Animal Shows on the Rise in Nation’s Zoos

Even while zoo directors around the country say they are trying to move away from circus gimmickry and toward bona fide, educational displays and exhibits of wildlife, there is an increase of trained animal shows.

Jeanne Segal, director of interpretive services at the Philadelphia Zoo, the nation’s oldest, studied the subject of animal shows in a questionnaire she sent out last year.

Of the 90 zoos that responded, 80% said they have some type of animal show, 6% said they were going to begin offering them and none said they planned to drop their shows. A third of the zoos said they had begun offering animal shows only in the last five years.

Both the Los Angeles Zoo and San Diego Zoo have recently finished construction of new animal show theaters.

Despite the trend, there still is wariness within the zoo community toward animal shows.

“We do not involve the animals in any activities that deviate from their natural behavior repertory, nor display them in ways that compromise their integrity,� stated the response from the Woodland Park Zoo.

The reply from Boston’s Franklin Park Zoo acknowledged that “some (of the) staff is violently opposed to any handling of the animals, even by keepers who are trained.� The Sacramento Zoo said it was wary of becoming “too circusy.�

Some zoos, Segal said, quibbled over the use of the word “show,� preferring instead to call them “lectures,� “seminars,� “educational messages� or “demonstrations.�

One zoo reported that it put on 20 programs each day, using 60 animals. The programs were “part of an integrated approach to teaching natural history,� the zoo wrote Segal. However, the zoo officials added emphatically, they “ never put on shows and do not anticipate doing so.�

One director told Segal he supported shows “as long as they were tasteful,� and added, “whatever that means.�

Segal said animal shows are justified by some zoo executives as a way of “seducing� the public to visit the zoo. Some zoo executives say the shows help in conservation efforts.

“A zoo director reminded me that it was not too long ago that killer whales were senselessly slaughtered as vermin of the sea,� Segal wrote. “He maintains that even the ‘Shamu Goes to College’ routine is justified in that it creates a personal bond between killer whales and their audiences. The results of this bond could easily translate into a condemnation of the destruction of these animals in the wild.�

Some zoo critics say traveling exhibits are little better than animal shows because they also are “circusy� and exploitative of the animal.

“The suggestion was made that it is perhaps financial pressure and accelerated competition with other forms of entertainment that have forced some of us to take up practices that may eventually result in embarrassment to our profession,� Segal said.

Such questions aside, exotic shows can be money makers. When two giant pandas from China were loaned to the Los Angeles Zoo for three months last year, attendance at the zoo increased by about 400,000.

And in Miami, attendance at the Metrozoo doubled for three days when Spanish mime Alberto Vidal staged his popular--and somewhat controversial--�Urban Man� traveling show, in which he sleeps, shaves, eats, works and enjoys a cocktail within the confines of an otherwise typical zoo exhibit, much to the amusement of zoo visitors.

Animal trainers say they have toned down the nature of their shows over the years to better reflect the animals’ behavior, playing down artificial showmanship.

Larry Clifford, head trainer at the San Diego Zoo, says his sea lions no longer balance balls on their noses--but a new show will have them balancing a fishing net float and a soda pop bottle on their noses and dumping them into a trash can. “It’s part of an ecology sequence we’re working on,� he said.

How natural is it for a sea lion to balance a pop bottle? “In the wild, they balance fish they’ve caught. So we’ve trained them to balance something else so we can send home an ecology message at the same time.�

At San Diego Zoo’s new Hunte Amphitheater for Animal Behavior, raccoons will knock over trash cans; an African goat will climb up steep, narrow stairs; birds will fly onstage on cue, and a skunk will appear, on cue, out of a tree stump. But you won’t find any acting chimpanzees.

“Chimps live in a society where physical dominance plays a very significant role,� said Clifford. “ . . . by their very nature, you have to abuse them in order to get them to respond to you. We don’t want anything to do with that, and if you ever see a chimp on stage, I can show you a neurotic chimp.�

At the San Diego Wild Animal Park, trainer Alan Roocroft has his elephants sitting up, doing headstands and rearing up on their hind legs. But each behavior, he says, reflects what elephants do in the wild--sitting on a log to scratch its hindquarters, butting with its head to ward off an attacking tiger or knock down a tree, and standing up to reach mangoes high on a tree.

Roocroft’s elephants play the harmonica, too. “It shows the versatility of the trunk and how it will cooperate with the trainer.�

Clifford and others acknowledge the fine line between entertainment and displaying animal behavior. “But I can’t take an animal onstage and tell the crowd I’m going to teach them something,� Clifford said, “because everyone will walk away. We have to show natural behaviors in exciting ways.�

Of the need to entertain zoo visitors, Los Angeles Zoo director Dr. Warren Thomas said, “You can be such a purist that you purist yourself right out of business. Unless people have a positive experience, they won’t come back. You can have such an esoteric zoo that the only people who will appreciate you are other zoo people.