First published 2010
Thomas French takes readers inside Tampa's Lowry Park Zoo after spending six years documenting its secret world. The Pulitzer Prize winner reveals the complex lives of both animals and humans within the institution's walls. French follows an alpha chimpanzee attracted to blonde visitors, a tiger that responds to Obsession perfume, and the zoo's controversial CEO nicknamed El Diablo Blanco. His investigation spans from African savannas to Panamanian forests as he traces how wild elephants travel across oceans into captivity. The narrative explores whether modern zoos serve as sanctuaries or prisons while examining humanity's conflicted relationship with nature. French documents the political intrigue among primates, the dangerous courtship rituals of predators, and the emotional histories of individual animals. The book confronts urgent questions about extinction and species survival in an overcrowded world. Through intimate portraits of remarkable creatures, French reveals what their captive lives teach us about human desires to both worship and dominate the natural world.
Genres: biography, nature, animals, non-fiction
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: investigative-journalism, nature-vs-humanity
Setting: Africa, Panama, Tampa, Lowry Park Zoo
Period: 21st-century
288 pages · Hardcover · Hyperion