Book Review: The Modern Ark

Cover via Amazon

A Closer Look at Zoos and Conservation
Title: The MODERN ARK: The Story of Zoos: Past, Present, and Future
Author: Vicki Croke
Publisher: Scribner
Pages: 272

Recently I was working on a college paper on the subject of necessity to ban captive breeding and rearing of tigers and other endangered exotic cats. In order to substantiate my paper I referred to this book as a scholarly work (secondary source). The Modern Ark by Vicki Croke is indeed an absorbing account about wildlife preservation, animal welfare, animal encounters, with the evolution of the Zoo as the central topic.

I wonder if the book, though scholarly work with several citations and reference is an easy read because of Croke's background in journalism. She writes an extremely popular "Animal Beat" column in The Boston Globe. This work of Croke is particularly important to everyone because she successfully puts across the thought that a nation's zoos are more a reflection of its culture than the animals on display. The history and evolution of zoos right from the Greek and Roman times to the present is well traced in this book. Like her other books The Lady and the Panda and Animal ER, The Modern Ark was a bestseller in its time.

Personally speaking I derived profound learning about wildlife conservation, captive breeding, zoo and related issues. The most astounding statistic I came across in this book is that since 1900 captive breeding experiments have been conducted with an intention of introducing captive bred creatures into the wild. But out of 13 million animals only a few thousand have actually succeeded. This presents an ominous warning to us, human beings, that restraining ourselves from destroying the natural habitats of wild animals is the only way to protect them and us. Because whatever some of us may argue, survival of wild animals is vital to survival of the Human race.

If you have any interest in wildlife, zoos, nature, and environment, then you must read this book.