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Abstract
This study examines the mission statements of 137 AZA-accredited zoos in the
United States and reports on the seven predominant themes found therein: 1) education,
We also discuss correlations between themes. We present a literature review on the roles
and purposes of zoos and discuss how this literature compares to the stated roles and
Key Words (3- 6) zoo mission statements, zoo conservation, and zoo education
Zoo Mission Statements 4
This study examines the mission statements of zoos in the United States that have
been accredited by the American Zoo & Aquarium Association (AZA) and reports on the
predominant themes and the thematic relationships therein. For the purpose of this paper
Zoo visits. North American zoos and aquariums are well known as popular
recreational and educational venues (Chobot, 1989), attracting more than 134 million
visitors each year, nine million of whom are students (AZA, 2004). Zoos are used
frequently by teachers for field trips because of the unique educational opportunities that
they provide (Schroeder, 1970). Considering the number of visitors zoos attract for
increasingly aware of the potential conservation impact of zoological visits, they claim to
make conservation a vital component of their purpose through their missions (Kellert &
written declaration of the purpose of an organization, which guides critical and strategic
decision-making (Drohan, 1999; Quinley, 1991). The mission identifies the scope of the
operations of an organization and reflects its values and priorities (Abrahams, 1995). A
mission statement divulges the unique reason for existing as an organization, focuses the
allocation of financial resources (Bart, 1998), articulates the goals, dreams, behavior,
Zoo Mission Statements 5
culture, and strategies of the organization (Stone, 1996), states goals (Bart, 1998) and
reflects the ethics of the organization (Stone, 1996). Moreover, a mission statement is
organizations, provides general guidelines for writing and examining missions (Table 1).
The next section of this paper specifically addresses literature about zoo missions.
Zoo mission statements. Zoos need a clear identity, with stated goals and aims
Today, more than ever, zoos need to think harder [about] why they are
there and what role they will fill in conservation, education, and research.
Rembrandts in the world than there are Siberian tigers. (Hutchins, 2003, p. 25)
Most zoological institutions have missions that give guidance to the operation of the zoo
and set goals for the facility (Mazur & Clark, 2001). The 2006 AZA Guide to
Accreditation of Zoological Parks and Aquariums requires a copy of the stated purposes
of the institution, which is typically a mission statement, as a part of its application for
accreditation (AZA, 2005). Missions describe the reasons zoos exist, who they serve, and
how they will serve. All policy development should flow from the mission statement,
clarify ethical and conservation issues and should be consulted when these issues arise
(ReCollections, 2004). Missions are an important guide for zoos (ReCollections, 2004)
and should be shared with zoo staff so that everyone knows what the zoo wants to
achieve.
Zoo Mission Statements 6
Zoo professionals must ask how well matched their mission is with their goals
(Clark, 1993). The mission statement provides a lens that zoo professionals may use to
view the social, scientific, economic, political, and moral dynamics that impinge on the
operation of the zoo (Mazur & Clark, 2001). The mission statement insures that
and education (Mazur, 1991; Mazur & Clark, 2001). Zoo personnel are being urged to
evaluate the conservation efforts and missions of zoos (Balmford, et al., 2004; Gwynne,
2004; Reading & Miller, 2004; Sterling, et al., 2004; Stevens, et al., 2004) and are being
held accountable for accomplishing their stated missions (Miller et al., 2004).
Research Questions
oriented missions, it is critical to evaluate the missions of zoos (Miller, et al., 2004).
Miller, et al. (2004) state that just as universities should be held accountable to a mission
held accountable to that mission. This study analyzes the content of 137 USA AZA-
accredited missions. The following research questions were addressed in this study:
2. What terms are used to describe the predominant themes in these zoo missions?
Methodology/Information Sources
The missions of 137 AZA-accredited zoos were analyzed during this study. In
2004, AZA listed 213 accredited zoos and aquariums throughout North America (AZA,
2004). This study was limited to USA zoos and zoos with aquaria, excluding stand alone
Zoo Mission Statements 7
aquaria and wildlife parks/centers. One hundred forty-two zoos met these criteria. Eighty
of these 142 zoos provided their missions on their websites. AZA maintains a website,
www.AZA.org, with individual links to the home pages of zoos. The missions were not
always on the home pages and locating the missions required searching the websites of
many of these zoos. Fifty-seven additional missions were obtained by emailing (51) and
calling individual zoos (6), thus giving us a final number of 137 zoo missions for
analysis.
