Life at the Zoo : Behind the Scenes with the Animal Doctors

by Robinson, Phillip T.

• ISBN13: 9780231132497
• ISBN10: 0231132492
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2007-04-01
• Publisher: Columbia Univ Pr

Summary

Please Do NotAnnoy, torment, pester, plague, molest, worry, badger, harry, persecute, irk, bullyrag, vex, disquiet, grate, beset, bother, tease, nettle, tantalize or ruffle the Animals. -- sign at zooSince the early days of traveling menageries and staged attractions that included animal acts, balloon ascents, and pyrotechnic displays, zoos have come a long way. The Ménagerie du Jardin des Plantes in Paris, founded in 1793, didn't offer its great apes lessons in parenting or perform dental surgery on leopards. Certainly the introduction of veterinary care in the nineteenth century -- and its gradual integration into the twentieth -- has had much to do with this. Today, we expect more of zoos as animal welfare concerns have escalated along with steady advances in science, medicine, and technology. Life at the Zoois an eminent zoo veterinarian's personal account of the challenges presented by the evolution of zoos and the expectations of their visitors. Based on fifteen years of work at the world-famous San Diego Zoo, this charming book reveals the hazards and rewards of running a modern zoo.Zoos exist outside of the "natural" order in which the worlds of humans and myriad exotic animals would rarely, if ever, collide. But this unlikely encounter is precisely why today's zoos remain the sites of much humor, confusion, and, occasionally, danger. This book abounds with insights on wildlife (foulmouthed parrots, gum-chewing chimps, stinky flamingoes), human behavior (the fierce competition for zookeeper jobs, the well-worn shtick of tour guides), and the casualties -- both animal and human -- of ignorance and carelessness. Phillip Robinson shows how animal exhibits are developed and how illnesses are detected and describes the perils of working around dangerous creatures. From escaping the affections of a leopard that thought he was a lap cat to training a gorilla to hold her newborn baby gently (instead of scrubbing the floor with it) and from operating on an anesthetized elephant ("I had the insecure sensation of working under a large dump truck with a wobbly support jack") to figuring out why a zoo's polar bears were turning green in color, Life at the Zootells irresistible stories about zoo animals and zoo people.

Table of Contents

Preface David Waltner-Toews

Some theoretical bases for a new ecosystem approach

An Introduction to Systems Thinking

Framing the Situation: Developing a system description

Scale and type: a requirement for addressing complexity with dynamical quality

Self-Organizing

So what changes? Implications of complexity for an ecosystem approach to management

Bridging Science and Values: The Challenge of Biodiversity

The cultural basis for an ecosystem approach

A Family of Origin for an Ecosystem Approach to Managing for Sustainability

Case studies: Learning by Doing

Linking hard and soft systems in local development Reg Noble

Human Activity and the Ecosystem Approach: The contribution of Soft Systems Methodology to managing the Cooum River in Chennai

Landscape Perspectives on Agroecosystem Health in the Great Lakes Basin

An Agroecosystem Health case study in the Central Highlands of Kenya Thomas Gitau

Food, by Floods and Farming: an Ecosystem Approach to Human Health on the Peruvian Amazon frontier Tamsyn Murray

Managing for Sustainability: Meeting the Challenges

Implementing an Ecosystem Approach: The Diamond and AMESH

Return to Kathmandu: A Post-Hoc Application of AMESH Cynthia Neudoerffer

Tools for Learning: monitoring and indicator development

Where to from here? Some challenges for a new science in an uncertain world

Beyond complex systems - Emergent complexity and social solidarity

Third World inequity, by critical political economy and an ecosystem approach

An Ecosystem Approach for sustaining ecological integrity--but which ecological integrity? David Manuel-Navarrete

The water or the wave? Toward an ecosystem approach for cross-cultural dialogue on the Whanganui River

Index

Table of Contents provided by Publisher. All Rights Reserved.