Document Type

Essay

Publication Date

Spring 5-2026

Abstract

The typical Western zoo functions as a unique environment in which animals are frequently positioned as subjects of education and entertainment through the medium of storytelling. In this sense, the zoological institution can also be read as an extension of popular Western constructions surrounding nonhuman animals, particularly those who are symbolically charged characters in our collective imaginary– the great apes. Given the morphological, behavioral, and psychological similarities between humans and other great apes (chimpanzees, gorillas, and orangutans), nonhuman great ape enclosures at the Western zoo become spaces where humans are most radically confronted with navigating the boundaries of the “human-animal distinction”. As such, these sites act as microcosms where relationality and meaning-making are intensely produced and negotiated. Drawing on ethnographic research conducted at the Los Angeles Zoo, I argue that humans at the typical Western zoo project their own image onto the lives and bodies of nonhuman great apes through forms of storytelling expressed both institutionally and through visitor interaction. Individuals then use these projections to reflexively engage with and negotiate their relationship to various cultural constructs, including political and religious ideologies, social and moral norms, and ideas concerning the “human-animal divide”. This analysis examines discursive and material modes of storytelling, cultural reflection, and boundary negotiation generated through human-ape zoo encounters.

Comments

Abigail Bond Halling won Second Place in the 2026 Kevin and Tam Ross Undergraduate Research Prize for her research on human-primate interactions and projections at the Western zoo site. This essay is the original scholarship that emerged from that research.

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