The #1 source for news about monkeys and apes

[Carrie McLaren <carrie AT stayfreemagazine.org>]

October 27, 2000
Where the Wild Things Aren't

Invisible cheetahs and gorillas on the lam

By LISA GUBERNICK
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

For Junior the orangutan, the day started out like any other. He had a
breakfast of kale, celery, carrots and green beans followed by his regular
arthritis medication. Then, apparently, boredom set in. So he did what any
other restless primate would do: He headed for the gift shop. He got there
by shimmying down a 45-foot tower at the National Zoo, climbing over an
electrified barrier and leaping into a flower bed. As staffers herded
astonished visitors into a nearby building, Junior took in Monkey Island
and an exhibit of prairie dogs before being tranquilized and returned to
captivity.

Seaching for the animals lost in the shrubbery at the San Diego Zoo.
Zoo officials were taken aback. "Junior had never climbed the tower
before," says Bob Hoage, spokesman for the Washington, D.C., zoo.

Here's one for the annals of unintended consequences. America's zoos are in
the midst of a renaissance, with attendance up and $2 billion in new
spending on verdant jungle habitats. The idea was to replace those grim
concrete cages with settings that would be more palatable not only for the
animals but for the public. There's just one catch: Good luck spotting the
animals.

From San Diego to New York, visitors are complaining that going to the zoo
has become an exercise in frustration. They can't see the pandas behind the
bamboo, or the cheetahs in the tall grass, or the tigers under the leafy
vegetation. At this rate, the question becomes: How long will zoo-goers put
up with it? "I've been a dozen times, and I 've only seen lions twice,"
says Linda Kennedy Rosser, of the Oklahoma City Zoo's $8.7 million Cat
Forest/Lion Overlook. "Once was with binoculars."

Then there 's the escape issue -- not exactly an enticement for visitors.
During the past three years, there have been more than 15 significant zoo
escapes, from a wolverine in Detroit to a chimpanzee in Dallas that was
accidentally electrocuted while on the lam. Just this month, an escaped
gorilla was captured asleep in the men 's room after being tranquilized by
Los Angeles zookeepers.

The zoo business is bigger than you might think. Last year, over 93 million
people visited the major ones, up about 15% from five years earlier. That
's more than attended National Football League and Major League Baseball
games combined. There are also huge sums of taxpayer money invested in the
redesign efforts. "When zoos come in short on these new exhibits, they
either do a disservice to the zoo-goer or the animal," says Vicki Croke,
author of a major history on zoos.

That is the heart of a debate about whether zoos are there to serve the
people or the animals. A recent cross-country visit to 10 big-city zoos
shows how different zoos deal with this issue. On one extreme is the
renowned and highly naturalistic San Diego Zoo. Despite a few surprisingly
retro cubicles for monkeys, finding the animals in some exhibits there is
like playing "Where's Waldo?" Its vaunted pandas are barely visible amid a
clustering of elm and bamboo, and visitors to its expansive Tiger River
exhibit sometimes have to spring from viewing area to viewing area to catch
a glimpse of the elusive cats. (The mist spewing out from jets along the
walkway doesn't help.)

"Our first charter is to make the animals comfortable," says Larry Killmar,
General Curator of the Zoological Society of San Diego, and that "might
make it difficult for people to see things."

At the other extreme: San Francisco, which is dominated by the kind of
penitentiary-like exhibits that were commonplace several decades ago. It
still houses chimps and orangutans on 44-year-old barren concrete islands.
Even so, the animals can be hard to spot, thanks to some trees the zoo
planted around the islands in 1992. (This may be a rare case where limiting
public exposure to the animals is a good thing: Before the trees went up,
some of the chimps were throwing dung at passing zoo-goers.)

It isn't only the structure of San Francisco's exhibits that are
problematic for animals. Earlier this year, the U.S. Department of
Agriculture, which regulates conditions for mammals at zoos, cited the
facility for 11 compliance problems, including inadequate disposal of food
and waste in the bison holding pen. (The zoo says it since has corrected
all the problems.)

The situation is similar in Dallas, another zoo with its share of old-style
menagerie exhibits. While the zoo's chimps are in a glorious glass-fronted
enclosure, the lions are stuck in what the zoo calls Cat Row -- a series of
kennel-like structures covered by chain-link fencing. The giraffes and
elephants are housed in somewhat larger latrine-like cells with small
outdoor yards. When we visited, a giraffe with grossly overgrown hooves was
banging its head repeatedly against a basketball dangling over the exhibit.

