The Zoo Farmyard: A Resource for Conservation in Concept and Practice J. Beranger, Research & Technical Programs Manager American Livestock Breeds Conservancy North Carolina , USA The zoo farmyard, with its universal appeal to young and old, is often overlooked as a unique opportunity for zoos to touch visitors on a very personal level. From infancy, children are exposed to farm animals through stories, nursery rhymes, and picture books. This holds true for people from all walks of life and throughout the world. The farmyard in-turn has a built-in capacity to reach a wider audience than any other exhibit in a zoological institution. When connected to the endangered breeds of livestock and poultry, it can be used as a vehicle to introduce visitors to the concept of extinction and conservation on an elementary level. In practice, introducing endangered livestock and poultry into a zoo’s collection presents the institution with a number of beneficial possibilities. Endangered breeds widen a zoo’s conservation mission and are relatively inexpensive for the zoo. Major exhibit modifications are not necessary in most cases for a zoo to move from the use of common breeds to endangered breeds. The zoo can further create a cultural connection to the local region by utilizing breeds that were historically used in the zoo’s locale. This inadvertently ensures that the animals in the collection are adapted to the local climate conditions making their management easier for the zoo staff. Endangered breed exhibits be creative and generate opportunities to examine the history of animal agriculture, where it stands today, and benefits of shifting to more sustainable systems in which these breeds typically excel. The endangered breeds of livestock and poultry are important historically and culturally. Like artwork, architecture, language, and other artifacts, rare breeds enlighten us about the needs, interests, skills, and values of the people who preceded us. Unlike other elements of nature, these living animals also reflect our evolving relationship with the natural world. Rare breeds of livestock – like rare varieties of agricultural crops – give us immediate access to a piece of the earth’s indispensable biodiversity, a piece upon which we are most dependent.
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