One of the remarkable things about zoos is that change is a part of their fundamental nature. That’s not surprising after all, they deal with life, in contrast to an art museum where the purpose is to exhibit the work of an artist in a rather static fashion. It’s not expected to change and they spend a lot of time making sure that it doesn’t. One of the reasons that municipalities and other kinds of government must consider so carefully when they take on the responsibility of a zoo is that it is dealing with life. All of its exhibits die. They must reproduce. This is a very, very fundamental key, not only to what zoos are and what people are committing themselves to when they seek to create a zoo, or hope to support one, but also to the future, just as the paintings and sculpture in a fine art museum do not die, they do not reproduce. The animals in a zoo do reproduce if they’re well-managed.