Our analysis of the data included use of both qualitative and quantitative methods.
The mission were analyzed through discourse analysis using a systemic network. After
predominant themes were determined, relationships among these themes were analyzed
semiotic system, a system for making meaning of human relations, social events, and
other aspects of social life. Drawing from functional systemic linguistics (Halliday, 1978;
Halliday & Hasan, 1989), discourse analysts view language not only as a tool for
including outcomes at the level of the organization. Gee (1999) further asserts that
language structures “human affiliation within cultures and social groups and institutions”
(p. 1). From this perspective, zoo missions serve as “language-in-use,” (Gee, 1999) and
constitute social action. The zoo mission statement, in this sense, shapes the meanings
assigned to zoo activities, reflects the interests of zoo stakeholders, and directs the
activities of zoo professionals. Because economic, social, and cultural changes are a
Zoo Mission Statements 8
language that constitutes meanings of social actions and processes enacted within the
zoological park.
was developed. Systemic networks have been used to analyze conversations (Tunnicliffe,
1995, 1996, 2000), free-response items (Monk, 1983), and interview questions based on
students’ drawings (Boulter, Tunnicliffe & Reiss, 2003, Tunnicliffe, 2000). These
networks categorize and describe data by displaying the relationship between the
categories. In this study, a systemic network was used to help the authors obtain useful
data by categorizing or grouping items and preserving the relationship between the
Systemic networks (Bliss et al., 1983; Monk, 1983a, 1983b) produce a network of
categories that gradually becomes more specific. First, data are organized in large
categories, or ordinates (themes). Ordinates are then subdivided into smaller and smaller
units until a set of terminal, or end categories for each ordinate category is reached (Bliss
et al., 1983; Tunnicliffe, 1995; Tunnicliffe & Reiss, 1999). Figure 1 is an example of the
systemic network developed for the ordinate category or theme of facilities (Bliss et al.,
1983; Tunnicliffe, 1995; Tunnicliffe & Reiss, 1999). Table 2 is an example of how a
mapped a set of categories that could encompass most of the data. All raters agreed upon
Zoo Mission Statements 9
consistency. In summary, seven ordinate categories were developed from reading the zoo
missions. The predominant themes in order of prominence were (a) education, including
affective, cognitive, and general, (b) conservation, (c) recreation, (d) facilities, (e)
Scales for each of the seven ordinate categories or themes were developed to allow
for quantitative analysis. Within each scale, levels I-VI were generated, based on the data
derived from the systemic network (Figure 1). Each level represents the amount of
information in a particular ordinate category that a zoo provides in its mission statement.
Each ascending level (I-VI) includes more detailed information about the particular
ordinate category. Level I means the ordinate category was not mentioned, while Level
VI means the category was described with the most detail. Each of the 137 zoos then was
assigned a level for each of the seven themes. Table 3 gives the total number of zoos
ranked at each level within each theme. As an example of our scales, the scale for
missions can be found in Table 5. The levels were analyzed using SPSS to determine
The missions analyzed in this study ranged in length from four words to two pages of
text. The missions addressed seven predominant themes (in order of prominence): (a)
education, including affective, cognitive, and general, (b) conservation, (c) recreation, (d)
facilities, (e) research, (f) administration and (g) culture. Each of the themes is discussed
in the following sections of the paper. The number of zoo missions that were coded in the
Zoo Mission Statements 10
ordinate and subordinate categories and terminals are given in parentheses. See Table 2
Findings
stated first priority of accredited zoos and aquariums (Koebner, 1994). However, while
our findings show that 132 (96%) of the 137 zoo missions include education as a
As zoos are becoming more proactive in their conservation education efforts, zoo
education programs are moving away from strictly taxonomic and natural history themes
professionals are focusing on finding ways to instill in visitors the knowledge and
feelings that motivate conservation action (Anderson, 2001). The missions of zoos should
support the conservation message of the zoo (Croke, 1997), educate the public (Hutchins
& Conway, 1995), and identify the human reaction to the wonders of the zoo (Resnicow,
1994).
