WATCHING THEM GROW: Inside a Zoo Nursery

by Joan Hewett ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 25, 1980

It's probably impossible not to love a pygmy chimp,"" says San Diego Zoo nursery attendant Loretta Owens, who is shown here taking tender care of charges Kalind (the pygmy chimp), Lock and Lisa (orangutan twins), Drainola (a tiny spider monkey whose mother abandoned him on the drain), and an aardvark (the seventh so far) known as A-Seven. (""You get pretty giddy thinking up aardvark names,"" says Laura, who calls them all Piggy.) Hewett begins astutely, with a promise of behind-the-scenes intimacy: ""It's 6:30 P.M. The zoo is closed. The thousands of people who visit the zoo every day have left. The keepers have finished feeding the animals; they too are gone. . . ."" Moving on through logbooklike entries, she shows Loretta caring for and talking to her charges, describes some of the animals' tricks and new achievements, and works in some relevant information on the species' different behavior in the wild and in captivity. (""Aardvark mothers in captivity almost always desert their newborn babies. No one knows what causes this strange behavior."" Or, ""Orangutans are born with a powerful clinging instinct and powerfully strong arms and hands to cling with. In the wild. . . an infant clings to its mother,"" but in the nursery Lock and Lisa must be mittened at first to protect them from their own flailing arms and long sharp claws.) The only disappointment is that at times the photos only roughly match the text; small episodes dramatically envisioned in words are not caught in the pictures, and in general a little more action and fewer close-ups of cute faces might have picked this up toward the end. However, those who share even some of Loretta's fondness for animals and babies will delight in the many appealing mug shots and day-to-day views they do get.

Pub Date: Oct. 25, 1980

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Little, Brown

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1980

Categories: NONFICTION