This chapter analyses the richness and relevance of epic scenes of sacrifice. The detailed descriptions of animal sacrifice found in Homer not only stand out for their rich diction and complex narrative resonance, but they are also unique for the dominant referential role that they continued to play in Greek representations of sacrifice, most notably in later epic poetry. After a quick review of the major sacrifices in Iliad 1, Odyssey 3 and Odyssey 14, Gagné turns to the sacrifice of a cow to Athena in Book 5 of Nonnus’ Dionysiaca, the only detailed sacrificial scene in that massive poem, and the double sacrifice to Apollo in Book 1 of the Argonautica, one of the most emphatic sites of engagement with the verses of Homer in Apollonius. One puzzling verb of Homer, ὠμοθετεῖν, serves as a guiding thread throughout this study on the shifting language of ritual representation. By assessing the traditional language of Homeric sacrificial scenes, and these dramatic examples of its reception in later epic, Gagné demonstrates the enduring, canonical presence of Homeric sacrifice in the development of a tradition of poetic reference, in what he terms ‘the ritual archive’ of Greek epic.

Since the early nineteenth century, critics have noted John Clare’s unusually attentive eye for animals. From his earliest published pieces to the final poems transcribed from manuscripts in Northampton Asylum, Clare’s poetry is packed with animal life. This piece closely reads two sonnets from the middle of his career to investigate the breadth and complexity of his engagement with multiple non-human modes of being. It then turns to a representative range of other examples from his work and touches briefly upon critical analogies drawn between the poet and the non-human creatures about which he writes. The piece focuses repeatedly on the variety in Clare’s representations of animals and the consequent difficulty of drawing singular critical conclusions from them. In the process, it explores tensions in Clare’s poetry between themes of interconnection and alienation, freedom and confinement, profusion and scarcity, resilience and fragility, and exposure and agency.

The sphinx is a good test case illustrating the complexities of studying Greek hybrids. The pronounced sexuality of modern sphinxes (notably those of Moreau and Ingres) sets them apart from Greek examples, which themselves are very different from the sphinxes of Egypt and the Ancient Near East. Common to all is the blurring of human/animal boundaries, a phenomenon going back to the Palaeolithic. Modern comparisons from New Guinea and Africa confirm that there is an animal dimension at the heart of being human. Hybrids, born of this mixing, are polymorphous, polysemic and polyvalent. Around the hybrid there lurks a host of questions: what bits have been mixed, how exactly are the parts combined, and is the mixture taxonomically fitting or anomalous? Each of these questions shapes our response to a hybrid, affirming the power of hybridity to challenge (or affirm) categories and taxonomies. And since taxonomies are the proof of our comprehending the world by classifying phenomena, hybridity represents a culture’s uneasiness with the limits of its epistemology. If such things exist, even if only in our stories and imagination, how certain is certainty?

The future of zoos may be affected by issues relating to their legacy, animal welfare, the long-term viability of captive populations and their financial viability. They are becoming homogenised in a world that increasingly values diversity. Many keep animals that probably should not be in zoos because of their complex welfare requirements. If they can overcome these challenges the very best of the world’s zoos have a future and an important contribution to make towards the conservation of biodiversity.

This chapter examines some of the research on environmental enrichment and training that has been conducted in zoos on a range of taxa, and includes some work that has been done in other captive environments. When animals are kept in barren environments in captivity they are liable to develop abnormal behaviours. Some of these are repetitive and some involve self-injury. Providing complex and diverse environments helps to prevent or reduce the occurrence of these behaviours and, in recent decades, experiments on environmental enrichment have contributed to positive animal welfare in zoos. Alongside these developments advances have been made in the training of animals and our knowledge of the part that this may play in their welfare and educational value.

This chapter considers the efforts that zoos have made to establish cooperative breeding programmes to create insurance populations of threatened species in zoos, such as the establishment of international studbooks, the EAZA Ex-situ Programmes (EEPs) in Europe and the Species Survival Plan® (SSP) programmes in North America. To improve breeding in some species a number of assisted reproductive technologies have been developed, including artificial insemination, cloning and frozen zoos. In order to manage genetic diversity and prevent the effects of inbreeding, some animals may need to be culled or given contraception. Population growth in managed populations has been predicted by using computer simulations. Some species have recovered well in the wild without the need for ex-situ breeding programmes.

This chapter examines the role of zoos in the reintroduction of threatened animals into the wild. Zoos are increasingly involved with reintroduction projects and in-situ conservation. Once a sufficient number of animals have been bred in cooperative breeding programmes, appropriate individuals may be selected for release, and trained to avoid predators and find food and shelter to increase their post-release survival rates. After release they should be monitored for disease and so that survival rates may be determined. In-situ conservation projects may involve zoos providing overseas partners with expertise, training, community education, equipment, funding and other resources to support them in protecting indigenous species and ecosystems. Zoos have played an important role in the recovery of some species by breeding animals for release or providing expertise and other resources to facilitate reintroductions. Many zoos have made significant contributions to in-situ projects to protect threatened species and habitats.

