Great Apes in the Giardino Zoologico of Rome (1910-1998)

Der Zoologische Garten, 2013

Proceedings of The AZA 1995 Western …, 1996

Great Apes, among the world's most severely threatened species and our closest biological relatives, are being featured in new zoo exhibits of unprecedented size, complexity, cost and number throughout the country. Historically, Great Ape exhibits are categorized into four chronological and thematic phases: PHASE I -Trophies and curiosities. PHASE II -The Science Lab. PHASE III -Great Apes in a small Eden. PHASE IV -Great Ape societies in Eden.

1987

Great Apes, among the world's most severely threatened species and our closest biological relatives, are being featured in new zoo exhibits of unprecedented size, complexity, cost and number throughout the country. Historically, Great Ape exhibits are categorized into four chronological and thematic phases: PHASE I -Trophies and curiosities. PHASE II -The Science Lab. PHASE III -Great Apes in a small Eden. PHASE IV -Great Ape societies in Eden.

State of the Apes 2015

2022

One’s apprehension of the natural world, of ecosystems, and the species living therein, almost always takes shape in the contexts of (1) interspecific relational practices, (2) modalities and forms of naturalistic knowledge, and (3) institutionalized practices of encounter with nonhuman animals. The elaboration of particular cultural representations of nonhuman primates is no exception: it too largely depends on cultural variables. Scientific thought as disseminated for popular consumption, blockbuster films, and bourgeois entertainments, such as zoos and circuses, have contributed substantially to modern humans’ conceptions of primates, especially anthropomorphic apes. The ancient Roman world between the end of the first millennium BCE and the beginning of first millennium CE, however, was characterized by relational practices, cultural categories, and forms of scientific knowledge of nonhuman primates very different from those now operating in the Western imaginary. It is significant, for example, that the Romans most commonly interacted not with gorillas and chimpanzees, but with macaques and baboons. By investigating how nonhuman primates were integrated into Roman cultural encyclopedia, this article will center not on ape lore per se but instead upon the distinct cultural matrix within which primates were perceived, their behavior interpreted, and their relationship to humans understood.

Animal Welfare, 2012

ABSTRACT

1993

Aristotle refers to human slaves as 'animated property'. The phrase exactly describes the current status of nonhuman animals. Human slavery therefore presents an enlightening parallel to this situation. We shall explore this parallel in order to single out a past response to human slavery that may suggest a suitable way of responding to present-day animal slavery. Not long ago such a parallel would have been considered outrageous. Recently, however, there has been growing recognition of the claim that a sound ethic must be free of bias or arbitrary discrimination based in favour of our own species. This recognition makes possible a more impartial appraisal of the exploitative practices that mark our civilisation. Slavery in the ancient world has been the subject of a lively debate among historians. How did it arise? Why did it end? Was there a characteristic 'slave mode of production'? We do not need to go into all these disputes. We shall focus instead on the distinctive element of slavery: the fact that the human being becomes property in the strict sense of the term. This is sometimes referred to as 'chattel slavery'-a term that stresses the parallel between the human institution, and the ownership of animals, for the term 'cattle' is derived from 'chattel'. Slave societies are those societies of which chattel slavery is a major feature. They are relatively rare in human history. The best known examples existed in the ancient world, and in North and Central America after European colonisation.

Primate Report, 2006

A short historical overview of primate keeping is offered showing how each generation of zoo managers tried to improve standards according to prevailing scientific knowledge. This historical approach to primate husbandry may help to identify areas of concern about current management and husbandry techniques, often obscured by the current overenthusiastic rhetoric on modern zoo exhibits. Examples are given of issues potentially of great welfare significance deserving more scientific investigation, such as behavioural properties of diets, indoor/outdoor housing, climatic factors, species-specific social structure, birth control and intraspecific communication. Given ambiguity in defining ‘animal welfare’, it is argued that zoos should give priority to emphasizing the conservation message of their primate exhibits.

2015

The article discusses the presence of orangutans in European and Scandinavian captivity. An attempt to import an orangutan to Sweden by Claës Fredrik Hornstedt in 1785 failed - the ape died on the way from Java. Some zoos in Europé kept orangutans in the nineteenth Century, but most of them were short-lived in captivity and only during the early twentieth century they became more common. Rotterdam had for instance over a hundred specimens until 1960, but in Scandinavia orangutans have been very rare zoo animals. Copenhagen zoo received its first orangutans at the end of the nineteenth century, but onl in 1907 the zoo received a male which survived for a couple of years. He was succeeded by several others. Sweden received its first orangutans only in the 1980s, when Furuvik zoo got its first Sumatran specimen. The Bornean species is kept at Borås zoo since 1990.