National Zoo staff work in a variety of ways to fight the uphill battle to save biodiversity. Recently, a number of Zoo experts have gone to press with their ideas, writing, co-writing, and editing natural history books. Below you will find a list and summaries of six new titles.
Zoo
Animals: An Illustrated Guide to More Than 250 Animals from
Around the World.
1995. Michael H. Robinson and David
Challinor. Macmillan U.S.A. 256 pp. softbound, $18.
Zoo Director Michael H. Robinson and David Challinor, senior scientist emeritus at the Smithsonian Institution, put their zoological expertise and travel experience together in a colorful guide to zoos and the variety of creatures that live in them. The book is broken down into a section on the new role zoos play in conservation and education, followed by seven sections on habitats--from rainforest to tundra--that examine biodiversity by biome and present color photos of some animals typical of these habitats. In the back of the book, an illustrated glossary of biological terms and maps of 18 top North American zoos provide incentives for the armchair zoogoer to strike out on the animal trail.
Tigers.
1996. John Seidensticker. Voyageur
Press. 72 pp. softbound, $14.95.
"Today, there remain only a few small tracts where we can hope to maintain the vestige of an Asian wildlife heritage, where the tiger can remain part of wild Asia in the face of ever more people and their need for land," writes Zoo Curator of Mammals John Seidensticker in his new book on tigers. Jungle Book antagonist, baseball and petroleum mascot...the tiger's might is well respected in our culture. But as Seidensticker points out, tigers have had an even more profound effect on religions and cultures in their native Asia, where they are disappearing. Tigers provides a solid introduction to the world of the tiger--its family life, predatory role, conservation, and what we have learned about this elusive striped predator. Vivid color photographs accompany the text.
New
Worlds, New Animals: From Menagerie to Zoological Park in
the 19th Century.
1996. Edited by R.J. Hoage and William
A. Deiss. The Johns Hopkins University Press. 198 pp. softbound,
$15.95.
The purpose of zoos has repeatedly changed over the years. Likewise, the zoos themselves have undergone major transformations. In this look at the history of zoos worldwide--with particular emphasis on the growth of zoos in the 19th century--R.J. Hoage, chief of the office of public affairs at the National Zoo and Smithsonian Associate Archivist William A. Deiss have compiled essays on zoos from India to Germany, Australia to Washington, D.C. The authors trace zoos from early ego-driven collections of curiosities to the research-, education-, and conservation-oriented institutions of today. Black-and-white archive photos and drawings illustrate the text, and two appendices explore the value of archival zoo photographs and the architecture of the National Zoo.
Wild
Mammals in Captivity: Principles and Techniques.
1996. Edited by Devra G. Kleiman,
Mary E. Allen, Katerina V. Thompson, and Susan Lumpkin. (Holly
Harris, Managing Editor.) The University of Chicago Press.
639 pp. hardbound, $70.
This new work is the quintessential "how to zoo" book--a bible for zoo operators. Conservation issues, animal welfare concerns, nutritional requirements, reproduction, behavior, research, and exhibitry: All of these important topics are given detailed treatment. A dream team of zoo biologists--more than 30 of them current or former National Zoo staff and students--contributed chapters to this book, sharing their decades of observation, study, and field and zoo experience. Appendices round out the book with information on the evolution of mammals, wildlife regulations relating to zoos, an annotated bibliography, inter-zoo breeding loans, and record-keeping. The preparation of this book, which occupied its National Zoo editors for nearly 10 years, was supported in part by FONZ.
Bring
Back the Birds: What You Can Do to Save Threatened Species.
1995. Russell Greenberg and Jamie
Reaser. Stackpole Books. 312 pp. softbound, $19.95.
In this treatise on the many problems facing North America's Neotropical migrants, authors Russell Greenberg, director of the Zoo's Migratory Bird Center, and Jamie Reaser, an AAAS Fellow at the US State Department in the Biodiversity Program, take a similarly multi-faceted approach. Their book introduces the dangers birds brave when migrating from North American nesting grounds to points south, then suggests ways readers can make a difference, from becoming active voices for conservation to making their backyards migratory bird stopovers. The last portion of the book is devoted to profiles of 157 North American bird species, summarizing their diets, winter and breeding ranges, habits, and habitats. Also included are directories of national and international conservation organizations that work with migratory bird issues, and short reflections from such budding bird conservationists as Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter.
The
Ecology of Migrant Birds: A Neotropical Perspective.
1995. John H. Rappole. Smithsonian
Institution Press. 269 pp. hardbound, $35.
This work on migrant birds--their biology and conservation--presents an expanded and updated treatment of a topic the author and his colleagues have been shedding light on for more than 15 years. Initially, author John H. Rappole, now a research biologist at the Zoo's Conservation and Research Center, and his colleagues Eugene Morton, Thomas Lovejoy, and Jim Ruos published the information they could gather on Neotropical migrants in Nearctic Avian Migrants in the Neotropics, a U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service publication printed in 1983. Since then, many new details have emerged from expanded field studies in both the New World tropics and North America. The Ecology of Migrant Birds fills in many of the gaps. Though more technical than Bring Back the Birds (described above), this book is a great read for anyone curious about how birds migrate, and what their future might be.
(ZooGoer 26(1) 1997.Copyright 1997 Friends of the National Zoo. All rights reserved.)
