument for the Zoo showing that most of the reasons for deforestation in today’s world are driven by greed and not by necessity as there are alternatives to many if not all reasons for which deforestation is still taking place.
