Interspecies America: animal lives and reproductive politics at the Smithsonian National Zoo, 1887 - 1983

Contemporary climate disaster, zoonotic pandemics (COVID-19), the global recall of Chinese giant pandas, and a wide range of other issues in the animal world require new perspectives on human / animal relationships that are grounded in science, politics, and cultural history. American zoos and aquariums annually receive more than 183 million visitors — approximately half of the nation’s population — which is more “than NFL, NBA, NHL, and MLB annual attendance combined” (AZA). Zoos are powerful locations in American culture where visitors engage complex ideas of national belonging, environmental stewardship, and the reproductive politics of animal breeding. Pushing past accounts of animals as symbolic representations in popular culture, my case studies illuminate the unique histories and scientific interventions that have defined exotic animal life in the United States. I show that zoo exhibits are far from natural spaces. Zoo professionals frequently make decisions about animal care and conservation that reflect their own concerns and values over the conservation needs of the animals. By tracing those contradictions through individual animal histories at the Smithsonian National Zoo from 1887-1983, I expand upon the underlying idea of zoos as places of autonomous human action over supposedly passive animals and demonstrate that humans and animals have been differently defined by the raced and gendered values of American culture, subsequently resisting those definitions to variable effect. I offer a more complex assessment of zoos’ historical legacies that define their contemporary impact and limit their vision of a more ethical environmental future.