From the Publisher

By Robert L. Miller

The man at the right may look like he's only feeding a giraffe, but he's actually lunching with a source. Acacia branches in hand, Los Angeles correspondent James Willwerth befriended Kito for this week's Living story on the renaissance of the American zoo. Over the course of eight weeks Willwerth petted a walrus in Tacoma, walked ankle deep in freezing snow in the company of several hundred penguins in San Diego and held (gingerly) a tarantula in Cincinnati.

As he talked to the human beings who run the zoos, Willwerth was especially impressed by the dedication that curators feel to their quite modestly paid jobs. He was also drawn into the difficult issues of animal management. Says Willwerth: "Listening to complex discussions of gene pools, habitat destruction, medical problems, immersion landscapes and zoo politics is surprisingly compelling."

Willwerth became a lover of wildlife when he watched a Walt Disney film about South America's big jungle cats at the local movie house in his hometown of Grand Rapids. Since then he has visited the Tiger Tops resort, in Nepal's Royal Chitwan National Park, and game preserves in East Africa as well as the penguin protectorates located on the South Australian coast. "This assignment brought out both the conservationist and the kid in me," he says.

His most memorable moment came when he strolled with the penguins at San Diego's Sea World. The emperor and king penguins occasionally proved less than hospitable to their new companion. Standing hip high, with beaks the size of small kitchen knives, the penguins repeatedly tried to jab Willwerth's legs. Fortunately, the Sea World curator managed to rescue TIME's roving correspondent before any damage was done. As for feeding Kito, Willwerth cannot remember another source that ate quite so quickly. His only challenge remains how to list an acacia tree on his expense account.