Although episodes of captive breeding for display and acclimatization purposes date back to the 19th century, systematic breeding for species conservation first became the central mission for European zoological gardens in the interwar period. While most scholars explain this shift as a result of a decline in the global trade of exotic animals, my analysis points to the simultaneous renewed interest in native endangered and extinct species as a catalyst for captive breeding experiments. This article considers the role of zoos (...) in one of the earliest de-extinction projects, namely the breeding back of the Eurasian wild horse. By investigating two breeding programs, those initiated by Tadeusz Vetulani in Poland and the Heck brothers in Germany, my analysis reveals not only the political stakes, but also the different methods employed in these attempts to resurrect the tarpan. More specifically, I explore how scientific ideas about heredity and hybridization, as well as understandings of the porous boundary between domestic and wild horses, paved the way for selective breeding to be mobilized as a means of bringing back the extinct species. This ambitious goal reinvigorated the scientific function of the zoo by making it an experimental ground for undoing extinction, and laid the groundwork for its future role in the emergent wildlife conservation movement. In addition to mapping out knowledge exchange between zoologists, geneticists, and paleontologists, this article traces the circulation of specimens between natural history museums, zoos, and wildlife reserves to underscore the material dimension of ex situ conservation practices. (shrink)

In search for the “missing links” of queer posthumanist discourses, some nonhuman animals play a crucial role in setting up new possible ontologies of sexual diversity. However, the desire to trace “natural” evidence for sexual diversity and a non-binary gender system that goes beyond the simplistic “social constructionism” vs. “biological essentialism” dichotomy in the nonhuman world should be critically examined. In this article I analyze both the scientific and popular representations of “wild and weird” nonhuman animals that became rich semiotic-material (...) referents to human sexuality and gender diversity in order to propose “transpecies intimacies” as a strategy for overcoming the deadlock present in naturalizing and essentializing discourses. This essay focuses on the case of the spotted hyena, because this nonhuman animal functions as an important signifier and material resource for sexual differences on multiple levels of power relations – institutional, scientific, educational, somatic, discursive, and even affective. I consider how biomedical narratives on sexualized nonhuman animals employ hegemonic economies of sexual difference to build stories of a naturalized sexuality and an embodied gender difference wherein some chemical substances, like hormones, and some body parts, like genitals, serve as primary actors in this semiotic-material system. (shrink)

In search for the “missing links” of queer posthumanist discourses, some nonhuman animals play a crucial role in setting up new possible ontologies of sexual diversity. However, the desire to trace “natural” evidence for sexual diversity and a non-binary gender system that goes beyond the simplistic “social constructionism” vs. “biological essentialism” dichotomy in the nonhuman world should be critically examined. In this article I analyze both the scientific and popular representations of “wild and weird” nonhuman animals that became rich semiotic-material (...) referents to human sexuality and gender diversity in order to propose “transpecies intimacies” as a strategy for overcoming the deadlock present in naturalizing and essentializing discourses. This essay focuses on the case of the spotted hyena, because this nonhuman animal functions as an important signifier and material resource for sexual differences on multiple levels of power relations – institutional, scientific, educational, somatic, discursive, and even affective. I consider how biomedical narratives on sexualized nonhuman animals employ hegemonic economies of sexual difference to build stories of a naturalized sexuality and an embodied gender difference wherein some chemical substances, like hormones, and some body parts, like genitals, serve as primary actors in this semiotic-material system. (shrink)