I’ve struggled to enjoy nonfiction about animals again, but this one was an easy and engaging read. The author, who works with elephants in the wild, visits the Atlanta zoo with a photographer. She got a tour behind the scenes, learning from zoo keepers and curators how the animals are cared for and studied. She gets to see pandas up close (including two adorable twin cubs), learning how the male was part of an experiment about his reaction to the scents of females, and the importance of mother pandas’ socialization with their young. At the elephant enclosure she saw how the two resident elephants had issues with their dominance structure since the recent loss of a third elephant. The newly-dominant elephant was harassing and stealing food from the other. They devised a method of feeding them in a widely scattered area, then narrowing the “circle of love” made of hay each day, until the elephants were feeding more peacefully close to each other again. Observing the gorillas, there was one female gorilla who wouldn’t let her youngster out of her sight, even though he was months older than the other infants kept in-arms. A nervous “helicopter mom” who affected her son’s ability to explore and gain independence. With the meerkats she learned how tight their social bonds are, that if one is separated from the group- even if just for a day- it is never let back in again. So when one meerkat had to receive veterinary care, they all went to the clinic together (it was actually easier that way). In the reptile house she saw how dangerous snakes are handled, and watched a training session with a young komodo dragon- which would follow a target in order to get food. They’re so fast and agile. Really interesting to me was that komodo dragons tend to have a shorter lifespan in captivity. For other animals- the meerkats for example- it’s usually doubled, since they face so much risk in the wild. But the komodo dragon tends to overeat in captivity- in the wild they would normally go weeks between feeds- so this zoo was trying a new method raising the young komodo, feeding it less frequently (but then it was quite excitable when the feeding time did arrive. Thus the training).
Orangutans and some of the other apes showed their smarts, using a computer touchscreen with a game or task on it, to earn food rewards. Some of them were part of a study to see how they compared quantities, represented in dots on a screen (like dice markings). And the flamingos showed off their courtship displays, performing ritual movements as a group. I found that part pretty interesting, especially the asides about a different study outside the zoo (in British Virgin Islands) where flamingoes were encouraged to breed by using decoys that made the colony seem larger (they need minimum of seventeen birds in a group to start breeding behavior).
There’s more about other animals, too- hornbills, tigers, lions and tamarins, etc.- but these were the ones I remember clearly. The photos are good, the explanations easy to understand but not overly simple, and the stories plenty interesting. One part is about a half day she spent following the zoo veterinarian on rounds, learning how much zoo vet science has improved in the past decades, with far less need for tranquilizing shots, since many animals are now trained through positive reinforcement to present the part of their body that needs treatment, or enter a holding enclosure for example.
Some parts of the text felt repetitive- the highlighted boxes around pictures pretty much repeating what the main body paragraph already said- seemed it could have used a bit more editing. But overall, a really nice book to read with great insights into how the zoo works, how it keeps the animals healthy and emotionally well, and what is learned from them.
Borrowed from the public library.
