A Wilder Kingdom - by Ben a Minteer & Harry Greene (Paperback)

About the Book

This book is a provocative and reflective examination of the relationship between zoos and the wild. It gathers a premier set of multidisciplinary voices to consider the possibilities and challenges of making zoos wilder.

Book Synopsis

Zoos have always had a troubled relationship to what is considered the "real" wild. Even the most immersive and naturalistic zoos, critics maintain, are inherently contrived and inauthentic environments. Zoo animals' diet, care, and reproduction are under pervasive human control, with natural phenomena like disease and death kept mostly hidden from public view. Furthermore, despite their growing commitment to conservation and education, zoos are entertainment providers that respond to visitors' expectations and preferences. What would a "wilder" zoo--one that shows the public a wider range of ecological processes--look like? Is it achievable or even desirable? What roles can or should zoos play in encouraging humanity to find meaningful connections with wild animals and places?

A Wilder Kingdom is a provocative and reflective examination of the relationship between zoos and the wild. It gathers a premier set of multidisciplinary voices--from animal studies and psychology to evolutionary biology and environmental journalism--to consider the possibilities and challenges of making zoos wilder. In so doing, the contributors offer new insights into the future of the wild beyond zoos and our relationship to wild species and places across the landscape in an increasingly human-dominated era.

Review Quotes

A Wilder Kingdom successfully makes the case that we must ask new and critical questions of institutions we all too often take for granted. Otherwise, we'll be stuck looking backward, at stale and outmoded kingdoms past, rather than looking for new relations and new horizons of possibility.-- "H-Environment"

This work makes one reconsider wild places and explores how zoos can become more wild-centric. Particularly insightful is Mendelson's essay on repurposing zoos to focus on threatened rather than exotic species, and in-situ conservation efforts for these species. This deeply reflective work is accessible to all readers.-- "Choice Reviews"

A Wilder Kingdom is a thought-provoking, informative, and enjoyable read. The well-crafted essays, written by authors with a wide range of perspectives, backgrounds, and expertise, will appeal to anyone interested in nature, animal welfare, zoos, wild landscapes, and the human interactions with all of these.--Marty Crump, coauthor of Women in Field Biology: A Journey into Nature

This remarkable collection of essays addresses the shifting and conflicted missions of zoos in the modern world. The central theme of the chapters is the possibility of enhancing the experience of wildness for zoo animals and visitors. Along the way, the authors address a host of fascinating questions. For example, what would a wilder zoo look like? Is a baby rhino who was conceived via in vitro fertilization a wild animal? Can zoos prepare animals for life in the wild? This book changed the way I think about zoos, and I suspect it will pave the way for the zoos of the future.--Hal Herzog, author of Some We Love, Some We Hate, Some We Eat: Why It's So Hard To Think Straight About Animals

What are zoos for, and what should they be like? In the Anthropocene era, long-held distinctions between human and natural, managed and wild are blurring. A Wilder Kingdom asks how zoos might be reimagined to represent and support wild nature. This delightful and diverse book offers thoughtful and challenging ideas for the future of zoos in an increasingly human-dominated natural world.--Bill Adams, Claudio Segré Professor of Conservation and Development, Geneva Graduate Institute

About the Author

Ben A. Minteer is professor of environmental ethics and conservation in the School of Life Sciences at Arizona State University. His many books include Wild Visions: Wilderness as Image and Idea (2022); The Fall of the Wild: Extinction, De-Extinction, and the Ethics of Conservation (Columbia, 2018); and The Ark and Beyond: The Evolution of Zoo and Aquarium Conservation (2018).

Harry W. Greene is emeritus professor at Cornell University and adjunct professor at the University of Texas at Austin. He is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the author of Snakes: The Evolution of Mystery in Nature (1997) and Tracks and Shadows: Field Biology as Art (2013).