Sunday editorial: It’s all happening at the Zoo
A few years ago, Mahlon B. Wallace III of Ladue, a retired pencil company executive, rancher, wildlife art collector and philanthropist, purchased a small bronze statue by the noted wildlife sculptor Kent Ullberg. “Reaching Elephant,” it was called, an African bull elephant browsing in an acacia tree.
Mr. Wallace was so taken by the piece that he asked the St. Louis Zoo if it would like to have a life-sized version of it. As it happens, said Zoo President Jeffrey Bonner, the Zoo was looking for an iconic symbol to grace its new front entrance.
And that explains why, at his studio in Loveland, Colo., Mr. Ullberg has molded a 19-foot-tall African bull elephant in clay. That model now is being cast in bronze, and sometime in the next two years, it will be installed at the south entrance to the St. Louis Zoo close to the present entrance of the parking lot. It will be a gift of the Wallace family’s Casa Audlon Charitable Trust.
The elephant won’t have a bronze acacia tree, though; that proved too difficult to reproduce at the larger scale. Instead, it will be browsing in a real locust tree, pruned to look like an acacia, a thorny species common to the African veldt.
The Zoo parking lot will look different by then. Acres of asphalt will have been landscaped and grass will grow in the medians. And the south entrance will have been transformed into The South Arrival Experience.
Assuming the plan is approved by the Missouri Department of Transportation and the Forest Park Advisory Commission, work could begin this fall when the Hampton Avenue entrance to Forest Park is closed as part of the Highway 40/Interstate 64 reconstruction project.
When St. Louis “reopens” in 2010, Mr. Bonner said — that is, when the 40/64 work is done — traffic to the Zoo may be funneled directly to the “arrival experience.” Visitors will get out of their cars and walk past the elephant, maybe stopping to photograph the kids patting its knee. Mr. Ullberg’s elephant could well claim a place among the icons of St. Louis.
Visitors then will stroll along a landscaped, gently curving pedestrian ramp over Wells Avenue and into the Zoo. No more dodging cars on the street. Money for this has been provided by one of those infamous congressional “earmarks;” in this case, $5 million inserted in the 2006 Transportation, Treasury, Housing and Urban Development appropriations bill by Sen. Christopher S. “Kit” Bond and Rep. Jo Ann Emerson of Cape Girardeau, both Missouri Republicans.
The big concrete pylon with the vertical block “ZOO” will be moved south into the parking lot.
The bronze elephant will be the first and most visible sign that big changes are underway at the Zoo, which will celebrate its 100th anniversary in 2010. Some will be noticeable: the renovation and expansion of the venerable bear pits and sea lion pool and a big yard for non-bronze elephants to walk around in. Those still are in the design stage and will be completed sometime after 2010.
Many other changes already are underway, but they will be much less obvious: better lighting, security, drainage and climate control and salt water instead of fresh water for marine mammals. “The Zoo is going to be 100 years old,” Mr. Bonner said. “If you want it work for the next 100 years, you have to start tackling those projects that aren’t so glamorous.”
More significantly, the Zoo’s work beyond the borders of Forest Park will continue to expand. It may be, as Simon and Garfunkel suggested, that it’s all happening at the Zoo. But the Zoo also is happening all around the world.
American zoos have changed profoundly in the last three decades. Mr. Bonner dates the change to the Endangered Species Act of 1973, which required institutions that wanted to bring wildlife into the country to demonstrate that they are doing conservation work in the animals’ home nations.
“At the same time, there was a developing movement where zoos moved away virtually entirely from being what you might call ‘consumptive users’ of wildlife — [the idea that] ‘We can always get more’ — toward managing conservation. That happened essentially during my adulthood,” said Mr. Bonner, 54. Simultaneously, he said, “there was a crash in the population size of many species and a growing awareness that zoos had to be a safety net.”
Zoos around the world began concentrating on scientific management of species and sustaining wild populations. For many species today, he said, there are larger, more genetically viable populations in zoos than there are in the wild.
So as the St. Louis Zoo developed its new strategic plan, it also was developing “a vision of what the role of institutions like the Zoo will be in 25 years,” Mr. Bonner said. The conclusion: “Animals may be safe in zoos, but they’re not saved in zoos. They’re saved if they can continue to live their lives relatively unmolested in the wild.
“We see zoos and aquariums 25 years from now as primarily field conservation organizations. Obviously, the zoo that you see will never go away, nor should it. For many species there is no wild.”
The challenge is how to link what’s inside the fence to what’s outside the fence, as they say in the zoo business. Taxpayers in St. Louis and St. Louis County contribute about $20 million a year to the Zoo through the Zoo-Museum District. That supplies roughly a third of its operating budget. Another third comes from donations and gifts and the final third from parking and concessions.
