<em>Terry “Rock” Moeslein, Assistant Education Director/Interpretive Naturalist
Virginia Living Museum, Newport News, Virginia</em>

Why not have native animals at your zoo? It is easier to find local species from wildlife rehabilitators.  They are easier to maintain in a native climate and find local support for their health and well-being. But there are other valid reasons why a typical zoo might consider keeping animals more often found within their state or local area.

Generally the zoos in the past hundred years were places where people could go to see rare or very unusual animals - sometimes for free and sometimes at a cost.  Except in the larger cities, people of the 1800’s to early 1900’s were more aware of the wildlife and wild places in their areas than are many people today.  Children explored the local woodlands, swamps, creeks and meadows.  People hunted, trapped and ventured into or lived in rural areas.  One would commonly see bald eagles and owls, raccoons, fox, muskrats, deer, chipmunks and bear.  Then, as today, local animals were not always seen as exciting as new and exotic ones.  People went to the zoos to see the variety of new and unusual animals.

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