LIFEBOATS TO ARARAT
By
Like the equally affable Gerald Durrell, Sheldon Campbell is firmly committed to captive breeding as regular zoo policy, and here the San Diego Zoo trustee tells why. Using vignettes from his own zoo and others, he demonstrates how zoos, with a long legacy of animal mistreatment, can revise their traditional role as entertainment centers and perform a larger service in educating the public and attempting the continuation of endangered species. Along the way he offers several amusing stories--the bear who tunneled into the tiger's grotto, a lemur who was kidnapped--and some seamier incidents as well: the Philadelphia Reptile Exchange's international smuggling caper, a zoo-world Watergate. He also confirms Hayes' observation (in The Last Place on Earth, 1977) on the extent of rivalries among zoo honchos, and grazes over several contemporary trends and discoveries. Welcome aboard.