Terry Maple

Maple is credited for revitalizing, re-branding and ultimately transforming Atlanta's city-run zoo from one of the country's worst-rated zoological facilities into one of the best.

Zoo Atlanta, as it was renamed under Maple's leadership, is one of the ten oldest American zoos in continuous operation. The zoo has emerged as a model organization among accredited zoos in North America. It is known for its progressive scientific research and conservation programs, as well as innovative animal enclosures designed to enrich the lives of its animal residents while providing them with optimized animal welfare services.

In 1984, Atlanta Mayor Andrew Young appointed Maple, then a 38-year-old animal behaviorist and already a noted zoo expert, to serve as interim director of the Atlanta Zoo. An investigation revealed the facility was in disrepair and plagued with problems from political infighting to scandal. In addition, the zoo's membership was revoked by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums, the national zoo association and regulatory body. Maple was appointed interim director and ultimately director.

That same year, the zoo was listed in Parade magazine as one of the ten worst zoos in the United States. The negative publicity prompted a strong public outcry from the community, and increased a growing public sentiment that the facility should be closed down.[3][4]

In 1985, the management of zoo operations was put in the hands of a new private non-profit organization, the Atlanta-Fulton County Zoo, Inc, with Maple responsible for overseeing all departments from animal care and veterinary services to fundraising. In addition to privatization, the zoo was rebranded Zoo Atlanta.[5]

In Maple's nearly two decades at the helm of Zoo Atlanta, the organization made an unprecedented comeback. A significant increase in patronage generated revenue to support the renovation of exhibits with innovative designs that not only benefited the animals’ welfare, but also accommodated cutting edge behavioral research, which was an objective of the research scientist-turned zoo director.

Under Maple's leadership, the reputation of Atlanta's metropolitan zoo was restored and the zoo became a popular cultural attraction and pioneering zoological facility in terms of the management and study of endangered wildlife species. According to then-Mayor Andrew Young, Zoo Atlanta is the most successful privatization in Georgia's history and its transition from a publicly managed organization into a public-private partnership is now a trend in management practices for the zoo industry.

Zoo Atlanta also extended its contributions to the local community beyond the perimeter of the zoo campus. In partnership with Atlanta's WSB-television the zoological organization won six Emmy Awards for local educational programming.

Maple retired from Zoo Atlanta in 2003 as the founding President and CEO and assumed the title of Zoo Director Emeritus.

Maple developed an organizational culture and instituted practices at Zoo Atlanta whereby evidence-based methods were employed zoo wide. Other institutions have benefitted from research published by staff at Zoo Atlanta, while some zoos have begun to adopt their own model of using animal welfare research to improve animal care at their respective facilities. In many ways Zoo Atlanta has emulated modern day natural history museums, which have traditionally been considered more scholarly and scientific than zoos. Most museum's employ curatorial staff with courtesy research and teaching appointments at universities. Zoo Atlanta is one of the few zoos in the industry to have followed this approach in an effort to foster research activities and cultivate practices based on science. A few institutions have research departments and university partnerships, but through Dr. Maple's dual appointment he was able to establish a unique relationship between zoos and local universities.[6][7][8]

As President of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (1998-1999), Maple established the association's first diversity initiative and widened the membership's scientific network and reputation within the academic research community. He also worked to differentiate AZA accredited zoos and aquariums from roadside attractions and other menageries.

While serving as President and CEO of Zoo Atlanta, Maple was a tenured professor at Georgia Tech where he founded the Center for Conservation and Behavior. Through his dual appointments as a full professor (and principal investigator) of a University's animal behavior research laboratory and zoo director, Maple diversified his laboratory's research interests beyond the study of primate taxa to an array of vertebrate species managed at the zoo.

Over time, he transformed a conventional zoo's animal collection into a population of wildlife in human care which was more conducive to ethological study and other research endeavors in scientific disciplines from epidemiology to reproductive physiology.

Maple is the Founding Editor of the scientific journal Zoo Biology, which was originally published by John Wiley/Blackwell in association with the AZA. The publication is no longer affiliated with the AZA, but the peer-review journal continues to publish studies on “reproduction, demographics, genetics, behavior, medicine, husbandry, nutrition, conservation and all empirical aspects of the exhibition and maintenance of wild animals in wildlife parks, zoos, and aquariums,” as noted on the publication's website.

