Wilder Places for Wild Things.

1 The beavers at the Minnesota Zoo seem engaged in an unending task.

Each week they knock down scores of inch-thick young trees for their
winter food supply. Each week zoo workers replace the downed trees,
planting new ones in iron holders so the animals can keep on cutting.
Letting the beavers do what comes naturally has paid off: Minnesota is
one of the few zoos to get them to reproduce in captivity. The chimps at
the St. Louis Zoo also work for a living: they poke stiff pieces of hay into
an anthill to scoop out the baby food and honey that curators hide inside.
Instead of waiting to be given bananas, the chimps get to manipulate
tools, just as they do in the wild. Last year, when 13 gorillas moved into
Zoo Atlantas new $4.5 million rain forest, they mated and formed
families- which is rare in zoos. Zoos have changed from being just
menageries to being celebrations of life, says John Gwynne of the Bronx
Zoo. As the wild places get smaller, the role of zoos gets larger, which
means increasing the naturalness of the experience for both visitors and
animals.
2 Naturalistic zoos are hardly new: animals liberated from concrete cages
have been playing in Bronx fields since 1941. But as species become
extinct at a high rate and 100 acres of tropical forests disappear every
minute, zoos are trying to make their settings match their new role as
protectors of biology. Since 1980, Americas 143 recognized zoos and
aquariums have spent more than $1 billion on renovation and
construction, much of it to create habitats that show both animals and
visitors the sights, sounds, feel and smell of the wild. Todays best exhibits
reproduce not just the look but also the function of a natural habitat: they
encourage the residents to mate, to raise young and to develop the
survival skills they would need on the savannas of Africa or the Andes
mountains.
3 Lately, curators have been making exhibits not only look real, but sound
real. At the Bronx Zoos Jungle World, the shrieks of gibbons and the
chirping of crickets come from 65 speakers. The zoos audio expert, Tom
Veltre, spent a month in Thailand stringing microphones and cables up
and down mountains to capture the sounds of the jungle. Even though the
animals figure out that the hoots and howls are coming from black boxes,
and not from furry or feathered neighbours, the call of the wild can shape
their behaviour. At Healesville Sanctuary, outside Melbourne, Australia,
nighttime sounds tell nocturnal platypuses when to sleep, says Leslie
Gilbert; realistic noises also snap gorillas out of stress-induced laziness.
4 Natural is now going beyond sight and sound to include everything from
weather to activity patterns. Every day 11 rainstorms hit Tropic World at
the Brookfield Zoo outside Chicago, causing the monkeys to drop from
their vines and scamper for cover. Regardless of the climate, the monkeys
exhibit many behaviours never seen in cages, such as rustling bushes to
defend their territory. At the San Diego Zoos Sun Bear Forest, lion-tailed
macaques are surrounded by jungle vines and cascading waterfalls. As
soon as these highly endangered monkeys moved in last month, they
began searching for fruit left by the curators. They even respond to the
dominant males alarm call by gathering around him- something keepers
had never seen. At Seattles Woodland Park Zoo, elephants in the exhibit
that opened last month roll and stack logs just as they do in a Thai logging
camp. The task relieved their boredom.
5 Curators of rare species are focusing on how to encourage one particular
natural behaviour- reproduction. At New Yorks Central Park Zoo, which
reopened last year after a multimillion-dollar improvement, the lights in
the penguin house imitate seasonal changes in the day and night, which
are important to telling the penguins when to breed. At the San Diego
Wild Animal Park, the people are in cages and 2,600 animals roam free. A
white rhino that had never mated during 10 years at the San Diego Zoo
has had 55 offspring since moving into a large new area of the park 17
years ago. The difference is that he has room to mark out his territory,
and a group of 20 female rhinos to choose from, says spokesperson Tom
Hanscom. Getting flamingos to breed was simply a matter of providing
more neighbours. For reasons curators cant explain, the pink birds never
bred when they lived in two groups of 50; but, when mixed into a group of
100 birds they began to build little mud mounds to lay their eggs.
6 Without such help to breed, many species would be extinct. Zoos are
becoming the last hope for a number of endangered species, says Ronald
Tilson of the Minnesota Zoo. Indeed, there are more Siberian tigers in
Americas zoos than in Russia. As well as increasing successful breeding,
zoos also hope to help attract the public. Part of a zoos reason for being
is to inform the public of the marvelous things that occur on this planet,
says Warren Thomas, directors of the Los Angeles zoo. You do that by re-
creating the environment that shaped these animals. Zoo keepers call
this habitat immersion: getting visitors curious and excited about wild
places and teaching them that habitat loss is the single greatest threat to
wild animals today.
7 In the rare cases when animals bred in captivity do have an original home
to return to, zoos are trying to help them. The closer you come to
mimicking nature in captivity, the easier that is, says primate curator Ann
Baker of Brookfield. Already the Bronx Zoo has returned condors to the
Andes Mountains. Scientists at the National Zoo in Washington taught a
group of golden lion tamarins survival skills, such as how to find food and
 pay attention to warning calls, and have released 67 into a reserve near
Rio de Janeiro since 1984. The San Diego Zoo has returned 40 oryxes- rare
antelopes- to Oman, Jordan and Israel, where they have bred successfully.
8 With every animal that moves onto the endangered species list, or
disappears due to extinction, zoos gain greater importance. About 120
million people will visit U.S. zoos this year. By showing how animals are
shaped and supported by their environment, zoos are trying to protect
wild places as well as wild thing, says Zoo Atlanta director Terry Maple.
For as the wild places go, so go the wild animals.

