I’d like to comment on Eric Rumple’s op-ed piece regarding permanent closure of Hogle Zoo. Close the zoo, and replace it with video screens? Really? I hope not.
I’ve been a working research biologist for nearly 50 years, a serious nature photographer for almost that long, and a lover of all things natural since I was old enough to begin asking real questions about the universe I could see, feel and smell.
I’m sure you’re aware that zoos are the last havens for a great many animals. Their natural habitats have been destroyed and their numbers decimated by us. That’s right. Us. Humans.
How dare we.
The gene plasm carried by animals at Hogle, and at other zoos around the world, is beyond price. Simple as that. As to keeping animals sequestered at remote preserves, fine to a point. But zoos serve other purposes besides being depositories for gene plasm. They let us shortsighted humans connect with nature. Zoos must be held to a very high standard of care, to be sure. Hogle does that. Its facilities have been improved greatly over time. That process is ongoing, as it should be.
I’m old enough to remember when then-curator Gerald de Bary was fatally bitten by a puff adder in 1964 at Hogle Zoo. Were he still here, I think he’d be appalled at the idea of closing the zoo and substituting video screens for living animal exhibits. I’m also old enough to remember when Shasta the liger was a living part of the collection at Hogle. When she died, I mourned along with many Salt Lakers.
Video screens, good as they are, cannot let us connect with these animals. To do that, you have to smell them, feel them, be with them. Don’t believe me? Go up to the zoo on a cool autumn day, and take the opportunity to look a giraffe in the eye. Do the same with a polar bear, or maybe an otter. Can’t get that from a video screen.
Hogle Zoo must not be closed. The animals at Hogle, the sky on a clear night, the insects in your own backyard, indeed all of nature, should be experienced firsthand whenever possible. Video screens, smartphones and TV programs have let many people completely lose touch with what really is in nature. We’ve lost something vital in this day of the internet, video on demand and being spoon-fed what we should be learning firsthand.
When you get up to Hogle Zoo, say hi to the giraffes for me. They’ll appreciate it.
Van Nielson
Bountiful