Savages and Beasts: The Birth of the Modern Zoo

Animals, History, Culture

by Nigel Rothfels

To modern sensibilities, nineteenth-century zoos often seem to be unnatural places where animals led miserable lives in cramped, wrought-iron cages. Today zoo animals, in at least the better zoos, wander in open spaces that resemble natural habitats and are enclosed, not by bars, but by moats, cliffs, and other landscape features. In Savages and Beasts , Nigel Rothfels traces the origins of the modern zoo to the efforts of the German animal entrepreneur Carl Hagenbeck. By the late nineteenth century, Hagenbeck had emerged as the world's undisputed leader in the capture and transport of exotic animals. His business included procuring and exhibiting indigenous peoples in highly profitable spectacles throughout Europe and training exotic animals―humanely, Hagenbeck advertised―for circuses around the world. When in 1907 the Hagenbeck Animal Park opened in a village near Hamburg, Germany, Hagenbeck brought together all his business interests in a revolutionary zoological park. He moved wild animals out of their cages and into "natural landscapes" alongside "primitive" peoples from Africa, Asia, the Americas, and the islands of the Pacific. Hagenbeck had invented a new way of imagining the animals and people on exhibit appeared to be living in the wilds of their native lands. By looking at Hagenbeck's multiple enterprises, Savages and Beasts demonstrates how seemingly enlightened ideas about the role of zoos and the nature of animal captivity developed within the essentially tawdry business of placing exotic creatures on public display. Rothfels provides both fascinating reading and much-needed historical perspective on the nature of our relationship with the animal kingdom.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Animals, Anthropology, Wildlife, Cultural

288 pages, Paperback

First published August 30, 2002

Reviews

[Heather Browning · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a richly detailed historical account of the rise of modern zoos, focussing on the influence of Carl Hagenbeck (often considered the 'father' of modern zoo design). It calls into question some of the common received wisdom about his influence and motives, examining his work as an animal dealer and manager of ethnographic exhibitions. Rothfels explores the ways in which the presentation of animals and the narratives surrounding this can influence (and be influenced by) a range of cultural perspectives on and relationships to animals. A little too heavy on the historical detail for me, but definitely an important alternative account to what is often seen in works of zoo history.

[Yenta Knows · Rating 1 out of 5]

Read about 10 pages. Completely bored.

[mantareads · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rothfels writes ably, and the anecdotes he chooses (likely from a formidable mountain of archival material) are illuminating, poignant and at times hilarious. Using Carl Hagenbeck's "people shows", Rothfels argues that this "father of the modern zoo" did not so much pioneer the concept of the 'open zoo' (directors of various major zoos were already devising similar techniques of exhibiting animals by the time Hagenbeck opened his supposedly novel zoo in Hamburg), so much as the narratives around animals in captivity; his exhibits were one of the first to suggest that animals could perhaps live better lives in captivity than in the savage, brutish wilderness. Rothfels' greatest strength, his citation of so much evidence to buttress his points, is perhaps his greatest weakness as well. at times the quotations, diagrams, pictures he cites to illustrate a seemingly innocuous point threatens to obscure the very point itself.

finally, what I found most problematic and disappointing was that Rothfels doesn't actually discuss the modern zoo per se. the whole book serves to outline the birth of the _concept_ of the modern zoo, more accurately speaking.

This is particularly telling (and damning) when Rothfels states in the CONCLUSION of his book that "this is not the place to explore at length the history of the zoo in the twentieth century". I had to stop reading for a moment. I was dumbfounded. what constitutes the titular "modern" zoo then, for a book published in 2002?!? As with several other academic books the title of Rothfels' work doesn't deliver (at least directly and crisply) what its title seemed at first to promise.

nevertheless, a decent insight into the life and times and exhibits of a very interesting man and his people shows.

[Al Price · Rating 1 out of 5]

Not what I was expecting, and between the heady detail and the bias I feel like I'm reading in it, I quit.

[Rachel (Sfogs) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Was very interesting, but the author's bias against zoos came through very obviously.
Which is fine, but it was rather distracting.