When Maple retired from editorial roles with Zoo Biology, he was bestowed the title of Editor Emeritus of the Journal, along with Drs. Donald Lindburg of the Zoological Society of San Diego and Dan Wharton, formerly of the Chicago Zoological Society. In addition, two of Maple's former graduate students currently serve on the Journal's editorial board.[9]

As an internationally recognized expert on the behavior, welfare, and conservation of great apes, Maple was poised to develop ethological programming for Zoo Atlanta's innovative lowland gorilla exhibit. He designed an exhibit which offered opportunities for rigorous study of primate behavior in a conventional primate laboratory, while providing a visitor experience that was immersive, engaging and educational to patrons. Today, Zoo Atlanta's gorilla exhibit is acknowledged as one of the most important gorilla facilities in the world.

Over a span of more than 15 years, the partnership between Georgia Tech and Zoo Atlanta permitted Maple and his staff to successfully advance lowland gorilla conservation, exhibition, husbandry, propagation and research, for which the Zoo won the AZA's prestigious Edward H. Bean Award. The Zoo's success with great apes was made possible by a partnership with Yerkes National Primate Research Center of Emory University which loaned the gorillas and orangutans to the Zoo. The Zoo's gorilla exhibit is sponsored by Ford Motor Company and branded as the Ford African Rain Forest. It is the first exhibit designed for a population of gorillas distributed in four contiguous groups.[10][11]

Zoo Atlanta was the second zoo in the nation (after San Diego) to acquire giant pandas on long term loan. Maple's diplomacy on giant panda conservation programming resulted in a new partnership with China's Ministry of Construction, the governmental agency responsible for China's zoological gardens.

Maple's negotiations with the Chinese government to obtain pandas spanned ten years and he was ultimately successful in acquiring a pair of adult giant pandas. For a US zoo to be loaned giant pandas from China, compliance with international treaties regulating the movement of endangered species is a requirement along with a commitment to providing adequate housing and care. Zoo Atlanta's success at raising capital funding for exhibits and its commitment to propagation, conservation, breeding and research made the zoo a strong candidate. Zoo Atlanta's established behavioral science programs and Dr. Maple's dual appointment as a professor and zoo director helped facilitate Zoo Atlanta's successful exhibition of giant pandas along with some diplomatic support from his friend former President Jimmy Carter.

During his career, Maple mentored and trained twenty-nine doctoral students at Emory University and Georgia Tech. As a research group, Dr. Maple, his students, and his collaborators have published 250 journal articles, chapters and books on the behavior, conservation, and welfare of African antelopes, baboons, capuchins, chimpanzees, elephants, flamingos, giant pandas, gorillas, giraffe, lemurs, lions, macaques, mandrills, orangutans, spider monkeys, tigers, and zoo visitors. The acclaimed book "Ethics on the Ark", based on a national conference organized and hosted by Zoo Atlanta and Georgia Tech, was co-edited by Dr. Maple and published by Smithsonian in 1995.

Maple served from 2011 to 2014 as the San Francisco Zoo’s first "Professor-in- Residence" and the architect of their unique "Stanton Family Wellness Initiative" including applications to exhibit and facility design.[11][12][13]

In his current engagement as Professor-in-Residence, Maple is a mentor to keepers, curators, and veterinarians at the Jacksonville Zoo and Gardens. As a Scholar-in-Residence, he will also teach and mentor graduate students in two departments at the University of North Florida.[14]

In 2005, Maple was granted a formal leave of absence from Georgia Tech to become the President/CEO of the Palm Beach Zoo. On Earth Day 2009, the Palm Beach Zoo opened the innovative Melvin J. and Claire Levine Animal Care Complex, including a state-of- the-art animal hospital and the innovative Center for Conservation Medicine. Equipped with solar power provided by a grant from the Florida Power & Light Foundation, the U.S. Green Building Council certified the building LEED Gold, the first LEED-certified zoo veterinary hospital in the nation.

The Community Foundation of Palm Beach and Martin County honored the Palm Beach Zoo as its "Sustainability Leader" among 59 competing non-profits in the region, confirming the zoo's growing leadership role in sustainability. Maple retired as CEO of the Palm Beach Zoo in 2011. He resumed his affiliation with Florida Atlantic University and finished his thirteenth book, Zoo Animal Welfare (co-authored with Bonnie Perdue) published by Springer-Verlag in 2013.[15][16][17]