Introductions

The old, bad zoos had no problems with animal introductions. Usually they were exhibiting a lone animal in a small, sterile "container".

The new, better zoo, attempting to show a social grouping of animals for educational purposes and, perhaps, breeding of a rare or endangered species, has much greater challenges.

I touched on this in the post below ("Introducing", March 24).

When you have, for example, a dozen chimpanzees in a zoo troop, all getting along reasonably well, there are challenges to trying to introduce a new chimp or just to dealing with natural changes in the "collection".

A new animal can be seen as a threat to every other animal in the troop, each of which has worked out its own role within the existing group. This new animal could be harmed if just "thrown in" with the troop. Great stress and possible injury to others is also a possibility.

So good zoos work through gradual, cautious introductions that can take months.

The aging or illness of a dominant chimp can introduce as many or more problems, as the existing order is thrown out of balance. These things get "worked out" in the wild, but often in ways that would traumatize many zoo visitors and that would not be acceptable to the chimps' care givers.

So sometimes planned introductions never take place. Two animals might just not "like each other", despite the fact that many other animals of the same species have been successfully introduced in the past. A complex herd dynamic just might not allow for the introduction of one particular individual of that species.

I'm constantly amazed at the complexities and challenges of NC Zoo operations.