Modern-day Menageries Help Link Man And Nature Zoos All Around The United States Have Turned To Housing Their Animals In Open-air Native Habitats Instead Of Cages. In Fact, A `Participatory Experience` Might Be Included Next Time You Visit A Large Zoo.

March 30, 1986|Jeffrey P. Cohn is a Washington, D.C. writer who specializes in animal and conservation issues.

Zoos are great places. Where else in our crowded urban landscape can we see and learn about wildlife, briefly escape the sights and sounds of the city and introduce our children to wild animals face-to-face? If zoos did not exist, we would have to invent them.

This was not always the case. Not long ago, many zoos kept their animals in small cages and had only a few from as many species as possible. The professional level of staffs was often poor, and few animals lived long or reproduced in captivity.

Fortunately, most zoos have changed, due primarily to the realization that many animals were disappearing from the wild, along with their habitats. Also, public awareness of the role of zoos in wildlife conservation and the desire to see animals in as real a setting as possible has increased.

With this in mind, most zoos have replaced sterile cages with large, natural enclosures that suggest an animal`s native habitat. Further, they now display animals in their natural family or social groups. And zoos have become breeding centers for many species now rare or extinct in the wild.

Perhaps even more important, zoos have become our link to a natural world few of us ever see. ``Zoos are a great resource,`` says Michael Robinson, director of the National Zoo in Washington, D.C. ``We build a sense of wonder and respect. People should go away from a visit to the zoo with an appreciation of how complex, diverse and endangered wild animals are.``

Good zoos have replaced traditional cat, primate, elephant or reptile and amphibian houses with animals grouped by geographic area or biological zone. The idea is to show relationships between species living in the same region or in similar areas in different parts of the world.

Facilities as diverse as the Bronx Zoo, the Metrozoo in Miami and the Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle have re-created African plains. None, however, have done so on a grander scale than the San Diego Wild Animal Park, an 1,800- acre extension of the San Diego Zoo 30 miles north of the city. Here, herds of zebras, wildebeest, giraffes, eland and gazelles mingle freely, much as they do in the wild. Nearby but separated by hidden barriers are lions and cheetahs, their natural predators.

Meanwhile, the Bronx Zoo has crafted a South American pampa, whose dwellers include rheas (large, flightless birds), peccaries (piglike animals), guanacos (a camel-like relative of the llama) and cavies (burrowing rodents that look like jackrabbits but really are large guinea pigs).

The Minnesota Zoo, 20 minutes south of Minneapolis-St. Paul, has created an unusual ``northern trail`` exhibit focusing on animals and settings from the world`s northlands. Visitors view wildlife that live in climates similar to that of Minnesota. In the winter, the snow-encrusted forest exhibit is home for the zoo`s 17 Siberian tigers, the world`s largest cat. Herds of pronghorn antelope, elks and American bison roam near the burrows of a prairie dog town.


In contrast with such large outdoor exhibits, many zoos have re-created tropical rain forests indoors. Chicago`s Brookfield Zoo, for example, houses some 20 species of animals and thousands of plants from West Africa in an area the size of 1 1/2 football fields. Visitors traverse a rough trail gutted with tire tracks and hedged in by bamboo thickets and steep cliffs. At the San Diego Wild Animal Park, a 10-acre exhibit brings an Australian rain forest to life. Koalas, kangaroos and wallabies abound. Rushing waterfalls and automatic sprinklers keep the humidity high for native Australian plants and lend authenticity to the rain forest.

Some zoos are noted for their one-of-a-kind exhibits or for specializing in certain animals. Who would go to the National Zoo without seeing the giant pandas or visit Chicago`s Lincoln Park Zoo and miss the gorillas, chimpanzees and orangutans? Who would bypass the Cincinnati Zoo`s world of insects, one of the few exhibits to show nature`s most abundant creatures?

The Washington Park Zoo in Portland, Ore., has become famous for its elephants and has built a far-ranging education, research and conservation program around the beasts. It is the only U.S. zoo to successfully breed Asiatic elephants.

Some zoos specialize in animals closer to home. The best of these, the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum near Tucson, displays only animals and plants native to the deserts of southern Arizona, southeastern California and northern Mexico. By so doing, it helps dispel the notion that deserts are barren places.

Zoos also are becoming increasingly participatory experiences. Many zoos feature ``zoo labs`` where the young and young at heart can touch a crocodile`s leathery skin or examine a hippo`s skull. Specially designed games, quizzes and books introduce animals and wildlife conservation efforts to children.

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