This chapter discusses the design of zoo enclosures and briefly considers important stages in the history of zoo design. Animals must be safely contained within zoos and the nature of the containment varies between species. From time to time containment methods fail and animals escape, sometimes with fatal consequence for them and the people they encounter. There is an ongoing debate about the appropriate amount of space required for some species, especially large carnivores and other wide-ranging taxa. Minimum space requirements for taxa are arbitrarily determined, and usable space and enclosure shape should be considered when enclosures are designed. A number of studies have examined enclosure use by zoo animals, the need for shade and an appropriate substratum. Visitor behaviour may affect enclosure use in some taxa. Enclosure design is a compromise between the need that animals have to avoid the gaze of the public and the desire of visitors to see the animals.

This chapter considers the nutrition of animals kept in zoos and conservation medicine. Catering for the many and varied diets of animals living in zoos and aquariums presents a significant challenge for these institutions, but wild animal nutrition now has a solid foundation in science. As the body of knowledge and expertise in animal nutrition and veterinary medicine expands we can expect to see ongoing improvements in not only the health and welfare of animals living in zoos and aquariums, but also that of animals living wild as this knowledge is transferred to assist with in-situ conservation. Improving our understanding of the transmission of zoonotic diseases is essential if we are to prevent, or at least contain, the next global pandemic that originates from a population of wild animals. Zoos can make an important contribution to the One Health Approach to dealing with disease.

This chapter considers the concept of animal welfare in a zoo context. Welfare is defined and the various methods that may be used to assess welfare in zoos are discussed. Abnormal behaviours are described with particular reference to the prevalence of stereotypic behaviours in some taxa and their treatment. Condition scoring is described for a number of taxa, along with the use of non-invasive methods of measuring stress. The importance of reducing transportation stress and avoiding capture myopathy are discussed.

This chapter examines the nature of the research conducted in and on zoos. Much of the research undertaken in zoos is concerned with the behaviour, nutrition, welfare and reproduction of animals. However, work has also been published on the history of zoos, their place in culture, their conservation role, their educational value and the interactions between people and animals in zoos. Historical trends in zoo research are examined along with taxonomic bias in the species studied: most studies involve mammals. Although zoo research is published in a wide range of journals, in recent decades a number of specialist journals have been produced.

This chapter examines the contributions that research in zoos has made to zoology. Much of the research conducted in zoos is concerned with the biology of captive animals. However, zoos can also be used to study the basic biology of little-known species and those that are difficult to study in the wild because they are very rare, difficult to find or for some other reason. Many of the early anatomical studies were performed on animals that died in zoos. In addition, zoo studies have included work on animal physiology, genetics, ecology, evolution, behaviour, animal personality and cognition. Some zoos have built specialist research facilities that allow carefully designed experiments to be conducted in controlled conditions in facilities integrated into exhibit designs.

This chapter examines animal–human relationships in zoos and the behaviour of visitors. Keeper–animal relationships are important to the welfare of both, and keepers are important sources of information for researchers. Some animals pose a health and safety risk to keepers, veterinarians and visitors as a result of accidents or disease transmission. The behaviour of visitors in zoos has become an important area of academic and practical interest. Researchers measure dwell time as an indicator of the extent to which an exhibit holds the attention of a visitor. It is important to understand how visitors know their position in a zoo (orientation), how they find their way (wayfinding) and how they move around in a zoo (circulation) because these factors can affect their satisfaction with their visit and influence animal welfare.

This chapter is concerned with the ethics of keeping animals in zoos. It examines the ethical problems of keeping animals in captivity with particular reference to the ethics of keeping elephants in zoos. Public attitudes towards various aspects of zoos are examined, including attitudes towards dissection, live feeding, euthanasia and the culling of healthy animals. Animal sentience is also discussed, particularly in relation to the inclusion of some invertebrates in this concept.

This chapter focuses on the literary tradition of shape-shifting human-animal figures in early Irish and modern literature. Inspired by ecofeminist and multispecies scholarship, Kathryn Kirkpatrick argues that “Palpably dynamic, relational, and even dialectical, the shape-shifter dramatically embodies ... a relational epistemology, the self-made and known in relation to others, including animal others.” Indeed, shape-shifting is “a powerful trope in an era when human beings, particularly those of the first world, must transform and adapt quickly to climate crisis.” The essay chastises the severe shortcomings of contemporary politics to address the mass extinction of species and contextualizes the historical literary tradition of shape-shifting from the vantage point of contemporary concerns.