The tax money all stays “inside the fence,” Mr. Bonner said. One goal in the next 25 years is to “connect fence to field” — to make exhibits that underscore and support the conservation mission. Thus, when the bear exhibit is rebuilt, it may feature a glass wall at which visitors can come “nose to nose with a major carnivore,” Mr. Bonner said. The plight of the polar bear, whose wild habitat is shrinking drastically because of global warming, will become personal.
“Exhibiting is an important step,” Mr. Bonner said. “In many ways, it begins with that. The first step is to get people to care about living things. For many people, that’s not a given. . . . As a society, I’m not sure that we do a very good job of taking the affinity for living things and making it real, making it part of people’s lives. And that’s the role of zoos.”
Watch this video about the Zoo’s plans.
Oh my, what a disappontment, I thought you were editorialising on Washington Politics. I fist saw the elephant, and looked to see if it was going to come down on McLane.
WHAT A BIG DISAPPOINTMENT!!!!
Who gives a crap about an elephant ornament that will be installed in 2 years that does absolutely nothing to enhance the miserable lives of these animals? Why do I get the feeling this is not a donation and the zoo doesn’t want to admit how much they are willing to spend on a bronze statue that could be going towards preserving habitats in the wild?
Laney — maybe you feel that way because you didn’t read the article ?
God bless the poor elephants at the St. Louis Zoo. These poor creatures have tested positive for herpes (look it up, I am telling the truth) It seems that the zoo just keeps shoving their collection of these majestic creatures down everyone’s neck, too. Look, please save elephants–in the wild!! We don’t need more captive elephants.
The sculpture at the entrance to Forest Park is absolutely ugly!!
Went to the zoo last week–once again–it has been at least 2 months–the gorillas are not out and Big Cat Country is virtually closed.
Our family enjoys the zoo, but it sure would be nice if the website, for example, told folks which exhibits were closed and why!!!
And if you happen to be one of the first visitors to the zoo in the morning, as we frequently are take a look at the trash around the zoo-especially across from the polar bear exhibit-no wonder we lost a magnificent creature—lazy folks — workers who must turn their heads to debris everywhere-reckon their supervisor does the same.
And, since smoking inside of the zoo is basically off limits (though I have yet to see it enforced) it would be helpful if security guards did not roam around in their golf buggies smoking and hanging their cigarette outside of cart-almost burned a child’s arm in front of us.
The zoo needs a serious shake up at the top!!!
Laney, you IGNORANT! The STL is WORLD CLASS & the plans are very exciting. Why are you so negative? You should be more appreciative of this FANTASTIC city & all it has to offer!
Curious why Dr. Bonner is accepting a 19 ft bronze statue of an AFRICAN bull elephant when the super-star of the St Louis Zoo is an ASIAN bull elephant named Raja?
Just curious, aren’t you?
johnh (post #1)
Even the Post Ed Board must take a day off now and again.
The McCain bashing and Obama love will start again tomorrow I’m sure
I’m not one to get excited over a sculpture. Would rather see more done to better house the animals. Was disappointed this last week when I took my great-niece and nephew to the zoo and discovered we couldn’t see the tigers or the monkeys and the remaining polar bear doesn’t look to be in great shape. Still, having seen other zoos around the country, I have to say we do have a worldclass zoo. I’ll be anxiously watching for the anticipated renovations.
I like the zoo; I’d like to better if the elephants were shipped to elephant preserves; I’ve read both sides of the debate, even discusses it briefly with Mr. Bonner; come down on the side of the elephants better in preserves; if there’s doubt, let’s err on the side of the elephants not the zoo for goodness sake; formal complaints still being processed against the zoo for their treatment of elephants, I believe?
I can already feel it coming. The zoo crew are probably playing a round of golf with their buddies at BiState and MSD getting tips on how to soak the taxpayers for higher taxes. A free zoo is nice, however, it is time to start charing those who use it, namely, tourists and I am including the tourists from Jefferson, St. Charles, Madison and St. Clair Counties who use it as much as anyone else and don’t contribute a dime. I just got back from a short trip to Chicago and I can assure you, nothing is free and tourists are paying through the nose. How about this, with your annual extortion…I mean tax bill, you get a tear off coupon good for one free visit to the zoo every year for you and your family. After that, its five bucks. Problem solved. The elephants get fed, the inside can get connected with the outside and those who use it pay for it.
Nice spin…
Perhaps Dr. Bonner can explain how much $5million would help the efforts of true conservation. I urge all of you native St. Louisans who grew up worshiping the St. Louis zoo to take a look at the truth.
please visit http://www.clarasvoice.org. You remember Clara? She spent 50 years as a prisoner at the St. Louis Zoo and suffered more thatn any being should. You tried to hide her, but she had a voice. Now- So does Pearl-RAJA’S MOTHER. She is wasting away rocking herslef silly while you talk of bronze statues?? And your docents say she is FINE?