The most recent USDA report cited Dallas for seven animal-welfare
violations, including the giraffe's hooves. The city, on behalf of the zoo,
signed a consent decree last month and agreed to fix its remaining problems.


It is just such conditions, along with growing concern globally about
animal welfare, that has prompted the greening of America's zoos. Now, many
zoos have come to see themselves less as living museums than as vehicles
for conservation, places to educate the public about natural resources and
also encourage animals to procreate. Indeed, some of the new exhibits were
specifically designed to give animals enough privacy to reproduce.

Progress in veterinary medicine has helped make all this possible. In the
past, exhibits had to have easy-to-clean concrete and tile in order to
control disease. Now that zoos have other ways to prevent and cure animal
ailments, zoos can put their inhabitants in more natural environments.

But how to do so without compromising the view? Some zoos have managed to
strike a fairly happy medium. Both the Philadelphia Zoo and Chicago's
Lincoln Park Zoo have exhibits just large enough to keep the animals
comfortable and just compact enough to keep them in sight. Indeed, Lincoln
Park is basically gorilla utopia: The animals get a waterfall and jungle
gyms, all in a space that is more vertical than horizontal -- and thus
front-and-center for the viewing public.

But it's a delicate balance. Atlanta, an otherwise highly visitor-centric
zoo, has struggled for years to get some of its gorillas to meet and greet
their public. Instead, the apes hang out on a patio that is obscured by a

forest of grass and palms. It was a "design error," says Jon Coe, a
landscape architect who helped create the exhibit.

To help deal with its more reticent residents, the zoo hired an animal
psychologist, whose suggestions included a jungle gym for the gorillas. But
so far they aren't biting. Zookeepers say that, other than first thing in
the morning, when the animals are released from their holding area, it's
virtually impossible to see them. (The shrink has had better luck with the
lions and tigers; the lions got big bones to gnaw on, and the tigers got
live fish in their outdoor pond.)

Other zoos have tried everything from large outdoor rocks, which are heated
in winter, to artificial trees with camouflaged feeding posts. Some even
have video cameras suspended over the exhibit. (Of course, that raises the
question of whether one might as well stay home and watch the Discovery
Channel.)

It may not be entirely the animals' fault. Jack Grisham, director of animal
management in Oklahoma City, says some visitors got spoiled by the
old-style cages and simply don't bother looking: "Nine times out of 10,
they're right in front under a bush looking for shade." Zoos acknowledge
they must play a role in helping visitors find what they came to see. "We
have to teach the public how to look," says the San Diego Zoo's Mr.
Killmar. "We need to slow them down."

As for escapes, the American Zoo and Aquarium Association has issued
general guidelines on securing exhibits, covering such issues as how to
build walls that can't be climbed. Some zoos also employ professional rock
climbers to check for exit routes. The Los Angeles Zoo used a
Hollywood-trained chimp to test its new exhibit three years ago. The movie
chimp was trapped, but not zoo resident Gracie; she got out three times
before the zoo constructed enough additional obstacles to keep her
contained. "Accessibility and naturalism can lead to more potential for
escapes," says Eugene Linden, an author of books about animal behavior.
"But it's a risk I think that zoos should take."

The Dallas Zoo learned just how risky last July, when a chimp named Judy
met her end on her very first day there. She climbed up a tree, impervious
to the shock of its electrified wire, and high-tailed it out of the
exhibit. Her captors pursued her, shooting off tranquilizer darts as well
as a shotgun. Two hours later, she lost her footing as she shimmied up a
telephone pole outside the zoo and dropped to a live wire below. She was
instantly electrocuted. A spokeswoman says seven trees have since been
removed from the exhibit, including the one Judy used to get out.
-- Michelle Higgins contributed to this article.

Write to Lisa Gubernick at lisa.gubernick AT wsj.com

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Lions and Tigers and Bears, oh Where?

We visited 10 big-city zoos to see what they had to offer -- and who's
escaped lately. Here's what we found.

The Bronx Zoo
New York City
Adults: $9 Children: $5
Overview: At 265 acres, it's the biggest urban zoo. Aficionados call it the
gold standard. We agree.
Most Popular Exhibit: The $43 million, 6.5-acre Congo Gorilla Forest. Air
jets -- and a heating pad in front of the glass -- keep the apes close to
zoo-goers.
Worst Exhibit: The Bengali Express, a tram through 38 acres of the "Asian
Wild." Long waits, and hard-to-find tigers. Zoo plans a new tiger exhibit.
Most Recent Escape: A red panda hopped a wall in July. The barrier has
since been raised.


