A close-up look at the contradictions and wonders of the modern zoo Orangutans swing from Kevlar-lined fire hoses. Giraffes feast on celebratory birthday cakes topped with carrots instead of candles. Hi-tech dinosaur robots growl among steel trees, while owls watch animated cartoons on old television sets. In American Zoo, sociologist David Grazian takes us on a safari through the contemporary zoo, alive with its many contradictions and strange wonders. Trading in his tweed jacket for a zoo uniform and a pair of muddy work boots, Grazian introduces us to zookeepers and animal rights activists, parents and toddlers, and the other human primates that make up the zoo's social world. He shows that in a major shift away from their unfortunate pasts, American zoos today emphasize naturalistic exhibits teeming with lush and immersive landscapes, breeding programs for endangered animals, and enrichment activities for their captive creatures. In doing so, zoos blur the imaginary boundaries we regularly use to separate culture from nature, humans from animals, and civilization from the wild. At the same time, zoos manage a wilderness of competing priorities—animal care, education, scientific research, and recreation—all while attempting to serve as centers for conservation in the wake of the current environmental and climate-change crisis. The world of the zoo reflects how we project our own prejudices and desires onto the animal kingdom, and invest nature with meaning and sentiment. A revealing portrayal of comic animals, delighted children, and feisty zookeepers, American Zoo is a remarkable close-up exploration of a classic cultural attraction.

This report follows up on an interim report released in February 2004 that focused on immediate needs in the areas of animal care and management, recordkeeping, and pest control. The report finds that the zoo has made good-faith efforts to correct deficiencies noted in the interim report and has made some noticeable improvements in the past year in zoo operations and animal care. However, problems in areas such as staff training, workplace culture, and strategic planning still need to be addressed. Specifically, the report recommends that the zoo immediately develop and implement animal-care training programs to ensure that people who are directly responsible for the well-being of its animal collection are adequately prepared and competent. The report commends a zoo-initiated strategic planning process as a positive step, but recommends it contain a more detailed, comprehensive strategy of how it will meet short-term goals and that it should link plans to upgrade facilities with those to acquire animals. The zoo should also focus on improving communication among keepers, veterinarians, nutritionists, senior managers, and curators.

Why do we feel bad at the zoo? In a fascinating counterhistory of American zoos in the 1960s and 1970s, Lisa Uddin revisits the familiar narrative of zoo reform, from naked cages to more naturalistic enclosures. She argues that reform belongs to the story of cities and feelings toward many of their human inhabitants. In Zoo Renewal, Uddin demonstrates how efforts to make the zoo more natural and a haven for particular species reflected white fears about the American city—and, pointedly, how the shame many visitors felt in observing confined animals drew on broader anxieties about race and urban life. Examining the campaign against cages, renovations at the National Zoo in Washington, D.C. and the San Diego Zoo, and the cases of a rare female white Bengal tiger and a collection of southern white rhinoceroses, Uddin unpacks episodes that challenge assumptions that zoos are about other worlds and other creatures and expand the history of U.S. urbanism. Uddin shows how the drive to protect endangered species and to ensure larger, safer zoos was shaped by struggles over urban decay, suburban growth, and the dilemmas of postwar American whiteness. In so doing, Zoo Renewal ultimately reveals how feeling bad, or good, at the zoo is connected to our feelings about American cities and their residents.

Get the latest advances in zoo and wild animal medicine in one invaluable reference! Written by internationally recognized experts, Fowler's Zoo and Wild Animal Medicine: Current Therapy, Volume 10 provides a practical guide to the latest research and clinical management of captive and free-ranging wild animals. For each animal, coverage includes topics such as biology, anatomy and special physiology, reproduction, restraint and handling, housing requirements, nutrition and feeding, surgery and anesthesia, diagnostics, and treatment protocols. New topics in this edition include holistic treatments, antibiotic resistance in aquariums, non-invasive imaging for amphibians, emerging reptile viruses, and African ground hornbill medicine, in addition to giant anteater medicine, Brucella in marine animals, and rhinoceros birth parameters. With coverage of many subjects where information has not been readily available, Fowler's is a resource you don't want to be without. - Fowler's Current Therapy format ensures that each volume in the series covers all-new topics with timely information on current topics of interest in the field. - Focused coverage offers just the right amount of depth — often fewer than 10 pages in a chapter — which makes the material easier to access and easier to understand. - General taxon-based format covers all terrestrial vertebrate taxa plus selected topics on aquatic and invertebrate taxa. - Updated information from the Zoological Information Management System (ZIMS) includes records from their growing database for 2.3 million animals (374,000 living) and 23,000 taxa, which can serve as a basis for new research. - Expert, global contributors include authors from the U.S. and 25 other countries, each representing trends in their part of the world, and each focusing on the latest research and clinical management of captive and free-ranging wild animals. - NEW! All-new topics and contributors ensure that this volume addresses the most current issues relating to zoo and wild animals. - NEW! Content on emerging diseases includes topics such as COVID-19, rabbit hemorrhagic disease, yellow fever in South American primates, monitoring herpesviruses in multiple species, and canine distemper in unusual species. - NEW! Emphasis on management includes coverage of diversity in zoo and wildlife medicine. - NEW! Panel of international contributors includes, for the first time, experts from Costa Rica, Estonia, Ethiopia, India, Norway, and Singapore, along with many other countries. - NEW! Enhanced eBook version is included with each print purchase, providing a fully searchable version of the entire text and access to all of its text, figures, and references.

Based on 15 years of work at the world-famous San Diego Zoo, this charming book is an eminent zoo veterinarians personal account of the challenges, hazards, and rewards of running a modern zoo.

Zoo Animal and Wildlife Immobilization and Anesthesia, Second Edition is a fully updated and revised version of the first comprehensive reference on anesthetic techniques in captive and free-ranging wildlife. Now including expanded coverage of avian and aquatic species, this exhaustive resource presents information on the full range of zoo and wildlife species. Covering topics ranging from monitoring and field anesthesia to CPR and euthanasia, the heart of the book is devoted to 53 species-specific chapters providing a wealth of information on little-known and common zoo and wildlife animals alike. In addition to new species chapters, the new edition brings a new focus on pain management, including chronic pain, and more information on species-specific physiology. Chapters on airway management, monitoring, emergency therapeutics, and field procedures are all significantly expanded as well. This update to Zoo Animal and Wildlife Immobilization and Anesthesia is an invaluable addition to the library of all zoo and wildlife veterinarians.