Zoos

Once seen as entertainment organizations, many American zoos now strongly promote themselves as agencies of biodiversity conservation, a reorientation prompted in part by growing public concern about endangered species. Funding, research, conservation efforts, and captive breeding programs are the concrete tools that allow zoos to lay claim to their contributions, but it is their more subtle cues that leave a lasting impression with zoo visitors. The exhibits, layout, signage, and presentations reflect prevailing attitudes about nature, wildlife, exotic species, and shape ideas about how animals live their lives and what they are like in the wild. This project examines tensions between the public presentation of conservation goals and concrete contributions to conservation. Zoos are one of the few places where the public can see firsthand many animals in an up-close environment and the impact of zoos on the future of conservation may be dependent upon resolving such tensions.