Author(s): Neil Montagnana-wallace

Australian

Times change and so too, do zoos. Gone is the menagerie mentality. The cigarette-smoking Orang-utan or monkey tea-parties are things of the past. Feeding gorillas peanuts in return for a trick, or riding an elephant for kicks are activities that have become quirky anecdotes in the Zoo's history. Today, Melbourne Zoo is a zoo-based conservation society and its animals are ambassadors for their species in their natural habitats. Visitors to the Zoo are educated as well as entertained and words like 'habitats' and 'conservational outcomes' are replacing those such as 'exhibits', 'enclosures' and 'cages'. Melbourne Zoo has been a Melbourne institution for 150 years and these glossy publications celebrate its evolution.