Could This Be The Future of the Zoo? We Can Only Hope!

I've found through my posts on Facebook that some of my friends back home in Ohio share the same concerns as I do about captive dolphins, whales, and other animals. Teresa Ellingen is a friend I recently reconnected with at our 35th high school reunion.  I found her thoughts on a "virtual zoo" very interesting and wanted to share them with you.  She has given me permission to do that.  Let me know what you think!

Teresa Ellingen March 19 at 11:09am

I had this wild dream last night, and no I was not drinking before I went to bed:) I was in a big modern building with people surrounding this pool of sorts. A child was beside me and he/she was dipping their hand in the pool to pet a dolphin, but the dolphin was not really there, more like a filmy vision of a dolphin. I woke up thinking that this could be the future of zoos, when people decide to stop playing the part of God and letting $$ drive them. With all of our technological knowledge, combined with visionists, and artists from Disney types and the theatre, we could build zoos where no " real " animals reside. I picture big 15' walls or screens where " real time " video plays from cameras hidden and set up in animal habitats all over the world. One area might be monkeys so the screen would be showing real time action from anywhere in the world that the cameras were activated by the monkeys movement through their habitat area, floor level in the building would be " real " monkeys created by the artists and visionists so the kids could touch, feel, explore, and interact with these "faux" shall we call them monkeys, and there could be interactive boxes set up with touch screens so the kids could scroll through either pictures or past footage of real time behavior from the actual habitats. The possibilities are endless when you think about how Disney has set up so many of their interactive sections of their parks. I think what started me thinking about this was that the teacher I work with said that there was a site on You tube where you could watch sunrise sequences from anywhere in the world at any given time. I probably had this on my subconscious and that's where this dream came from. When we go to a zoo we only stand there and stare at the animals and observe them, we could do the same with seemingly realistic animals. We have the technology and knowledge to make forms feel real, and to move in a real way, or project movement. People could still be involved in the teaching, and there would still be $$ to be made. Sometimes I am ashamed to be part of the human race because we really do have a hard time sharing our world with the most innocent of creatures. I could go on and on, but I just wanted you to know that I can picture a different way to be able to get up close and personal with animals and I hope someday no animal will have to be taken away from it's natural habitat, and family, for the purpose of human greed.