Despite being the nation's northernmost zoo, Asahiyama Zoo also drew the highest number of visitors this summer. But it didn't bring in the crowds with cute shows or gimmicks. Instead, when the polar bears are in the mood, they hop in the pool; when the orangutans are feeling frisky, they take stroll across a rope. In short, whatever an animal does naturally, that's what it does at Asahiyama Zoo. And humans love it.

Much of the credit for the popularity of the zoo, which is run by the city of Asahikawa, Hokkaido, goes to Masao Kosuge, the zoo's director since 1995. Kosuge, 57, oversees a staff of 19, and together they tend 815 animals belonging to 150 species.

A veterinarian by profession, Kosuge recently found himself in great demand as a speaker at economic foundations and other business-oriented groups.

Asahikawa's tourist trade had always depended primarily on the city's location as a gateway to Furano and Mount Asahidake, central Hokkaido's leading sightseeing draws. Now that Asahiyama Zoo is a destination in its own right, the city of 360,000 is seeing a sudden rise in the number of overnight visitors. Asahikawa University professor Tamotsu Onozaki estimates the zoo generates about 8 billion yen a year in revenue for the city. Heizo Takenaka, state minister in charge of economic and fiscal policy, told an informal Cabinet meeting after a visit that Asahikawa and its famous zoo represent ``a good example of regional revitalization.''

There are no airs about Kosuge. He dotes on his animals, his employees and his zoo. When he hears his staff praised, his face glows with pleasure. ``Really?'' he says. ``Well, I'm glad.''

``He's intelligent, a man of wide and deep knowledge,'' head keeper Gen Bando, 43, says admiringly of his boss. ``A man of action, too. Altogether a remarkable person, someone you can respect.''

At Asahiyama Zoo, seals and black-tailed gulls live together, as do male and female orangutans-arrangements until now considered impossible at zoos.

As a boy born in Sapporo, Kosuge was a great collector of insects and small animals. He would raise them in his room, pondering how best to keep them healthy and ensure them a long life. His observations led him to the conclusion that ``common sense'' is not necessarily right. This is the thinking he brings to his work at the zoo, where he has the courage to toss common sense aside to keep the animals animated and engaged.

When the subject is animals, Kosuge talks nonstop, his eyes shining. ``The capybara is interesting. It's the father capybara who cares for the young. The mother gives them the breast, that's all. If an enemy appears, she's the first to flee, leaving the father to protect the young.''

The capybara pen is the first stop for many visitors. Capybara are the world's largest rodents. Native to South America, they can grow to a length of more than 1.2 meters.

Teruyuki Komiya, 56, director of Tokyo's Ueno Zoo, is gracious about the supplanting of his own zoo as the nation's most popular. In fact, he's positively pleased about it.

``Mr. Kosuge and I are old friends,'' he says. ``We go back to our 20s, when we were both just keepers.''

Actually, there's more to his pleasure than friendship. Asahiyama Zoo's success, Komiya feels, will prod Ueno Zoo's own reform drive. And there's a ripple effect, too-the attention Asahiyama draws is making his zoo more popular. ``It is helping raise the standards of zoos across the country,'' he says.

So far this year, more than 1.27 million people have visited Asahiyama Zoo.

``We were figuring on 850,000 and budgeted accordingly,'' says Kosuge. ``We ran out of admission tickets, ran out of pamphlets. But these are nice problems to be stuck with.

``When we started improving the animal houses in 1997, we told the city government, `We expect the number of visitors to rise from the current 260,000 to 500,000.' For a city of 360,000, that seemed rather bold-especially because back then the zoo closed for the winter. It was only open six months a year. By 2000, with the lodging for jungle animals, the monkey mountain and the penguin aquarium in place, we were drawing more than 500,000. Then we built the orangutan trapeze and the polar bear aquatic park, and last year attendance rose to 820,000.''

Surpassing Ueno Zoo's visitor numbers this past July and August-by 90,000 in August, with 320,000 visitors that month-was a milestone in Asahiyama Zoo's history. Kosuge views it with characteristic modesty.

``That was right at the peak of Tokyo's summer heat,'' he says. ``To me, Ueno is still the No. 1 zoo in Japan. If Ueno really went all out, Asahiyama couldn't compete with it. The only reason we're being compared with Ueno is that right now, we're different from other zoos.''

``Enrichment'' is the word Kosuge uses to describe his approach to zoo-keeping-shaping the environment to ensure the animals are not bored. Another basic approach is ensuring visitors can observe the animals behaving in their natural manner.

``For lions and panthers, the most natural behavior is stalking their prey and attacking, which is impossible in a zoo. Other than that, they sleep,'' he says. ``Panthers, for example, can't hold their own against lions and tigers, so the panthers sleep in a higher place. There's a cliff and wire netting that juts out over the spectators' heads. We created various sleeping places, so the animals can sleep soundly and contentedly while people watch them.

``The most important thing about enrichment is that the animals can be themselves in their own space. All the animal houses are very carefully designed, and I'm involved from the blueprint stage on.''

Popular acclaim vindicates Kosuge's distaste for ``cuteness.''

``I don't want to hear people saying, `Kawaii!' (cute); I want to hear them saying, `Sugoi!' (amazing). When I became head keeper in 1986, we organized tugs of war pitting one male chimpanzee against three full-grown men. The men would lose in no time, much to everyone's surprise.''

Asked why the zoo had to set itself apart from other similar venues, Kosuge offers a simple explanation.

``There was talk of selling off the zoo: `If the public is losing interest, that's it, it's over.' We needed a way to make the zoo attractive again. We thought about it a lot, and the conclusion we came to is that if we could show the public how `sugoi' the animals are, people would come to meet them,'' he says.

``A zoo is a team. Zookeepers think of problems concerning the zoo as problems concerning themselves, and make effort accordingly.''

How does Kosuge see zoos evolving from now on?

``I think zoos will change,'' he says. ``But it would be wrong for zoos to imitate us. If zoos were the same all over the country, we'd be back to square one. I'd like to see zoos becoming centers of animal reproduction and research. I'd like to see fuller displays. I'd like to see classroom space set up within zoos. Japan's ideal, No. 1 zoo has yet to be created.''(IHT/Asahi: December 11,2004)