It’s funny how adults turn back into children when it comes to animals. The toughest, most serious-minded people will babble baby talk around their dog or cat and roll around on the ground and smother them with hugs and kisses. I’ve never seen our art and editorial staff so excited as when I arranged a behind-the-scenes tour for us at Cincinnati Zoo to prepare for this month’s section “Going Wild: The Zoo at 150.” It was like we somehow moved Christmas morning up six months.
Over the past couple of months as we put these stories and photographs together, I asked my colleagues why they were so pumped to be around the zoo animals, and I always got some version of I don’t know. I’ve always loved animals. My contribution was interviewing Cincinnati Zoo Director Thane Maynard, so I asked him why we feel attached to animals. He responded with a more thoughtful and nuanced version of I don’t know, we just do.
Maynard, who’s been at the zoo for 48 years, believes humans are born with an innate connection to animals because our ancestors lived in the wild for hundreds of thousands of years. It’s kind of like my cats, who were removed from their mother at just a few months but still hunt down moles and mice and present them at our front door. No one taught them to do it, they just do.
Children just naturally love dogs and cats and going to the zoo. Maynard says as we get older we learn to avoid or be scared of spiders, snakes, and potentially harmful animals, but we’re born with curiosity about the new world around us. He recalls his own childhood in Florida, where he and his friends were constantly outside exploring.
Maynard also talks about how live animal encounters at the zoo are invaluable IRL experiences for kids raised with smart phones and social media. You can feed the giraffes and walk with kangaroos and penguins at Cincinnati Zoo, besides just observing the animals feeding, grooming, and hanging out.
Seeing Fiona in person is way more fascinating than watching videos of her on Instagram. Why? I don’t know. Find out for yourself.
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