Zoo Story

Now in paperback, in a riveting book that is part SEABISCUIT and part AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH, Pulitzer Prize winning author Thomas French follows the life and death struggles of animals at the Tampa Zoo, exposing the corporate greed that nearly destroyed the zoo and tackling fundamental contradictions at the heart of why zoos exist and why we are drawn to them.


More than 175 million Americans attend zoos every year, more than NFL, NBA and Major League Baseball attendance combined. But the visitors don’t see the real behind the scenes drama - how the animals are exploited for financial gain and amusement.  ZOO STORY will describe what it’s like to live and die inside the contradiction of conservation and financial gain.  Here, in an incredibly compelling narrative is an account of the secret life of a zoo and its inhabitants, both animal and human.  The dramatic story will take the reader from the African savannah to the forests of Panama and deep into the inner workings of Tampa’s Lowry Park, one of the fastest growing and most controversial zoos in the country. The personalities and lives of the animals will be explored in depth, as well as those humans charged with their care and well-being. Thomas French has immersed himself in this project for the past five years following Lowry Park as it reinvents itself and confronts some of the thorniest issues at the intersection of commerce and conservation.

Thomas French has been a reporter at the St. Petersburg Times for the past 27 years. He is the author of two books and won a Pulitzer Prize for Feature Writing for Angels & Demons, a seven part series detailing the the murders of Jo, Michelle and Christe Rogers and the eventual capture of the murderer, Oba Chandler.

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