Dallas Zoo
Adults: $6
Children: $3
Overview: Loved the primates, but even the zoo concedes some exhibits need
an upgrade.
Most Popular Exhibit: The Wilds of Africa. Towering exhibit where chimps
use ropes to climb among giant cedars. The nature walk is worth a visit.
Worst Exhibit: Cat Row is this zoo's skid row, with chain-link fences and
cramped quarters. The giraffes and elephants don't have it much better.
Most Recent Escape: Judy the chimp, who wound up electrocuted on a power wire.



Lincoln Park Zoo
Chicago
Free
Overview: Charming and immaculate. Everybody looks happy, including the
animals.
Most Popular Exhibit: The Great Ape House. Featured in the movie "Return to
Me." Resident Kwan took a star turn as "Sydney" in the film.
Worst Exhibit: The children's zoo. Remarkably few animals, considering it's
a zoo.
Most Recent Escape: A white-lipped deer. The zoo blames it on the does next
door: "He was isolated."


Los Angeles Zoo
Adults: $8.25
Children: $3.25
Overview: The new exhibits highlight just how far the old ones have to go.
Most Popular Exhibit: Little Tanzania: the $5 million Chimpanzees of Mahale
Mountains exhibit, with rocks, grass and a waterfall.
Worst Exhibit: Billy the pachyderm. A mousy yard for an elephant of an
animal. He looked cramped.
Most Recent Escape: Evelyn the gorilla, earlier this month. She was out for
more than an hour.


National Zoological Park
Washington, D.C.
Free
Overview: The late pandas were a big selling point. We miss them.
Most Popular Exhibit: Think Tank, where orangutans demonstrate their
cognitive abilities on computers.
Worst Exhibit: The bears. Stark, fake-rock habitats with a few ragtag
weeds. "A high priority for future fund-raising," says a zoo spokesman.
Most Recent Escape: Junior, a 34-year-old orangutan, flew the coop this 
summer.


The Philadelphia Zoo
Adults: $10.50
Children (2-4): $6
Children (5-11): $8
Overview: Nice habitats, great signage. Exhibits have "look here" signs for
hard-to-spot animals.
Most Popular Exhibit: The new primate reserve, which rose from the ashes of
the old monkey house, where 24 residents died in a 1995 Christmas Eve fire.
Worst Exhibit: The rare mammal house. It stinks -- literally. The cages
look like latrines. The zoo is moving the animals out next month. Not soon
enough.
Most Recent Escape: In April, a cow (yes, you read that right) jumped a
fence -- since raised -- in the children's zoo.


San Diego Zoo
Adults: $18
Children: $8
Overview: Almost too big. Take the 30-minute bus tour before heading out on
foot.
Most Popular Exhibit: Its famed pandas. Hua Mei, the cub born in August
1999, is adorable, but don't count on seeing her. She spends a lot of time
behind bamboo leaves.
Worst Exhibit: The Monkey House, with cells so small that the zoo has
replaced some of the primates with (cute) rodents.
Most Recent Escape: A spot-nosed guenon (monkey) briefly got out last year.


San Francisco Zoo
Adults: $9
Children (3-11): $3
Children (12-17): $6
Overview: Our least favorite. It's dominated by grim old-style enclosures.
Most Popular Exhibit: The baby gorilla in Gorilla World -- if you can find
her. The exhibit is an acre of grassy mounds and rocky outcroppings.
Worst Exhibit: The other Alcatraz: three concrete islands that house chimps
and orangutans. (The zoo says it plans to build them a new home.)
Most Recent Escape: In 1995, a patas monkey literally climbed the walls to
get out. Hot wire has since been added.


Zoo Atlanta
Adults: $15
Children: $10
(half-price if the gorillas aren't out!)
Overview: Our favorite small zoo -- except for the branding. We could have
done without the Nabisco Endangered Species Carousel.
Worst Exhibit: The 1964 Reptile House. Harsh lights and overgrown
vegetation make it difficult to see the snakes. The last building dating
back to the "old" Atlanta zoo once ranked as one of America's worst.
Most Recent Escape: A porcupine. The zoo believes it unhooked the latch on
its cage -- and has since replaced the latch with a combination lock.