Short essay on Zoos and Botanical Gardens

While settling on earth’s most productive habitats and changing them to agricultural and other human uses, mankind has tremendously reduced wild organisms, both plants and animals and this process of wild life degeneration is now taking place at an accelerated rate.

Most of the people are becoming urbanized with the result that a vast majority of them will never see the significant diversity of wild life which occurs on our planet except in zoos and botanical gardens. Thus zoos and botanical gardens are living museums of natural history.

Today they are undergoing a transition from institutions which simply exhibit wild life to organizations which maintain breed and conserve wild life as well. The role of conservation of biodiversity has come to zoos and botanical gardens automatically as it is these organization alone which have been dealing with wild life and have some means to keep, multiply and thus conserve the species disappearing in nature. Many species maintained in zoos and botanical gardens have already become rare and some even extinct in the wild.

(1) Zoological Gardens or Zoos :

Maintenance of wild animals in captivity is a very ancient practice – almost as old as the civilization itself. Picturographic records dating back to 2500 B.C. document zoo type collections in Egypt. It was as early as 2000 B.C., that Empress Tenki built a house of deer’s in China.

In 1100 B.C., Emperor Wen Wang founded the “House of Intelligence” which maintained a variety of birds and animals including the Giant Panda. In 500 B.C., Greeks built Aviaries for birds. In 4th century B.C., Alexander kept a set of diverse fauna in his menageries.

In 285 B.C., Emperor Ptolemy II of Egypt exhibited several wild animals in his gardens which included Chimpanzees as well. By 16th century A.D., zoos were established at Cairo, Karlsberg, Dresden, Prague and Versailles. The oldest zoo, the Schonbrunn zoo, which exists today also, was established in Vienna in the year 1759. In 1794 A.D., the first public zoo was founded in Paris. London zoo came into existance in 1828. The zoo at Bristol was established in 1836.

In India also, the first manager was setup by Lord Wellesly at Barrackpore in 1800 A.D. The first Indian zoo was established by Raja Rajendra Mullick Bahadur at Marble palace in the heart of Calcutta in 1854. This zoo happens to be the oldest existing zoo in India. By 1860 A.D., the zoo- movement took roots and their management became more scientific. In 1907, Carl Hagenbeck of Hamburg developed the concept of braless moated enclosures and with it attempts were made to maintain animals in more natural settings.

The primary objectives behind maintenance of wild animals in zoos and menageries were exhibition and entertainment. The realization of research and educational values of zoos provided most of the zoos of the world their modern shape and the scientific basis for their management. By 1960 A.D., scientists and naturalists the world over were faced with the reality of an alarming rate of extinction of wild animal species and zoos of the world were looked upon to help in the conservation of endangered species.

Today the zoos maintain well over 500,000 individuals of terrestrial vertebrates, representing about 3000 species of mammals, birds, reptiles and amphibians apart from a large number of fishes and other less conspicuous forms in aquaria and other collections. There are about 1140 zoos all over the world with an average area of 55 hectares which are visited by about 2.88 million people each year.

The earlier objective with which zoos were initially founded, that is exhibition and entertainment, have paled out of significance and more important objectives have replaced them. The primary goal behind maintenance of zoos today is:

(I) Participation in wild life conservation efforts:

1. Maintenance and breeding of endangered species.

2 To provide populations of endangered species to be reintroduced in natural habitats.

3. Maintenance of ex-situ population for exhibition or research purposes from where these animals can easily be obtained.

(II) Study and research:

1. For acquisition of scientific knowledge which will ultimately benefit conservation efforts.

2 To obtain scientific knowledge on captive populations this could provide an insight into the basic biology of the species.

(III) Educational purposes:

Zoos and animal exhibitions can create public and political awareness about the conservation of wild life and natural resources.

Zoos of the world have contributed significantly to wild life conservation efforts. Pere David deer (Elaphurus davidianus), Przwalskii’s horse (Equus przwalskii), Oryx (Oryx dammah), Adax (Addax nosomaculatus), Alpine Ibex (Capra ibex-ibex), Ospreys (Pandian haliacetus), Harris’ Hawk (Parabuteo uncinctus), the douc langur (Pigathrix nemaeus) survive only because of the enormous efforts put in by world’s zoos.

At one time these species had completely disappeared from there, natural habitat. The few specimens which happened to be in captivity in zoos of the world were carefully maintained bred and most of them, with few exceptions like Pigathrix nemaeus and Equus, przwalskii, have been introduced back into their natural homes.

Attempts are being made to reintroduce the remaining species as well. Similarly zoos have done excellent work in restocking, replenishing and re-strengthening the natural populations of a large number of species which occur as small fragmented populations. But for these restrengthening attempts many of these species would have disappeared. The Siberian tiger (Panthera tigris altaica), Lion tailed Macaque (Maca silenus), Golden lion tamarin (Leontopithecus rosalia rosalia), American bison (Bison bison), Black footed ferret (Mustela nigripes), Eagle owl (Bubo bubo).

