As pointed out by S. M. P. Benbow in his essay titled, “Public Places to View Private Lives”, zoos have been with us for centuries and have gone through a metamorphosis over time. While early zoos were focused primarily on the display of the animal, late-nineteenth-century zoos have transitioned to place more emphasis on the natural environment of the animal. In the essay, “The Physics and Metaphysics of Caging: The Animal in Late-Nineteenth-Century American Culture”, by Mark Feldman, Feldman asserts that representations of the animals have become a concern for many zoological societies and that there is a commingling of the animals we incarcerate with our own inner-human significance. Both viewpoints take into consideration the interaction of humans with animals in a purely man-made environment.

Benbow places an emphasis on the cultural influences over time and how zoos have evolved to become more attentive to the natural environmental needs of the animals. Benbow also attributes technological advances in science to the transition of modern zoos. “The traditional cages formed from steel bars are today augmented by a complex array of mechanisms to enclose captive species, including various forms of wire, glass, electronic fences, and ditches. These technological developments have also enabled the successful maintenance of a wider range of species by providing complex environmental controls.”

Feldman on the other hand, places an emphasis on man’s relationship to the confinement of wild animals and the inner self, and how zoos are an extension of the human psyche. Feldman goes on to point out that ”the animal was a constitutive feature of the naturalist self, something to be managed and contained, but not cast out, as that would also lead to a collapse of the self.” He points out how popular authors have personified captive animals, “In Jack London’s most famous pair of novels, The Call of the Wild (first published in 1903) and White Fang (first published in 1906)-essentially mirror image narratives of self-development rely on the trope of the cage and the idea that animality is subject to containment, yet prone to escape.”  Feldman is inferring that we are ourselves like the caged wild animal, incapable of escaping that which confines us.

Many people old enough to have experienced a visit to the local city zoo several decades ago will recall memories of animals surrounded by cement and behind iron bars. This is juxtaposed to modern zoos that pay careful consideration to the natural environment and incorporate the appropriate wildlife indigenous to the species being held in captivity. Although early cages were designed more for sanitation concerns so they could be easily cleaned, they were more often than not void of any aesthetic considerations as little contemplation was given to the idea of a natural habitat. Today, thanks to the research efforts of scientist like Benbow, Feldman and many others, many of our zoos have become a place of learning that place the visitor in a simulated authentic environment thus allowing them to become more at one within the animal world AND THE WORLD WE LIVE IN with which both man and animal RESPECTIVELY find themselves confined.