"After Harambe’s Death, Rethinking Zoos"

Despite the good reasons for animal exhibits in zoos, it may be time for a fresh look at zoos.

"On May 9, 2004, when he was 6, my younger son took his first photographs. I know the date because digital photography is relentlessly precise. We were at the Bronx Zoo. While wandering the glass-lined corridors in the extraordinary Congo Gorilla Forest, Jack snapped this portrait of one of the western lowland gorillas.

The exhibit was powerful and memorable; my wife and I are still haunted by our eye contact with such a close hominid relation.

That exhibit is similar to ones at many zoos around the world, including Gorilla World in Cincinnati, where a silverback named Harambe was shot dead on Saturday after a young boy fell into his enclosure."

Andrew C. Revkin reports for Dot Earth in the New York Times June 2, 2016.