Even though zoo personnel claim that education is a priority and 60% of zoo
visitors state that zoos are places for education (Lessow, 1990), few people visit zoos
with the declared aim to be educated. People generally visit zoos to be entertained
(Martin, 2000). Even when adults recognized the educational importance of zoos they did
not visit the zoo intending to learn, but they encouraged their children to do so (Lessow,
1990). Zoo missions are important because our analysis indicates an incongruence among
the views of zoo personnel and zoo visitors with respect to the importance of the
more deeply analyze the zoo missions with respect to these goals for education, we used
of educational goals they established was the three domains of learning: cognitive
(knowledge), affective (emotions) and psychomotor (physical skills) domains. Bloom and
his colleagues then devised a hierarchy of learning levels from the simplest level of each
domain (recall and compare/contrast in the knowledge domain; awareness in the affective
domain) to the most complex level of each domain (synthesis and evaluation in the
domain). The educational components of zoo missions were examined and categorized as
missions used only the word education. If the nature of the educational goal (i.e. either
affective or cognitive) could not be discerned from our examination of the language used
in the mission statement, then the word(s) was categorized as general. None of the
Bloom and his colleagues suggested a number of verbs that implied different levels and
domains of education and these verb choices were used to guide our categorization
schema. For specific words and phrases used in the missions see Table 6.
With respect to cognitive educational references, three zoo missions included the
“understanding of conservation”. Thus, less than 20% of all of the cognitive statements
The fact that there were twice the number of affective references(88) as cognitive
references(43) points perhaps to the response of zoos to the call in the literature for a new
educational mission. Kolbert (1995) issued a call for affective education. She argued that
little had changed in public education in zoos and maintained that zoos give out more
relationships with animals and the natural world. Furthermore, Kolbert states that zoos
describe animals in terms of their behavior, their adaptations, their classification, using
the same language and content that can be found in any textbook or nature show. Kolbert
argues strongly for affective education, commenting that we need to care deeply about
the perceptions and feelings of people as they experience the zoo, careful not to crush the
empathetic response with a lot of facts. Most importantly, zoo educators should
encourage zoo visitors to consider how they fit into the larger community of life.
the zoo. The conservation policies of the zoo should be easily recognized in the mission
statement. Of the 137 missions, 116 (85%) specifically mentioned conservation, but 21 of
these used only the word conservation without providing further detail. We found that
Zoo Mission Statements 13
zoos define conservation by describing their practice and/or advocacy. For words and
The roles of the zoo should effectively support conservation of local and global
biological diversity (Mazur & Clark, 2001). Our study shows that 19 zoos mention
conservation programs supporting diversity; nine mention global programs, six mention
specialized animal breeding, research, and education programs (Rabb, 1994). Zoos have a
endangered species conservation plans (Mazur & Clark, 2001). Our data show 13 zoos
mention breeding, including Species Survival Plan (SSP)(4), husbandry(3) and/or captive
breeding(3). Even though the 2006 AZA Guide to Accreditation of Zoological Parks and
Aquariums (AZA, 2005) clearly states conservation must be an element of the mission
Recreation. Another common theme in zoo missions is that zoological parks are a
site for recreation. Despite the efforts of zoo personnel to promote a conservation role and
scholarly, scientific, or conservation pursuits (Bitgood, 1988; Kellert & Dunlap 1989).
Ninety-five (69%) zoo missions promoted recreation; 23 of these only mentioned the
word recreation. Terms used to further define recreation in the mission statement can be
found in Table 6. As stated earlier, zoo missions are a reflection of zoo policy. If zoos are
intent on changing their image from one of recreation and leisure to conservation and
Zoo Mission Statements 14
education, then they should think carefully about changing their missions, which should
reflect and guide policy development. Conversely, if zoo personnel want to address the
needs and interests of zoo visitors then perhaps there should be a greater focus on zoos as
recreational opportunities/outlets.
prominent subordinate category of facilities was exhibits(69). Often, exhibits are believed
to be the outward manifestation of the soul of the zoo (Croke, 1997) and should
demonstrate a dedication to the values and mission of the zoo (Bierlein, 2003). When
exhibits are presented in a meaningful context, and with an appropriate message, they can
educate visitors about important conservation issues (Kellert 1996). Our study shows that
thirteen (19%) missions stated exhibits(69) were for education(13). Additionally, fifteen
(Swanagan, 2000) due to the belief that naturalistic exhibits, with small amounts of
specific information, increase the affective impact on visitors by offering a view of the
animal in the context of its natural environment (Coe, 1985; Finlay, Patterson, & Maple,
interactive, naturalistic exhibits (Derwin & Piper, 1988; Ogden, 1992). Our study shows
exhibits(69) the living collection(59) and the treatment of animals(27) were mentioned
most frequently. Of the 54 zoos that mentioned their collection(59), 54 identified animals
Zoo Mission Statements 15
and thirty identified plants. The treatment of animals(27) was specified using the
following words: care(19) and/or respect(3). For additional information on the terms used
(Benirschke, 1987) and according to Goodrowe (2003) many zoos and aquariums include
research as a mandate in their missions or goals. This contradicts our findings that
Hutchins 2001). Additionally, zoos provide training opportunities for scientists (Snyder et
al., 1995; Koebner, 1994; Wehnelt et al., 2003). Two zoos mentioned researchers(2) in
the mission statement and described them as zoo staff(2), students(1), and/or
professionals(1).
