Wild Man from Borneo: A Cultural History of the Orangutan

8. Zoo Stories: Becoming Animals, Unbecoming Humans

185 8  Zoo Stories Becoming Animals, Unbecoming Humans Ideas of human responsibility for animals, along with debates over the ethics of their captivity, began to shape the orangutan’s appearances in zoos more than a century ago, albeit in a more limited range of ways than is evident in fiction or film. By the early 1900s, innovative zoo directors were attempting to present exotic animals in more humane, quasi-natural contexts rather than in bare cages. This mode of presentation lent itself well to incorporating educational and scientific goals as part of the Western zoo mandate, leaving institutions that did not establish themselves in such terms to continue as mere animal show grounds.1 The First and Second World Wars interrupted the momentum but not the trajectory of this “new” zoo movement, which has expanded since the 1950s, aided by a spirit of transnational cooperation in developing zookeeping techniques and in breeding and exchanging animals. From the 1960s, educational agendas began to inform zoological practices more overtly, resulting in displays aimed to position humans as incidental observers of natural behavior rather than as spectators anticipating a show. More recent exhibits of rare species in zoos and animal parks have foregrounded survival projects, inviting visitors to become involved in species conservation , usually via financial contributions. The landscape immersion concept, integrating animals, plants and human visitors in carefully controlled walk-through enclosures,hasalsoemergedasanalternativedisplaystrategy.Insomezoos,virtual tours and interfaces add a sense of close proximity to exotic inhabitants, allowing zoo-goers to “experience” them in apparently more ethical ways. Despite these efforts to reinvent themselves, most zoos continue to function primarily as entertainment ventures that graft research, education, and conservation onto a “recreational rootstock.”2 Such institutions have played contradictory, 186  Chapter 8 and sometimes controversial, roles in presenting and representing the orangutan asanimal,inpartbecausetheynecessarilyprivilegespectacle-basedhuman-animal encounters even when exhibits strive to emphasize natural ecologies. Orangutans are not uniquely affected by this dilemma, but their recognized ability as “natural” actors has favored their recruitment in staged zoo entertainments, particularly as anthropomorphized mascots or zoo icons. Such performances have strengthened public perceptions of the red ape’s affinity with humans, while simultaneously showcasing its animality. Although twenty-first-century zoos may work to disassociate themselves from that history, its legacy is abundantly evident in Internet clips, media reports, and zoo memorabilia. Yet the roles played by orangutans within zoo cultures and related ventures such as circuses add up to more than a simple narrative of clever—or vulgar—performances. The complexity of humanorangutan bonds has been a particular focus of zoo stories, along with accounts of the ape’s intelligence. Ideological and quasi-scientific agendas have been enfolded into both training practices and shows. Not least, orangutan performances have also galvanized animal welfare debates and high-profile legal battles. The principles of naturalistic presentation that revolutionized zoos at the beginning of the twentieth century were not easily transposed to exhibits of zoo apes housed in escape-proof enclosures in temperate climates. Yet orangutan performances were part and parcel of a larger aim behind zoo modernization: what Nigel Rothfels calls the project of “managing eloquence,” or directing spectator attention away from imagining the experiences of animals in captivity.3 The German architect of the changes, Carl Hagenbeck Jr., had extensive experience as an animalhandlerandbythelate1870shadbuiltupEurope’slargestliveanimaldealership , along with a crowded entrepôt-cum-zoo in Hamburg, which contained numerous valuable species. He also became famous for his so-called anthropologicalzoological exhibitions, massive undertakings that juxtaposed native peoples with trainedanimalsinshowsattractingupto100,000spectatorsadayinsomevenues.4 Hagenbeck’s innovations in zoo design were driven by an apparently genuine desire to improve the lot of captive animals. But he was also a master at theatrics and used his skill in this area to develop cage-free exhibits via the zoo “panorama,” a composite structure of tiered enclosures “laid out as stages” separated from each other and distanced from the public by concealed moats.5 Within this mise en scène,Hagenbeckcouldpresentamixtureofspecies,evenpredatorsandtheirprey, as part of one unified dramatic image to communicate a harmonious, if highly aestheticized, version of the natural world. He patented his design in Germany in 1896 and opened his own Tierpark (animal park) in the Hamburg suburb of Stellingen in 1907, with vast Arctic and African panoramas as initial features. Al- Zoo Stories  187 though some of his contemporaries scoffed at the theatricality of his exhibits, nobody could deny their sheer beauty or their appeal to...