"We Bought a Zoo"

I read We Bought a Zoo by Benjamin Mee. I learned a few things from this memoir:

• "Tigers have special sensors along the front of their two inch canines that can detect the pulse in your aorta" (3).
• Quote by Donald Rumsfeld (I am not a fan of his, but I like the quote)- "There are known knowns- things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns- things we know we don't know. But there are also unknown unknowns- things we don't know we don't know" (78).
• Pulitzer Prize-winning scientist Professor E. O. Wilsom came up with the term "Biophilia Hypothesis", which suggests that as a species we feel reassured in an environment that the animal within us recognizes (79).
• That author explains, "I am absolutely convinced that homosexuality has at the very least a strong genetic component, is perfectly natural, and nothing to get excited about" (85).

As a dog owner, I can back the author up because my dogs also have tendencies to hump the same sex (even though many people believe that it is a sign of showing dominance).

• Gerald Durrell founded the Jersey Zoo in the U.K. and used it for conservation, "as opposed to simply exhibiting animals" (98).

Until I read this book, I did not really like zoos becaues I didn't want animals to be kept in a secluded space. However, Mee makes a great point about how zoos have actually saved animals from extinction. He uses the South African white rhino and the golden lion tamarin among other examples (178).

Mee writes about being around photographers-

• "Photographers are practical people. They make the best of situations, they improvise, they have gaffer's tape... a photographer is useful in spotting good people to interview" (187).

On to the next book...