By Sharon Begley with Karen Springen in Chicago, Jeanne Gordon in Los Angeles, Daniel
Glick in Washington, and Howard Manley in Atlanta; Newsweek. Adapted from Topics for
Today, 3rd ed. Thomson & Heinle.

EAP 2 READING- Week 4 Lab Assignment

Wilder Places for Wild Things.

VOCABULARY

A. Vocabulary in Context
Select the letter of the answer that is closest in meaning to the bold word or
phrase.

1. Endangered monkeys at the San Diego zoo look for fruit left for them by the
zoo keepers.
a. dangerous c. unusual
b. protected d. at risk

2. Naturalistic zoos try to liberate animals from old-fashioned cement cages.

a. protect c. free
b. capture d. study

3. Beavers at the Minnesota Zoo cut down scores of trees for food.
a. groups c. a few
b. many d. forests

4. Ann Baker says mimicking nature in zoos is the best way to help animals
return to the wild.
a. saving c. supporting
b. destroying d. imitating

5. Chimps in the wild, and in zoos, can manipulate tools, just like humans.
a. borrow c. use
b. destroy d. create
6. When rainstorms happen at the Brookfield Zoo, the monkeys scamper to
find shelter.
a. run c. look around
b. build d. cant find

7. Many American zoos have spent money on renovations of their

environments since 1980.
a. removals c. improvements
b. losses d. bonuses

8. The white rhino at the San Diego Zoo has had 55 offspring since 1996.
a. mates c. homes
b. children d. diseases

9. John Gwynne says that now zoos are celebrations of life, rather than just
menageries.
a. collection of animals c. cages
b. parks d. dangerous places

10.Monkeys will gather around a dominant male monkey if he makes an alarm

call, indicating danger.
a. Leader c. small
b. Captive d. lazy

B. Vocabulary Building
Match each word in the list below with the definition on the right.

1. captivity a. no longer in existence; ended or

dead

2. curator e b. to bring animals together to

reproduce

3. mate (v) c. an object or collection that is shown

to the
public

4. species d. state of being in prison,

captured, held

5. extinct a e. group of individuals who have

common
characteristics or qualities

6. habitat f f. natural environment; place

where a person
 or animal is usually found

7. exhibit g. person in charge; person who

selects content

8. nocturnal h. to produce children

9. breed i. active at night

READING COMPREHENSION

A. Looking for the Main Ideas

Write the letter of the best answer for each question.

1. What is the main idea of Paragraph 2? Answer: _________

a. Zoos since 1980 are bigger and better.
b. The biggest change in modern zoos is that they are naturalistic.
c. Many zoos now attempt to give animals a natural habitat to help
protect them.
d. Numerous species of animals are in dangers of becoming extinct.

2. Paragraph 4 is mostly about _________

a. Zoos creating work for elephants to do.
b. Natural zoo habitats causing animals to behave as they do in the wild.
c. Monkeys and elephants like to be kept busy in the zoo.
d. All zoos should create artificial rainstorms to create a natural environment.

3. Paragraph 7 is mainly concerned with ________

a. Some animals, who have lived in naturalistic zoos, can easily return to the
wild.
b. Condors are the best animals to help return to their wild homes.
c. Zoos can teach animals how to live in the wild again.
d. The oryx was extinct in Oman, Jordan and Israel, but has now been
returned to those nations.

B. Skimming & Scanning for Details

Scan the reading quickly to find the answers to these questions. Write
complete sentences.
1. What two substances do chimps at the St. Louis Zoo find in anthills to eat?
__ they poke stiff pieces of hay into an anthill to scoop out the baby food
and honey that curators hide inside
_________________________________________________________________________

2. According to John Gwynne, what is the role of zoos?

___________________________________________________________________________

3. How many acres of tropical rainforest are destroyed every minute of every
day?
___________________________________________________________________________

4. What three things do todays best zoo exhibits encourage animals to do?
___________________________________________________________________________

5. Where in Thailand did Tom Veltre record the sounds of the jungle for one
month?
___________________________________________________________________________

6. Why do elephants at Seattles Woodland Park Zoo like to roll and stack
logs?
___________________________________________________________________________

7. How many years ago did the white rhino at the San Diego Zoo move into a
larger new area of the park, and how many children has it had since then?
___________________________________________________________________________

8. Where do flamingos lay their eggs?

___________________________________________________________________________

9. What do zoo keepers want to public to know if the single greatest threat to
wild animals today?
___________________________________________________________________________

10.How many people will visit U.S. zoos this year?

___________________________________________________________________________