Zoos are involved in in situ and ex situ research in order to improve animal
conservation in situ (Wehnelt et al., 2003), and play a role in understanding behaviors that
simulate those characteristics in the wild (Goodrowe, 2003). Six missions identified
research sights as: global(3), in the zoo(3), in the field(1), and/or local(2). In 2002 the
AZA Conservation Education Committee began a visitor studies project to determine the
overall impact of visits to zoos on the knowledge of visitors (Dierking, et al., 2002).
However, the research focus in zoo missions is clearly scientific. Neither educational
(Mazur 1997). This study found 22 zoos identified finance(22) in the mission statement.
Three zoos identified themselves as a business(3). Four zoos mentioned funding of zoo
corporate(1). Zoos were also concerned about the economic impact the zoo has on the
community(Table 6).
scientists(4), educators(4), volunteers(2) and curators(4). Missions asserted that the work
Culture(23). Zoos are important cultural institutions, which both mirror and
project culture in our society. Culture impacts exhibit design and projects cultural
perspectives to zoo visitors (Tarlow, 2001). For example, Australian exhibits depict life in
the outback and visitors leave with impressions of life in the outback based on their
missions (17%) it was not assigned levels and was not statistically analyzed (Table 3).
Thematic Relationships
any relationships among the themes. Each zoo was assigned a level of prominence within
Zoo Mission Statements 17
each theme. The data were then analyzed using a Spearman’s correlation 2-tailed test
(Table 6).
The most interesting finding is the fact that the correlation between education and
conservation is very low (.089) and insignificant. However when missions stated
account for the low correlation between education and conservation. Despite this
discrepancy in the data there may still be a disconnect between education and
conservation. Two missions used the exact words conservation education and 35 (25%)
zoo missions mentioned both education and conservation. Given the fact that in the zoo
literature the words are frequently used in combination as conservation education, there is
little support for the notion that zoo missions have a focus on conservation education. The
highest (and significant) correlation between themes is between recreation and facilities
(.441). Therefore, while zoos profess and then strive to embrace education and
conservation as missions, the fact that recreation and facilities are so strongly correlated
sends a strong message to zoo visitors about the roles and purposes of zoos.
Summary
Drawing from the literature, we identified four main purposes of zoos: 1) exhibiting
animals for the public (Mazur & Clark, 2001); 2) providing education; 3) breeding plants
and animals (Kolbert, 1995); and 4) providing recreational opportunities for visitors
(Chizar et al., 1990; Bostock, 1993; Martin, 2000). Our analysis of 137 zoo missions
determined some overlap between the above stated purposes of zoos and missions. We
also identified the words used to describe the themes we determined and these words are
listed in Table 6. Additionally, we examined the seven predominant themes and looked
The analysis of zoo missions shows that education(132) is the most frequently
mentioned theme. Ninety-six percent of all missions address education, 64% note
Conservation(116) is the second most often cited theme. Zoo personnel identified their
Recreation is mentioned in 69% of the statements even though zoo personnel reject the
idea of being recreational centers (Kellert & Wilson, 1993; Koebner, 1994)
as exhibits. Visitor facilities, amenities, and the characteristics of the zoo are often
statements.
zoos. Our study concurs with the literature in that our research supports claims that
education and conservation are priorities for zoos. However, education and conservation
overlap in only 25% of the missions. Each mission statement should reflect the policies
of the zoo. Further studies might look at the relationships between demographic data and
themes.
Zoo Mission Statements 19
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Author Note
Sue Dale Tunnicliffe is a research associate at the School of Science, Technology and
seaturtletrish@hotmail.com.
Zoo Mission Statements 27