Zoo Story: Life in the Garden of Captives
Just ask Siegfried and Roy: When a tiger nearly severs its trainer鈥檚 jugular vein, it鈥檚 Nature 1, Man 0. But these vaudevillians 鈥� and Ringling Bros., and Walt Disney鈥檚 Animal Kingdom, and every zoo in the world 鈥� earn their livings sustaining the illusion (in Roy鈥檚 case, with varying success) that wild animals are friendly, safe, and fun. After all, any fan of 鈥�The Lion King鈥� will attest that the hit single 鈥淐ircle of Life鈥� mightn鈥檛 be so catchy if Elton John sang about the violent mating, vicious hunting, and senseless murder that fuel the life cycle of an actual lion.
Pulitzer Prize winner Thomas French鈥檚 Zoo Story, a barbed investigation of financial malfeasance at Tampa鈥檚 Lowry Park Zoo, has great fun with humans鈥� paradoxical desire to tame wild things. 鈥淸Z]oos shake people into recognizing the manifold possibilities of existence,鈥� French writes, 鈥渨hat it鈥檚 like to walk across the Earth, or swim in its oceans, or fly above its forests 鈥� even though most of the animals on display will never have the chance to do any of those things again.鈥� For French, a zoo is the ultimate ecological non sequitur, a 鈥済arden of captives鈥� established in the name of conservation that removes rare species like the golden lion tamarin and the Panamanian golden frog from natural habitats ruined by human incursion and no longer able support them anyway. 鈥淎gainst all logic, some staff members still wished sometimes there was some way they could let the animals go,鈥� French writes. 鈥淔or many of the species at Lowry Park, very little of the wild remained.鈥�
Still, stage-designing an imagined state of nature and charging admission is a viable business strategy; in 鈥淶oo Story,鈥� French portrays Lowry鈥檚 鈥渉ard-charging鈥� CEO Lex Salisbury as a flimflam man obsessed with making it pay. Half Dr. Doolittle, half Bernie Madoff, Salisbury hatched a dubious plan in the 2000s to make Lowry Park the world鈥檚 flagship zoo by importing African elephants 鈥� emotionally complex animals expensive to house and dangerous to care for 鈥� while opening Safari Wild, his own for-profit nature park that shared the zoo鈥檚 animals and charged the city of Tampa to house them. 鈥淗e seemed to view the zoo鈥檚 animals and those on his ranch and at the game park as part of one big traveling collection,鈥� French writes, ably synthesizing six years of his own reporting for the St. Petersburg Times. When things go wrong 鈥� 15 patas monkeys stage a hilarious escape from Safari Wild and elude Florida authorities for months, spotlighting Salisbury鈥檚 mismanagement as well as the incestuous finances of his two zoos 鈥� French deploys his favorite device: playing 鈥渇ield anthropologist鈥� to write about humans as an exotic species roaming an urban savannah.
鈥淥nly a few months before the scandal, the rich and powerful had treated Lex like a prince of the city,鈥� French writes. 鈥淣ow that he was wounded and trailing blood through the turpentine grass, the pride was ready to finish him off.鈥� Salisbury, a fallen 鈥渁lpha鈥� stripped of his animal kingdom, proves an easy takedown for the media when his wife is caught leaving the couple鈥檚 dogs in their car on a hot Florida afternoon. 鈥淗ere was a man allegedly incapable of protecting his own pets,鈥� French writes of the former zookeeper. 鈥淟ex is our prey, bleeding in the water.鈥�
As muckraking, 鈥淶oo Story鈥� is a blast; even an, ahem, cub reporter knows 鈥淶oo Administrator Leaves Pooches Out to Roast鈥� is a great headline. But French really shines when articulating the philosophical quandary presented by zoos鈥� mere existence.
鈥淭hat鈥檚 my son,鈥� says Ed Schultz of Herman, Lowry鈥檚 showcase chimpanzee. Schultz, who rescued Herman from Liberian hunters in 1966 and raised him in his own home, donated him to Tampa when the chimp reached adolescence. But if Herman 鈥� an aging primate who grew up in the company of humans and makes sexual overtures to Lowry鈥檚 blonde female visitors in lieu of mating with a female of his own species 鈥� is Schultz鈥檚 child, that paternity doesn鈥檛 bode well for the future of chimpanzees. This wild animal has been rescued from his hostile native land, brought up in a human household, then separated from the humans he thought of as family, transported to yet another alien environment, and left to make tenuous peace with his keepers and fellow captives. 鈥淎s much as the keepers liked the old man, they sometimes wished he wouldn鈥檛 stop by so often,鈥� French writes. 鈥淏ecause every time Ed walked away, it seemed to leave the chimp shaken.鈥� When Herman is felled by a younger chimp who wants to be top ape, French can only highlight the Lowry staff鈥檚 naivet茅: 鈥淓verybody considered them buddies,鈥� French quotes a veterinarian who describes Herman鈥檚 friendship with his animal assassin. 鈥淭hey were like two old gentleman, rolling around on the ground, laughing and tickling each other.鈥�
Such anthropomorphism, French makes clear, is absurd. But his greater point 鈥� if nature is disappearing, what better hope do animals have than that humans deign to imprison them and put them on display? 鈥� is chilling. Herman may have fallen into the clutches of incompetents, but would he have been better off as bushmeat? The ability of 鈥淶oo Story鈥� to pose such questions about an issue too often reduced to PETA v. profiteers is a testament to French鈥檚 reportage and writing.
Justin Moyer is a freelance writer in Washington, D.C.