White tailed sea eagle (Haliacetus albicilla), Goshawk (Accipiter gentilis), Bearder vulture (Gypaetus barbatus) Philippines eagle (Pithacophaga jefferyi), etc. are some of those species which were survived by dangerously low populations. Individuals of these species were painstakingly captured maintained and bred in) captivity. When sufficient populations of these species were built up they were released in wild habitat to strengthen the natural population which were on verge of extinction. They are flourishing in most of the cases now.

(2) Botanical Gardens:

A botanical garden can be described as a place where flowers, fruits and vegetables are grown. Since times immemorial man has been cultivating plants for various purposes. It is a general practice to maintain a small garden in every well to do household and kings and courtesans maintained large gardens where a variety of plants were grown. The basic purpose for the maintenance of these gardens was beauty, aesthetic sense and the calm and quite environment which a secluded place full of greenery and colourful flowers provide.

With the advent of the era of scientific development most of botanical garden started keeping interesting exotic plants for the purpose of exhibition and education. A number of botanical gardens become institutions of scientific research and undertook the job of cataloguing and classification a plants. Many of them have contributed significantly to our knowledge of taxonomy and systematic of plant life.

As early as 1545 A.D., the botanical garden of Padua, Italy was established. The natural history museum of Paris, France, came into existence in 1635 A.D. In 1646 the botanical garden and museum of Berlin, Germany was established. The Royal Botanical Garden of Edinberg, Scotland,

U.K. was founded in 1670 A.D. The Botanical garden and institute of Vienna, Austria was established in 1754. The Indian botanical garden, Sibpur, Howrah, India was founded in 1787 A.D. The Royal Botanical garden of Peradiniya in Sri Lanka was founded in 1810 and that of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia was developed in 1816 A.D.

The Royal Botanical garden, Kew, England was established by merging the private gardens of Sir Henry Capel and Dowager Princes of Wales, Princes Augusta in 1841. The New York Botanical garden, New York was established in 1895. Apart from maintaining live specimens of plants from all over the world, many of these gardens also maintain preserved samples and herbaria along with record of their geographical distribution ecology and life cycles.

The task of cataloguing and classification of plants which botanical gardens undertook in addition to up keep and maintenance of plant life have resulted into substantial addition to our knowledge of systematics and taxonomy of green plants. Hooker J.D. in association with George Benthem published their Genera Planaterium during the years 1862 to 1883.

These authors have contributed a phylogenetic system of classification of green plants which represents a land mark in the field of systematic and taxonomy. Both of these authors were associated with Kew Botanical Gardens England. A number of research journals and magazines are published by Botanical gardens of world. Notable among these are: The Kew Bulletin and Index Kewensis started in year 1887, Annals of Missouree Botanical gardens, Annals of Royal (Indian) Botanical Gardens, and Annual reports etc.

Though something was done to preserve the germ plasm of crop plants and their wild relatives earlier, it was only in the eighties that plants growing in the wild received some attention. Now a wealth of rare and endangered plants thrives in about 600 botanical gardens of the world which have taken up the job of conservation of plants seriously.

Many of these botanical gardens have been equipped with latest technology and are doing excellent work to preserve, propagate and reintroduce plants in their natural habitats. Plants like Diospyros hemiteles known from a single female tree and Olax psittacorum known only from old collections which is lost in the wild but is survived by a single tree, is protected and work is going on to breed them through tissue culture techniques.

Tambourissa tetragonia is known to us only by two specimens and tissue culture techniques are being tried to propagate it at Kew Botanical gardens. Limonium tuberculatum has disappeared from the wild. The botanical garden at Canary Island, Spain, had a few specimens of this plant from which a population of about a dozen plants was established. It is now being further multiplied to be introduced in its natural home.

Ramosmania heterophylla a plant whose parts are in great demand because of its medicinal properties has disappeared from the wild. A few specimen of this plant are maintained in a botanical garden in Mauritius. Attempts are being made to cultivate this plant in tissue cultures at Kew Botanical gardens.

Similarly, Lotus kunkellii, Onopordon nogalesii, Euphorbia handiensis, Senecio hadrosomus, Clianthus punieus, Hibiscus columnaris, Badula crassa etc. have been brought under human care in various botanical gardens and are being multiplied for reintroduction into their natural homes.

A sanctuary has been established for Nepenthes khasiyana the famous insectivorus plant badly sought after for scientific study in educational institutions. Natural populations of many orchids which produce world’s most showy flowers, like Paphiopedium fairieyanum, Cymbedium aloiflium, Aerides crispum have already declined to few individuals in isolated patches. The Indian Botanical garden, Sibpur, Howrah is doing a remarkable work by preserving these plants and multiplying them in its Orchid house.