do you like correct english? I think that zoos for fill a very important role in conservation and informing the public, (and remember, knowing is half the battle!) some animals aren't fit for small city zoos, and it is often unethical to take animals from the wild and put them in zoos, but I see nothing wrong with zoos in of themselves!
I like zoo! I think the biggest problem is that we as humans have a species characteristic which is anthropomorphizing every other living creature. Zoos provide education, preservation, culture and leisure in nature. They are institutions of mutual gain. In many fields civilisation would have never evolved without them. Both civilisation and animals still need them. Perhaps not forever but still for long.
A lot of people forget - many wild animals (especially nocturnal ones) spend their time asleep in a small, enclosed area like a cave, a den, a burrow, a tree hollow etc. Hix
This is true. Even my own pet dogs dig crater type dens in the backyard that you might see in the enclosures for wolves, etc. Very little spaces in the dirt with a wall, very basic
I presume you are talking about the former CEO of Singapore zoo, originator of the night safari, and internationally regarded zoo director
from what i gather from the net , he is the man behind the success of singapore zoo . is he the one who create open concept zoo ? or is it david hancooks ? is david hancocks the one that started the so called immersion exhibit ??? carl hagenback who create moat exhibits ? so what make bernard harrison different from them . so what is different between immersion , moats and open zoo concept ?
Moats and ha-ha were first used to contain or exclude animals by 18th Century English landscape gardener Capacity Brown in his designs for the grounds of the country homes of the aristocracy. Carl Hagenback Jr. used moats extensively his new zoo in Hamburg in 1907. If the definition of an "open zoo" is one without barred enclosures, then this zoo can be considered the first. However it is probably more famous for it's "dioramas" whereby moats were used to separate predators and prey, but display them in a way that seemed to show them occupying the same space. In my personal opinion I think that while Singapore Zoo is an excellent zoo, it is fairly conventional for it's time. To be sure moats are used extensively and there are no fenced or barred cages but by the time it was established this was standard procedure in much new zoo construction around the world. As a new zoo, it had the advantage of no legacy of outdated enclosures. Not that this is a comment on Bernard Harrison, in that he arrived a decade after the zoo was established. I think Bernard Harrison's most innovative contribution is the Night Safari. Singapore Zoo is not however an immersion zoo. The concept of the immersion exhibit was indeed originated by David Hancocks while he was Director of Woodlands Park Zoo, working with the Seattle landscape architects Jones & Jones, including Jon Coe. It should be remembered that all the above relate to human conceptions of zoos. Exhibits that look fantastic to humans can be terrible for animals and the other way round of course.
It should be remembered that all the above relate to human conceptions of zoos. Exhibits that look fantastic to humans can be terrible for animals and the other way round of course.[/QUOTE] I agree with this statement, 100% i always feel a bit sorry for gibbons who are liberated from large but barred cages to islands with a few trees or more likely trunks and ropes, visitors feel happy it's out in the open but I'm sure the gibbon feels at a loss without the bars to swing around, it has lost an extra dimension to it's envirenment, only really to please the visitor. just my opinion
The same for Orangs. Having said that, I've seen Orangs with great trees to climb that prefer to sit on the ground pulling up grass, and siamangs that do the same. Hix
To find those who were genuinely first with something often requires looking beyond the "given"...for instance the French naturalist Lacepede came up with the notion of a "ruralized ", even immersive, zoo 8o years{!] before Hagenbeck opened his place just outside of Hamburg[at the time]...And what is "immersion" anyway?-isn't it just the extension of a Hagenbeckian exhibit to the public area?.Ive been to Woodland Park and its an excellent zoo but as I peered at the Gorillas through glass windows from a mock cave with pushchairs nipping my ankles I couldn't have been further from the Congo or any concept of being near Africa at all..and im certain other visitors felt the same.And why isn't Berlins crocodile jungle dating from 1913 immersive then?[of course it is].
And with regard to Bernard Harrison check out the book "The First 21 Years,The Singapore Zoological Gardens Story" although he is given little credit it in for night safari i think we can safely say that the nocturnal zoo was a genuine "first"[and an idea im astounded has never been copied in the west-Florida would be good for instance].By the way MRJ,its CAPABILITY Brown NOT Capacity...that was his brother- famous for designing sports stadiums!
To be more precise, the idea for Night Safari singapore came from Lyn de Alwis, former director of Dehiwala Zoo in Sri Lanka and advisor to Singapore Zoo then. Harrison and team turned it into reality though.
Yes quite correct. It was lyn de Alwis's initial idea to base the night safari on Tiger Tops, a 5 star lodge in Chitwan national park, Nepal
