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Emily Knight explores the tangled history, and the uncertain future, of zoos.

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Uncaged: 2. The Zoo

2. The Zoo

BBC Radio 4 - Uncaged, 2. The Zoo

Emily Knight finds out how the design of zoos changed over the century.

Emily Knight finds out how the design of zoos changed over the century, bringing animals out of cramped cages and putting them in naturalistic 'enclosures'.

We've hit the 19th century, and the Golden Age of zoos.

Spearheaded by the Zoological Society of London and their iconic zoo in Regent's Park, zoos begin to spring up all over the country, and then all over Europe, and the world. Zoos are many things to many people, all at once. A high-minded scientific institution, dedicated to zoology and the emerging theory of evolution. A place of 'rational recreation', drawing the common rabble out of the drinking-houses and into something a little more civilised. A nice day out, feeding buns to the elephants. And a tool of Empire, reinforcing colonial attitudes to the animals that are kept on show, and the places they were taken from. Science and spectacle; wildness tamed; dangerous beasts petted or ridden; they're a paradox, and phenomenally popular.

In this episode Emily Knight finds out how the design of zoos changed over the century, bringing animals out of cramped cages and putting them in naturalistic 'enclosures'. How the scandalous practice of 'ethnographic displays' (that's human beings in cages, to you and me) caught on, and was eventually brought down. And how our feelings about animal welfare evolved throughout the century, and our understanding of animals too.

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