INSIDE:

Community
Calendar

41

Mazel
Toy!

43

All About Elephants

The Detroit Zoo, a pioneer in education and animal care, celebrates its 75th year.

SHARON LUCKERMAN

Staff Writer

T

he Detroit Zoo first
opened in 1883 with ani-
mals abandoned by a trav-
eling circus. Since then,
the zoo has become a pioneer in car-
ing for animals and educating its vis-
itors about them.
"The zoo is no longer just a place
to see animals," says Dr. Ron Kagan,
director of what is now called the
Detroit Zoological Institute and
CEO of its support organization, the
Detroit Zoological Society.
As one of the state's top tourist
attractions, he says, the zoo generates
$100 million a year and has become
a major educational source. He adds
that 400,000 school children visit the
zoo each year where they learn about
nature and the environment as well
as about the animals.
"We humans tend to focus on our
own species, but we share this planet
with many others," says Dr. Kagan,
who served in the Israeli army and
was a zookeeper at the Jerusalem
Zoo. He said he believes he's one of
two Jewish head zookeepers in the
country.
"The value of the zoo in Detroit,"
he says, "is the ability to enjoy nature
in an urban setting — and the terrif-
ic educational experience."
This year, from March 2003 to
April 2004, the zoo is celebrating its
75th anniversary at its Royal Oak-
Huntington Woods location on
Woodward and 10 Mile. (The first
zoo was in Detroit near what is now
Tiger Stadium.) The 125,000-acre
site is home to 550 different species
and about 7,000 animals. On Belle
Isle, the zoo also runs the aquarium
and the new Nature Zoo that will
open later this year.
Over the years, the Detroit Zoo
has racked up many firsts. When it
opened its current location in 1928,
it was the first zoo in North America
that didn't cage animals, creating

environments with surrounding
moats. The Arctic Ring of Life
exhibit, which opened in 2001, is the
world's largest polar bear facility.
And this year, Amphibiville, the
Amphibian Conservation Center,
won an American Zoo and Aquarium
Association National Award for best
new zoo exhibit in the country.
Its future plans continue to make
dreams into realities. "The Detroit
Zoo is a pioneer in the use of theater,
technology and education, and it has
started construction of the Ford
Center for Environmental and
Conservation Education, expected by
be completed in 2005," says Dr.
Kagan.
"The last thing we want to do is
bring children to the zoo from school
and stick them into another class-
room," he says.
Instead, this 40,000-square-foot
complex features interpretative stu-
dios. "It will be like walking onto a
Above:
movie set of a cave, a tropical rain
Zoo director Dr. Ron
forest, an arctic environment —
Kagan
in front of the
where students become participants
elephant
exhibit.
in the theater."
Also in the works is a waterfront
Right:
aquarium in the heart of downtown
Hannah
Palmer, 6, of
Detroit, the exact location to be
Lansing,
meets a shin-
determined. At 200,000 square feet,
gleback
skink
up close,
Dr. Kagan says, it will be one of the
held
by
senior
zoo-
largest aquariums in the country and
keeper
Tamara
Colt,
is expected to open in four years.

Zoo To The Rescue

As dramatic as the future plans are,
some of the zoo's most exciting work
is already there, behind the scenes.
"Traditionally, zoos attempt to res-
cue species — that's what conserva-
tion is about," says Dr. Kagan. "But
that agenda is blind to individual
animals suffering or in trouble."
The Detroit Zoo is very aggressive
about helping individual animals in
trouble because of human activity, he
says. They have rescued, for example,
a polar bear in "deplorable condi-
tions in a circus, and a couple of lion

as docent Marion
Stein shows children
around the reptile
house.

cubs used as guard
dogs at a local crack house," he says.
"We believe it's important not just to
breed healthy, attractive animals, but
to•care for ones in need."
Zoo docent Ellie Slovis of
Bloomfield Township remembers
when Barla, the -rescued polar bear,
first came out of quarantine at the
Detroit Zoo. "For 15 years, she was
kept in a cage with a cement floor
and could only pace five steps,"

•

X:

Slovis says. "The day the zoo put her
outside, it had snowed and she was
so cute rolling around in the snow."
Slovis had a chance to see Barla a
couple weeks ago when she finally
was introduced to Triton, a male
polar bear six years younger but big-
ger. "Some animals connect and
some don't," says Slovis. "But these
two get on so well. They've been

ELEPHANTS on page 36

8/22
2003

35