Have zoo book, will travel ...

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Before you even get past the cover of the neatly organized and well-researched paperback, ‘America’s Best Zoos’, you may wonder: Why was the foreword written by former Republican House Speaker Newt Gingrich? ‘Long before I aspired to enter the field of politics, I wanted to be a zookeeper,’ wrote the once-strident voice of the right in a lengthy explanation of his love of zoos. (As a 10-year-old he lobbied the Harrisburg, Pa., City Council to open a zoo. And, no, he is not named for an amphibian. ‘Newt’ he explains is an Anglicized version of ‘Knut.’)

As befits a book extolling the wonders of zoos at a time when they are under frequent fire from animal welfare activists, Gingrich defends them as ‘as a modern-day Noah’s Ark’ offering haven from poaching and habitat destruction.

The authors, Allen W. Nyhuis and Jon Wassner, self-described lifelong zoo lovers, paint a flattering picture of the Los Angeles Zoo, calling it ‘one of the most beautiful zoos in the country.’ They single out the new gorilla exhibit, the chimpanzee and orangutan exhibits. (The gorilla at right is one of ours.) They also correctly note that when the zoo gets its expected golden monkeys from China, it will be the only U.S. zoo to have them. The authors give a nice mention to the Oakland Zoo’s well-respected elephant exhibit, one of the largest in the country.

The book reviews 97 zoos across the country -- two-thirds of them in assessments of several pages each. In addition there is a nice primer on various animals -- and where to find them. And the book has Zagat-like appendices categorizing zoos according to which has the best exhibits of certain kinds of animals.

--Carla Hall