When Doug Piekarz was hired away from the Bronx Zoo — the largest urban zoo in the country — in 1997 to be the zoo curator in Akron, then director L. Patricia Simmons had one question.
Would you like to help rebuild a zoo?
Like other zoos across the country, the Akron Zoo faced a number of challenges at the time — aging animal exhibits that resembled glorified cages, a fickle audience wanting a theme park experience and pressure from animal rights advocates who believe animals should not be kept in zoos.
Piekarz is now in charge of the Akron Zoo and for the most part just one of those nagging issues remains.
The zoo has pretty much rebuilt itself, with the exception of a couple exhibit areas.
Attendance continues to rise. Last year, 363,903 people visited the Akron Zoo — the third highest annual attendance in its 62-year history.
But there still are some challenges.
Media spotlight
The same public who flocks to cool new exhibits like the Akron Zoo’s Grizzly Ridge that is home to its grizzly bears, river otters, red wolves, coyotes, bald eagles and interactive space for guests are also swayed by the power of social media when tragic events occur like the small child who recently climbed into the gorilla exhibit at the Cincinnati Zoo.
Workers had to kill the zoo’s 450-pound endangered gorilla named Harambe to save the 3-year-old boy after he was dragged across a moat.
The incident has spurred a social media debate over the future role of zoos.
Piekarz said great care goes into designing exhibit space. Everything from the well-being of the animal to the safety and experience of the guests is considered.
He points to the revamped home for the zoo’s snow leopards as an example.
When redesigning the space for the Legends of the Wild area, he said, they first looked at the natural habits of the species.
Since the leopards like to perch high, it only made sense to expand upward.
Piekarz said the revamped space allowed the leopards to have a good view of guests noshing at the zoo’s cafe and also the Akron skyline.
“This is all about actually meeting the needs of the animals,” he said.
Everything the zoo does, Piekarz said, is geared toward the proper care of the collection and meeting the needs of the guests.
Piekarz said the zoo’s old space for the bears dated back to the zoo’s early days and was nothing more than a large cage with huge bars pointed in toward the animals.
Instead of bars, the new space has windows for guests to peer inside as the bears are free to roam about.
“It is a much larger space so they can now engage in all their natural behaviors,” he said.
But there are those who will argue it is still a cage.
Held captive
Heather Rally, a veterinarian for the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) Foundation, said zoos like Akron and Cleveland have come a long way in improving their animal exhibits.
But no matter the number of fake trees or rocks, Rally said, it is impossible to take away the “stress” on the animals of being in captivity and robbing them of their natural instincts to roam over large areas.
“There is nothing animal friendly about confining a majestic animal,” she said.
The solution, Rally said, would be to make zoos a place of interactive learning sans live animals and instead work to ensure sustainability in the wild or create expansive reserves for them to live in.
“Zoos enslave these animals and put them in a box,” she said.
With 1.1 million visitors a year, the Cleveland Zoo is the perfect platform to raise awareness and educate the public about the importance of preserving animal species, Director Chris Kuhar said.
Kuhar pointed to the zoo’s new Tiger Passage exhibit as a perfect example.
With a price tag of $4.1 million, the space for the Amur tigers to roam and explore is five times larger than the old-style moat space.
What has shrunk, Kuhar said, is the space within the exhibit for the visitors. Gone are the grand open public walkways and instead more space is dedicated to animals.
He said the population of Amur tigers in the wild now numbers just over 500, so efforts to preserve endangered species at places like the Cleveland Zoo are becoming more and more critical.
Animals top priority
Kuhar said great care goes into these spaces to ensure they make sense for the animal foremost and also the overall experience for the guests.
“We are designing things differently,” he said. “We are trying to flip the model so the size and design is geared toward the animal.”
Not only is the staff working toward the care and welfare of the animals, Kuhar said, but the zoo also has partnered with Case Western Reserve University to monitor the collection.
Like Akron, Kuhar said, the Cleveland Zoo is constantly working to revamp its exhibit spaces because what made sense in the 1960s and 1970s doesn’t necessarily meet current standards.
A great example of this is the sentimental Cleveland Zoo favorite Monkey Island that opened in 1936 and was once home to 150 rhesus monkeys.
There are now just a handful of animals on exhibit there and a climbing structure has been added atop the rocks so they can keep active.
“We are continually willing to change the way we manage our collection,” he said.
Craig Webb can be reached at cwebb@thebeaconjournal.com or 330-996-3547.