Description
Book SynopsisThis book is a provocative and reflective examination of the relationship between zoos and the wild. It gathers a premier set of multidisciplinary voices to consider the possibilities and challenges of making zoos wilder.
Trade ReviewWhat are zoos for, and what should they be like? In the Anthropocene era, long-held distinctions between human and natural, managed and wild are blurring.
A Wilder Kingdom asks how zoos might be reimagined to represent and support wild nature. This delightful and diverse book offers thoughtful and challenging ideas for the future of zoos in an increasingly human-dominated natural world. -- Bill Adams, Claudio Segré Professor of Conservation and Development, Geneva Graduate Institute
A Wilder Kingdom is a thought-provoking, informative, and enjoyable read. The well-crafted essays, written by authors with a wide range of perspectives, backgrounds, and expertise, will appeal to anyone interested in nature, animal welfare, zoos, wild landscapes, and the human interactions with all of these. -- Marty Crump, coauthor of
Women in Field Biology: A Journey into NatureThis remarkable collection of essays addresses the shifting and conflicted missions of zoos in the modern world. The central theme of the chapters is the possibility of enhancing the experience of wildness for zoo animals and visitors. Along the way, the authors address a host of fascinating questions. For example, what would a wilder zoo look like? Is a baby rhino who was conceived via in vitro fertilization a wild animal? Can zoos prepare animals for life in the wild? This book changed the way I think about zoos, and I suspect it will pave the way for the zoos of the future. -- Hal Herzog, author of
Some We Love, Some We Hate, Some We Eat: Why It’s So Hard To Think Straight About Animals Table of Contents1. Zoos and the Wild: A Reconsideration, by Ben A. Minteer and Harry W. Greene
2. Between Worlds: A Conversation Among the Cranes, by Curt Meine
3. Animal Art and the Changing Meanings of the Wild, by Alison Hawthorne Deming
4. Can Zoos Connect People with Wildness?, by Susan Clayton
5. “Wild” Through an American Indian Historical Analysis, by Kelsey Dayle John and Reva Mariah ShieldChief
6. Toward a Wilder Kin-Dom: Why Zoos Must Focus More on Ecological Interactions (with Our Children and Other Biota) Than on Isolated Species, by Gary Paul Nabhan
7. This Is a Zoo? Reflections on a Wilder Zoo by Visitors to the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, by Debra Colodner, Craig Ivanyi, and Cassandra Lyon
8. Evolution to the Rescue: Natural Selection Can Help Captive Populations Adapt to a Changing World, by Jonathan B. Losos
9. Zoo Dogs, by Clive D. L. Wynne and Holly G. Molinaro
10. Zoo Time, by Nigel Rothfels
11. The Microbial Zoo: How Small Is Wild?, by Irus Braverman
12. A Home for the Wild: Architecture in the Zoo, by Natascha Meuser
13. Reconnecting Zoos to the Wild and Rethinking Dignity in Animal Conservation, by Joseph R. Mendelson III
14. Seeing the Wild in Zoos by Seeing the Humans Too, by Amanda Stronza
15. The Once and Future Rhino, by Michelle Nijhuis
Postscript: On Wildness and Responsibility, by Ben A. Minteer and Harry W. Greene
Acknowledgments
List of Contributors
Index
