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in Japan > Features| Sunday, Jan. 26, 2003 Should zoos become
extinct? By MARK BRAZIL Japan Times nature columnist Though I
prefer seeing animals in the wild, I confess to being intrigued
by zoos. I'm certainly not alone in my interest, as the long and
varied history of zoological institutions shows. The first
recorded instance of a zoo -- or, at least, a private collection
of animals -- dates from the Ancient Egyptian period. As public
attractions, zoos first became popular in a big way in the 19th
century. By the 1990s, 120 million visits were being made to
them each year in the United States alone -- more than to all
professional major sports games. And although visitor numbers
have stagnated in recent years (according to some sources,
attendance figures at Japan's zoos have halved since the late
1980s) zoos are still big business. But moneymaking aside, what
are zoos actually for? Initial