People of all ages enjoy visiting the zoo. A zoo is a place where animals live and are shown to visitors. Zoos give people the chance to see creatures they might not encounter anywhere else.

Funding of zoos

Zoos cost a lot of money to run. Many animals need special kinds of food. Others need large amounts of food. Places must be constructed to house the animals. Keepers must be employed to feed and care for the animals and to clean their living spaces. Veterinarians are hired to take care of sick animals and to give regular checkups to all animals. To help with all these costs, zoos may charge visitors a fee. Zoos also rely on donations and fund-raising programs. Many zoos are owned by city or county governments.

History of zoos

It is not known exactly when the first zoos were established. Many ancient rulers were interested in animals and kept private collections. One early zoo in China, built in about 1000 BC, was called the Ling-Yu, or Garden of Intelligence. Rulers of ancient Egypt, Greece, and Rome are known to have kept animal collections as well. Most early zoos were created for entertainment, but eventually some were used to study animals.

Modern zookeeping is said to have started in 1752 with the founding of the Imperial Menagerie at the Schönbrunn Palace in Vienna, Austria. It opened to the public in 1765. By the 1800s many areas of the world had public zoos. The word zoo was first used in the late 1800s as an abbreviation for zoological gardens.

Modern views of zoos

Early zoo displays tended to feature single animals in bare cages or fenced enclosures. Many animals that live in groups in the wild did not fare well living alone. Other animals had a hard time getting used to a small living space and a lack of excitement.

Today zoos try to create exhibits that are better for the animals and more interesting for the visitors. Surroundings look as much as possible like natural habitats. Plants, trees, vines, rocks, and other things animals would naturally encounter are included in the enclosures (though some of these things are actually artificial rather than real in order to withstand rough treatment by the animals). Animals that live peacefully with one another in nature are often put together in zoos. Conditions such as light, temperature, and humidity are set to the liking of the animals.

Instead of cages, many zoos have large areas where the animals can move around and do the things they would do in the wild, such as drink from watering holes. Such displays have been carefully designed to make sure visitors can see the animals but not touch them. Many exhibits rely on keeping the animals on one level and people on another looking down or up at them. Others use plate glass barriers.

Zoos today are interested in doing more than just showing animals. They want visitors to learn. Written material, animal demonstrations, films, and computer games are just some of the ways zoos try to teach people about animals.

Zoos and conservation

At one time the capture of wild animals in their native habitats was the main source of new animals for zoos. Dealers would send people to rain forests, mountains, and deserts around the world to collect animals. Zoos would then buy the animals they wanted from the dealers.

Today, however, zoos greatly rely on captive breeding—getting animals that have already been captured to mate. This method supplies new animals for zoos without having to take any more from the wild. A zoo without a certain kind of animal may contact a zoo that has that type of animal to get one or more of the offspring.

As humans keep destroying the natural habitats of some animals, zoos are becoming safe places for creatures in danger. Sometimes zoos are successful in producing offspring of animals that are becoming rare in the wild. These animals may be returned to the wild in an effort to get the natural populations to increase.