This chapter examines how American zoological gardens responded to the rapid, nearly simultaneous decline of two iconic species at the turn of the nineteenth century: the bison and the passenger pigeon. The North American continent once supported extensive populations of both species, which inspired awe and wonder in the European settlers who encountered them. During the second half of the nineteenth century, however, habitat destruction, competition from exotic species, and especially large-scale commercial exploitation facilitated by newly constructed rail networks produced dramatic declines in both populations. As a result, the bison and the passenger pigeon were both facing extinction by the end of the nineteenth century. Wildlife conservationists successfully mobilized to save the bison, and the New York Zoological Park (opened in 1899) began a captive bison herd that helped repopulate several newly created federal reserves in the West. They failed, however, to rally behind the passenger pigeon, and the last known specimen perished at the Cincinnati Zoo on September 1, 1914. The New York Zoological Park’s captive breeding experiments proved the exception rather than the rule during this period, when zoos remained primarily focused on entertaining and educating the public, rather than trying to save endangered species.
...MoreBook Minteer, Ben A.; Jane Maienschein; James P. Collins; George Rabb (2018) The Ark and Beyond: The Evolution of Zoo and Aquarium Conservation.
Chapter
Pamela M. Henson;
(2018)
American Zoos: A Shifting Balance between Recreation and Conservation
(/isis/citation/CBB773105840/)
Article
Dolly Jørgensen;
Isla Gladstone;
(2022)
The Passenger Pigeon’s Past on Display for the Future
(/isis/citation/CBB029545778/)
Book
Hanson, Elizabeth;
(2002)
Animal Attractions: Nature on Display in American Zoos
(/isis/citation/CBB000201400/)
Thesis
Uddin, Lisa;
(2009)
Breeding Grounds: Race, Space and Species in the New American Zoo
(/isis/citation/CBB001561276/)
Book
Barrow, Mark V.;
(2009)
Nature's Ghosts: Confronting Extinction from the Age of Jefferson to the Age of Ecology
(/isis/citation/CBB000952142/)
Article
Soll, David;
(2012)
Resurrecting the Story of the Passenger Pigeon in Pennsylvania
(/isis/citation/CBB001200338/)
Chapter
Barrow, Mark V., Jr.;
(2010)
On the Trail of the Ivory-Bill: Field Science, Local Knowledge, and the Struggle to Save Endangered Species
(/isis/citation/CBB001000296/)
Book
Michael D. Wise;
(2016)
Producing Predators: Wolves, Work, and Conquest in the Northern Rockies
(/isis/citation/CBB178514363/)
Book
Miles A. Powell;
(2016)
Vanishing America: Species Extinction, Racial Peril, and the Origins of Conservation
(/isis/citation/CBB025501757/)
Book
Jeff Karnicky;
(2016)
Scarlet Experiment: Birds and Humans in America
(/isis/citation/CBB488937827/)
Book
McBride, David;
(2002)
Missions for Science: U. S. Technology and Medicine in America's African World
(/isis/citation/CBB000301936/)
Book
Cox, Thomas R.;
(2010)
The Lumberman's Frontier: Three Centuries of Land Use, Society, and Change in America's Forests
(/isis/citation/CBB001212244/)
Book
Linda M. Ambrose;
Joan M. Jensen;
(2017)
Women in Agriculture: Professionalizing Rural Life in North America and Europe, 1880-1965
(/isis/citation/CBB186986941/)
Book
Salvatore Califano;
(2015)
Storia dell'alchimia: misticismo ed esoterismo all'origine della chimica moderna
(/isis/citation/CBB559415425/)
Book
Alagona, Peter S.;
(2013)
After the Grizzly: Endangered Species and the Politics of Place in California
(/isis/citation/CBB001451505/)
Article
Mark V. Barrow;
Allan R. Woodward;
(2022)
Acting in the Face of Uncertainty: The Campaign to Save the American Alligator
(/isis/citation/CBB070436703/)
Article
Herbert, Sandra;
(2015)
Creation and Extinction: The Geological Background to the Initial American Reception of Charles Darwin's Origin of Species
(/isis/citation/CBB001553542/)
Chapter
Rowland, Stephen M.;
(2009)
Thomas Jefferson, Extinction, and the Evolving View of Earth History in the Late Eighteenth and Early Nineteenth Centuries
(/isis/citation/CBB001021049/)
Book
Kohlstedt, Sally Gregory;
(2010)
Teaching Children Science: Hands-On Nature Study in North America, 1890--1930
(/isis/citation/CBB001020047/)
Book
Daniel E. Bender;
(2016)
The Animal Game: Searching for Wildness at the American Zoo
(/isis/citation/CBB221470838/)
Be the first to comment!