Zoological Parks

Zoological Parks

A zoological park, commonly known simply as a "zoo," is a place of considerable interest to the general public, where wild animals are kept in captivity. Unlike a museum's preserved specimens, the animals in a zoo are alive, and are protected and cared for — with real effort made to provide them with conditions that resemble their natural habitat as closely as possible. Because the animals are being conserved away from the wild landscape they originally came from, this is a form of ex-situ conservation.

A zoo is not simply a display of animals, though: within a well-run zoo, a naturalist has the opportunity to closely study the food habits and behaviour of the animals housed there — observations that can be far harder to make reliably out in the wild. …