On a visit to Boston’s Franklin Park Zoo while a student at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design, Jon Coe sees two chained elephants fighting with each other. Coe askes a nearby keeper, “Why are the elephants fighting?” The keeper replies, “Because they are chained up.” Coe continues, “Well, why are they chained up?” The keeper retorts, “Because they are fighting.” This event inspires the emergence of a new zoo exhibit design theory based on the integration of animal behavior and wellbeing with a focus on ecology and habitat landscape design.
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