Zoos As Spectacles Research Paper

Zoos as Spectacles At the beginning of this course we tried to define the word spectacle, we came up with such ideas as catches attention, large, inauthentic, wide coverage, etc.(first day class) finally noticing that it is difficult to pin point the exact definition to a spectacle. For this research paper I decided to focus my research and analysis on Zoos and how they have become spectacles in today’s society. I will analyze the zoos myself, as well as relate the spectacles of zoos to some theories such as Umberto Eco’s hyper reality, and Jean Baudrillard’s theory of Simulation. I will end by focusing on some specific instances with the idea of animals the spectacles for human enjoyment. Zoo’s enclosures and parks have been around for

I believe that there is no such enclosure that is a true or authentic habitat of the animal or the animal themselves. These parks have been created by humans, by human standards and their observations of that animal’s habitat. Therefore this alters a true representation of the animals habitat, they also force the animals to be seen from the public’s view of their habitat, to be able to give the audience their “show” of the animal. From my understandings, animals generally don’t lay about it plain view in their natural wild habitat, they are usually always struggling to be hidden from predators. The zoo’s statement to the critiques of zoos is that zoos are there to protect the species and to educate the public on the status of each individual species. Although zoos state that their goal is to educate, but according to Marseille, Elands, and Van Den Brink state “research shows that most visitors come to the zoo primarily to experience animals rather than to actively engage in conservation education activities” (29). This statement shows that people come for the experience and not to be educated as much that they prefer to have those experiences, in the “fake” version of the

Bringing it closer to home, another example would take place at science north, where they have multiple creatures within their facility. Within their facility they have, a beaver, porcupine, skunk, multiple turtles and snakes, etc. capturing the species and giving them a habitat to show their audience how this creature would live. More specific they have a beaver and have a manufactured beaver lodge, the outer walls have glass therefore allowing for its audience to see inside the lodge and constantly being watch for the beaver’s whole life. This beaver not being able to escape from the tapping on the glass of his home, or being able to hide from the humans surrounding his home. This is another clear example where humans have tried to take from the real and made a “fake” (relating back to Baudrillard’s theory of simulation) which humans prefer, in order to get closer to the species. Science North is another spectacle, producing multiple presentations on multiple media sources and making people aware of. The animals are presented for the human’s enjoyment and desires, to become closer to the “real” animal. Even though the animal is not manmade it has been extremely altered into a