Global Change, the Future of Biodiversity and the Future of Zoos

Abstract

THIS IS AN ACCOUNT of what happens to thinking about composition, function, and future of a zoo when a tropical biologist becomes a zoo director. It is an essay in evolution of a concept. That evolution can only be understood, and explained, by reference to environment in which it occurred. That environment is unique Smithsonian Institution. The Institution, founded in 1846 for the increase and diffusion of knowledge, is world's largest assemblage of public exhibits and research entities under one intellectual roof. Its present mandate ranges from modem art to history of Precambrian, from space shuttle to presidential memorabilia, and in its research entities, from study of supernovae to research into Black History. It will shortly add a Native American museum to its range of subject matter. There is nothing quite like it anywhere. I came to Washington committed, by twenty years of living and studying in tropics, to realization that they were scene of unparalleled devastation, and incipient, if not actual, species loss. I was also totally convinced, by personal history, that zoos were a source of fascination and had an