Serving Time

Some 350 million people visit the world's zoos each year but how many stop to think about the animals' situation? On this episode of "The Nature of Things," host David Suzuchi queries: "what would we learn about human beings if we only saw them in jail?" Although Serving Time does indeed raise serious questions about animals in captivity, illustrating its points with examples like that of the orangutan (who, unlike at the zoo, lives a single and extremely active life in the wild), the program is really after bigger game--namely, the threat of extinction. It's a chilling thought that there are more rhinoceros in the Cincinnati Zoo than on the Serengeti Plain or that cheetahs are nearly extinct. Many animal species are being wiped out by the all-encompassing encroachment on the world's tropical rain forests. Here animal populations are seeing their homes destroyed at the astonishing rate of 50 acres per minute worldwide. Ironically, the future of animals in the wild may well rest with the world's zoos where, in many places, conservation groups are working together with zoo officials to breed threatened species and reintroduce the offspring into its natural habitat. It's sad when one zoo president expresses the "hope" that 200 yrs. from now 20% of the species around today will continue to exist. An excellent and disturbingly informative program. Highly recommended. (See THE ART OF THE DOGON for availability.)