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Acclimatisation Societies of New Zealand

10,000 Birds

New Zealand has a very odd biota these days. There are the endemics, which are odd in their own way, and then there introduced species, which are so varied in their type and origin that you get the feeling you’ve arrived at the aftermath of a small zoo that escaped. If New Zealand had a poor fauna, they would enrich it.

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When conservation and animal rights collide

10,000 Birds

One of the first examples I ever encountered was in the books of Gerald Durrell, the famous conservationist who was an early pioneer of the roles of zoos in conservation. He often defended that role in his books from animal rights activists who opposed “imprisoning” animals in zoos even if it saved them from extinction.

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The Emotional Lives of Animals

4 The Love Of Animals

Donna Fernandes, president of the Buffalo Zoo, witnessed a wake for a female gorilla, Babs, who had died of cancer at Boston’s Franklin Park Zoo. He never chased the rabbits, squirrels, chipmunks, or deer who regularly visited. Over the years Jethro approached rabbits as if they should be his friends, but they usually fled.

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