Is a zoo a park?

The question is whether a zoo can be considered a park.

The term "zoo" is short for zoological park. According to National Geographic, a zoo is a place where animals live in captivity. Zoos typically focus on exhibiting a variety of species for educational and conservation purposes. Zoos have been around since 1793, when the first modern zoo opened in Paris, France. However, it wasn't until 1874 that the first zoo opened in the United States in Philadelphia.

 

Parks are public green areas used for outdoor recreation, linear trails, and corridors with recreational amenities or open spaces providing wildlife habitat and preserving scenic assets. Parks also play a role in preserving natural habitats, promoting environmental awareness, and providing cultural and recreational activities. Boston Common, established in 1634, is called the first public park. It was not until the mid-1800s that parks were planned in the United States. Designed by visionaries Frederick Law Olmstead and Calvert Vaux, New York City’s Central Park became America’s first public park, starting a trend for cities to have a system of outdoor lands open to the public for recreation, relaxation, and a place to enjoy nature.

 

Zoos educate visitors about local habitat, environmental, and sustainability initiatives. In his article, Zoos, Wildlife Park Aquariums “Touch” the Heart of Millions,  Matt Fouts Assistant Director of Tanganyika Wildlife Park sums it up by offering that people seek a connection to the natural world both in their local parks and zoos. A zoo offers those who cannot travel the opportunity to connect with species from around the world, especially endangered and vanishing species. One distinction in zoos is the primary goals of zoos include conservation, education, and research.

 

To local park planners and land conservation professionals, zoos highlight the importance of local sustainability initiatives for habitats both within parks and connected by stream corridors, forested areas, and trails. While some park systems may host a zoo within the park, most leave this specialty up to a private foundation. Local parks also provide opportunities for a connection to native wildlife and habitats. The animals in the park are most often native to the region, residing in their habitat, the park.  Unlike zoos, the purpose of parks is primarily for outdoor recreation, conservation, and connectivity to communities through programming and the provision of spaces for gatherings like pavilions, education centers, and managed fields and landscapes.

 

While the purpose and goals of zoos and parks are different, the resulting end product, recreation is a common denominator. Let’s explore a private park I visited as a child, Maymont located in the City of Richmond. Our family often visited Maymont, a 100-acre estate dedicated to the City of Richmond by James & Sallie Dooley in 1925. With a system of well-developed trails, horticultural gardens, a historic mansion with all the outbuildings intact, and animals, both farm animals and wildlife habitats. Our family would spend hours walking the paths, popping in on some visits to the Dooley mansion that had been preserved for the most part in its original state as the family left it. We would picnic on the grounds often on one of the rock outcroppings. My mother would marvel at the landscaped gardens and comment on the various plant species the Dooleys had planted and the foundation had meticulously labeled. I distinctly remember the peacocks strutting the grounds and making themselves known. Today Maymont is home to a farm and wildlife habitat that includes animals ranging from alpacas, chickens, cows, donkeys, ducks, goats, horses, pigs and sheep to habitats for bison black bears, bald eagles, bobcats, elk, hawks, owls, red fox, sika deer, and vultures. Additionally, the foundation manages an indoor nature center focused on education and aquatic species like alligators, crabs, fish, frogs, river otters, salamanders, snakes, and turtles.  

 

My childhood Maymont experience was zoo-like, but also park-like. Going down this memory lane at Maymont didn’t clarify the difference between a park and a zoo for me, but it did prompt me to evaluate the assets of both.

 

Zoos and parks have distinctly different roles, but each complements the other in terms of promoting environmental stewardship and connecting people with nature.

 

ZOOS	PARKS
People are free to watch animals	Animals are free to watch people
People feed animals	Animals feed themselves
Natural habitats are created	Natural habitats are conserved
Places to learn and explore created habitats	Places to learn and explore natural habitats
Opportunities to globally sustain threatened species	Supports natural ecosystems to sustain local native species
Outdoor classrooms	Outdoor classrooms
Interactive experiences up close and outside the natural ecosystems within created habitats	Observational and experiential experiences within natural ecosystems and habitats