Then Dr. Bonner , you can explain why the Zoo ordered my arrest for trespassing at a peaceful event OUTSIDE THE ZOO then dropped the charges. (read ACLU)? Are you afraid of the truth. That might esplain the threat of a LAWSUIT. Is that why your employees are paid to tear up our educational material before the public can read it? these are strong arm tactics. If the St. Louis Zoo has nothing to hide , why are you so afraid of the truth?
I believe my tax money could be better spent than paying Zoo guards to follow and harrass citizens in their little golf cart.
st. Louis , where do you want you money to go?
Sounds like the animals are the LAST on the list. More concession stands please…
I guess I am surprised at the strong negativity directed at the zoo but everyone is free to express their attitude.
Mr Bonner couldn’t have his big dreams without the incredible volunteers who contribute thousands of hours of free labor. I also would like an accounting of where all of the money goes contributed by the friends of the zoo.
I believe there are only two other taxing districts or sources in the US like the zoo museum district and it certainly is a jewel but there are some real empire builders at the zoo.
The only “empire builders” at the zoo should be the Kings of the Jungle, the Lions. Start collecting a fee to enter the zoo. No family from out of town is going to cancel their zoo visit for twenty bucks. I am tired of paying for freeloaders.
Is Dr. Bonner aware that the statue is an african elephant and the zoo’s elephants are asians? Or is the plan to let the present elephants live long enough under their current miserable conditions of inadequate space and substrate that they all slowly die, wherein they can be replaced by cute babies imported from South Africa when their parents are culled? This bronze elephant will surely have more room to move in than the zoo’s real elephants do. It certainly looks healthier than Pearl, whose prolapsed uterus is causing incontinence and a whole raft of connected problems, and who looks like an insane ghost, rocking sadly in her corner. How about paying some attention to the real, living elephants that the zoo is exposing to unnatural and unhealthy conditions every single day of their unhappy lives, not to mention exposing to diseases such as TB and the elephant herpes virus. As a taxpayer, I am horrified to learn that $5 million in federal funds is going to make a pretty new entrance for a zoo that can’t adequately take care of its animals (marine mammals in FRESH water??
?). Think of what the money that will be spent to make the “arrival experience” better could do in Asia or Africa or someplace where actual conservation is being done. This is shameful.
Dr. Bonner is worried about people not caring about living things? Well, I’m for sure worried about zoo staff not caring about the zoo’s animals. Elephant dame, Clara (yeah, the one with the leather sandals!), died a painful death last year as her feet were slowly rotted away - and now Pearl seems to be going the same way.
All people in St. Louis should DEMAND that their elephants get retired to The Elephant Sanctuary. It’s the best place for a captive elephant east of the Rockies: http://www.ELEPHANTS.com
Am I the only person who does not enjoy seeing wild animals caged? I don’t enjoy the zoo or circus or any other venue that cages wild animals. Believe me - elephants, tigers, lions, bears, etc. are all wild animals. STL Zoo’s eles are slowing dying off….don’t replace them. Instead, showcase your bronze elephant for photo ops.
I have worked at the zoo for one summer and have enjoyed its animals for many more, and I appreciate all of the efforts that have gone into making it a world class operation. Many don’t know how dismal it was back in the 60’s and 70’s where the vase majority of animals lived in small cages, including the elephants, big cats, and apes. It was inhumane but the best that we had at the time.
Mankind has done a number on wiping out wildlife, and you can’t hang the blame on Dr Bonner, Charlie Hessle, or anybody else involved with our zoo or any other. At worst it will become a home for otherwise extinct animals that our society has blindly wiped out. At best, it will be a beacon of sanity and education that will keep critical species alive until mankind comes to his senses and preserves habitat for them.
We can do better, and we can do worse. I hope that we will do much better.
If the Zoo wants an icon, then may we suggest a far more relevant subject would be the Asian elephant Clara, 50 years a prisoner;to be depicted in her signature pose of pain and wearing those wretched sandals.
And what hope for Pearland the rest of this little “family” when a 19 foot lump of bronze seems to b more important to the zoo than cherishing the 8 living creatures on their minuscule piece of the planet.
Clara’s suffering should never be forgotten. We fear deaply for Pearl’s life in a climate of denial.
Not another statue! The southern arrival experience? The animal keepers do the best they can under the circumstances, but you have to peer between the souvenir and food booths, hoping to see animals. I remember the zoo as being more shady, not so much like an amusement park. How I wish Charlie Hoessle had not retired!