Introduction

Those who have not visited a zoo or aquarium since LBJ was president will find a quite different place. The menagerie mentality, cages and tanks arranged for display purposes, has disappeared. The best zoos are no longer those with the most different kinds of animals. As part of the ecological awakening that culminated in the passage of the Endangered Species Act of 1973, and part of their historic mission of exhibiting animals, zoos and aquariums transformed their display space from cages and tanks to habitats designed to promote normal behavior. By helping to create an environment in which breeding could take place, this investment in new capital helped promote a second mission, one to which these institutions have rededicated themselves – species preservation.

There have been other changes as well: To facilitate research, laboratories and libraries have been expanded. To provide education, classrooms have been constructed and teachers hired. All the while, zoos and aquariums have tried to remain financially accessible to low-income citizens. What has changed little since the founding of the American Zoo and Aquarium Association (AZA) in the 1920s is the mission of these institutions: